Write a book this year

[GlumyGloomer]

I started back around February I think, and hoping to finish the first draft before the end of the year.
Anyone else fancy a chat/support thread?

Hellow @katienana and @Trickytroggle2

I used to write quite detailed chapter plans, but at the moment I'm mostly making it up as I go. I know more or less what major things are going to happen, but a lot of the connective tissue I'm working out a bit at a time as I go.

It's funny how differently we all work.

I don't always work in the same way either.

Currently, I'm working a little bit at a time, often only a couple of hundred words, but it's plodding along. I have to think about where it's going, and often go back and change bits.

I've had other stories where I can just write 5k in one sitting, and just sit down and write, picturing it as if it's happening in front of me.

And then (works very well for NaNoWriMo) I plan a chapter during the day, and write it in the evening. I don't know what the next chapter is going to be, but I spend all day thinking about it, and moving parts around.

I don't know which method produces the best writing though.

About 200 words today.
Missing I've got an idea of 100k words, but it's completely arbitrary. My first book was 156k, but that was a fantasy epic.
Lol at your fall from romance to crime

Forgot to say hello @MargaretThursday

Hi...May I join you?

I'm working on my first crime novel...it's been an idea in progress since summer 2019.

I've now got a full outline thanks to Writer's HQ Plotstormers course and an 4 chapters/approx 11500 words in, with a few odd scenes stored in other docs to be woven in later.

I'm on sabbatical from work at the moment but caring for elderly parents so not as much time/brain space as I'd like and already can hear the clock ticking to my return in September so could do with as many kicks up the backside as possible!

Writing a 156k book is an extraordinary achievement Glumy and makes me feel like a lightweight!

I think fashions have changed over the years (as well as there being differences from genre to genre of course). What would we say is about average for mainstream fiction now? I feel like it was about 70-75k back in the day but that more is expected now - 80-100k??

Or am I wrong?

Hey, Cedric, I'm writing crime too and we're at a similar stage. Would be great to cheer each other on.

Hi MIA

How did you get started?

I was writing fan fiction (also with a crime element)...all my other (abandoned) attempts at original stuff have been chick lit. Then it suddenly dawned on me that I haven't actually read chick lit for years...I've been reading crime!

I managed to write a 90k fan fic last year so figured I had no excuse not to crack on and have a proper go at my own novel .

@MissingInActon

Writing a 156k book is an extraordinary achievement Glumy and makes me feel like a lightweight!

I think fashions have changed over the years (as well as there being differences from genre to genre of course). What would we say is about average for mainstream fiction now? I feel like it was about 70-75k back in the day but that more is expected now - 80-100k??

Or am I wrong?

Hi Missing, in answer to your question commercial fiction is usually about 90-100k words. I write historical fiction and my contract states 100k although I am usually a couple of thousand over that, if it gets as far as 105k I'm told to get rid of some words!

Hi everyone, can I join in? I'm 15,000 words into a middle grade / YA fantasy novel. Some days it goes well, others a barely write a sentence.

My original plan was a chapter a week 🤣😂🤣😂.

Hello all! Can I join?

I used to frequent this board under another username (themental) and had a word count thread last year but it'd be great to do it with other people.

I like to work on a couple of projects at the same time because when I hit a wall on one, I can jump on the other.

Process wise I write into the dark (no outline, just in an inbuilt sense of like, Save the Cat or Romancing the Beat) and use the cycling method... which is basically writing as far ahead as you can (in my case maybe 400-500 words?) and then when you hit that little wall, go back 1000 words and cycle through, re-reading and rewriting and adding details and beats etc as you go. Then you don't stop when you reach the end, you keep going for another 400-500 words.

I write everywhere. Macbook on the dining table, mac at the desk, ipad in bed, phone in the kitchen while I'm boiling the kettle or in the playground while I'm waiting on pickup.

On Monday I'm starting a novella (30k) and a novel (probably 70k but who knows really, it's a book 2).

The hardest part really is sitting down in the chair. (Well, prior to this year. This year the hardest part has been having the kids home 24/7 .)

Hello @LouisaMayAlcott, @Bakingdiva and @winched

Louisa that's interesting to know, and well done on getting published! How many books have you written?
Baking yay, another fantasy writer! What's your approach to world building? I am woefully inadequate in that department, one reason my current book is set in an alternate UK.
Winched that's an interesting method. I'm a bit like that, certainly when I hit a wall it's generally fixed by going back and adding in some more set up/character development. I have to have an idea of the endgame though, as to me that's the exciting bit, and wanting to get there keeps me going.

Forgot to say hello to @MintyCedric!

MIA thanks, although it was a sort of trilogy that wasn't long enough to be 3 books 😅

@glumygloomer thank you! My second book is published this summer (my debut was last August) and I'm contracted for a third to be published next summer.

@GlumyGloomer I’m not sure about the world building, I’ve based mine on a distorted UK / Europe so I’ve not run into that problem yet, although I may well change things up a bit on the edit.

My youngest has a mega cold at the moment and is waking at 4.30-5 every morning. By the time both children are in bed and I get time to write I’m almost comatose on the sofa so I’ve managed about 300 words in the last 3 days. I’m consoling myself with the idea that anything is better than nothing (although when I read them back I may get nothing in the end 😂)

Baking absolutely anything is better than nothing. Speaking of which I've taken the weekend off and written literally nothing. I'll try to get back to it tomorrow. Hope your DC is feeling better.

Louisa ah how exciting. Is it a series or stand alones?

@GlumyGloomer

Baking absolutely anything is better than nothing. Speaking of which I've taken the weekend off and written literally nothing. I'll try to get back to it tomorrow. Hope your DC is feeling better.

Louisa ah how exciting. Is it a series or stand alones?

Glumy, they are stand alone, but there is a character connection between the first two books. I'm not sure about the third, I suspect my editor will want there to also be some sort of tenuous link to book 1 but I'll wait and see!

I wrote a very short synopsis yesterday which I'm going to expand into an outline. Also figured out my 4 main characters, and named the fictional town where it is set.
Love hearing about the different processes.
I'm a SAHM and my youngest is now in school so time to do something for me.

I'm about 40k into a MG fantasy I've been writing.
I'm not a planner, so not sure how much more to go!

Katienana sounds like a good start. I'm jealous, I really wanted to take some time for writing when my youngest starts school, but I'll probably have to prioritize getting a job, sigh. It's still a couple of years off anyway.
Margaret what is MG fantasy?
(shows ignorance)

I wrote 2 sentences today! Having both kids home all day leaves me brain dead by evening. I always manage more when the oldest has been to preschool.

@GlumyGloomer
MG=Middle Grade, aged about 9-12yo.

Am I the only one who got nothing written at all over the long weekend?

Anyway, I saw this indie publisher seeking submissions of novella-length mss on twitter this morning - no use to me but perhaps of interest to some of you?

@MissingInActon

Am I the only one who got nothing written at all over the long weekend?

Anyway, I saw this indie publisher seeking submissions of novella-length mss on twitter this morning - no use to me but perhaps of interest to some of you?

No you're not! I've just started again in the last couple of days after a few weeks off due to family commitments and playing catch up with house/garden stuff.

Then I made a Pinterest account for my novel and have been procrastinating creating character wardrobes and designing beach bars.

My writing buddy has been cracking the whip, bless him, so I switched the wifi off this morning and knocked out 1200 words of my next chapter and 800 of smut that just came to me in the spur of the moment , that may become a fan fic at some point.

Thanks for the link MIA
I have a sort of novella (22k words) which I wrote last year. It's a gothic fantasy type thing with some horror tropes, so far so good, but it's the first part of a series so no proper ending.
I still have a mad impulse to submit it despite knowing it's a total waste of time. Sadly I'm not sure I rewrite it into a stand alone.

*could rewrite it