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?

Wow Minty that is some in depth background work! Do they sell home made cake?

@GlumyGloomer

Wow Minty that is some in depth background work! Do they sell home made cake?

If it does I don't mind testing some recipes out for further research if you'd like @MintyCedric I'm always happy to bake (and eat) cake for a good cause.

I managed to get a bit more written whilst supervising dd in the bath - she's 6 and totally self sufficient so I don't feel guilty and I'll hopefully get some more done tonight if the dinner gods cooperate

@GlumyGloomer

Wow Minty that is some in depth background work! Do they sell home made cake?

I consider myself a method writer 😆.

I hadn't thought about homemade cake...Good call.

The do some nice puddings in the evening though

Dessert menu

Lemon Meringue Pie with fresh raspberries

White choc and macadamia blondie with salted caramel sauce and vanilla ice cream

Chilli chocolate mousse with lime biscuits

Almond and orange syrup cake with cardamom ice cream

Oh, tough call. I'm torn between the mousse and the almond cake
Baking bath time writing for the win! It's a great time slot.

Toddler has been up since 3 with a stuffed up nose, so I submitted my novella. Having got that out of the way I can get back to work on my current story...

300 words today. Made it to Wednesday lunch time. I'm using very minimal time skips in this one, which I find is making me think of all sorts of things I might not otherwise. One of my main characters now has an art project and is not great at science practicals. Hopefully it's not making it boring.

@GlumyGloomer great progress! This thread has inspired me to get started... only been putting it off for a shameful 19 years

@GlumyGloomer I'm aiming for 325 words a day (not sure how I decided on that number!). Only second week in, but I like it...it's small enough that I can rattle off the words pretty quickly and get it done easily within my baby's first nap, even if it's a short one (of course, the writing is awful!). Like you, the time to digest in between seems to work well and some 'extra' bits are starting to come out that I don't think would have done otherwise. Early days, but it feels doable!!

Great going glumy and tricky.
For me the hardest thing is to start. Once I start I can get a few good paragraphs or loads of pretty rubbish paragraphs done but I’m living by the mantra ‘In the first draft prose is pawn, plot is king’ I even have it stuck above my desk so that keeps me going a bit.
Go for it Choco!

The artist formerly known as Cattermole checking in.... (got a new laptop, lost my login!)

I'm supposed to be writing the (contracted) third book in a series - historical mysteries - but unfortunately my characters have decided they'd rather do something else. My main character - I shall not describe him as a hero, because the man is a bloody nightmare - is known to be slightly on the erratic side at best, so it makes absolute sense that he'd prefer to go off and have wild adventures rather than settle down and solve mysteries. The wretch. He'll come round to it eventually.

Does anybody else make playlists to write along to?

@chocoCRUNCH welcome, glad we've inspired you to make a start! Lots of my ideas are many years old, I like to think they've been improved by the long conceptual stage
Tricky 300 is obviously a good number to work around small kids.
Baru I like your mantra. Mine is the much less elegant "just get something down and fix it later"...

@MrsRussell congratulations on getting a contract, and being on book 3 already
Not a playlist, no. Does having Bing on in the background count?

Mrs Russell I have two POV characters and a different play list for each to try to get me into the right frame of mind for them

Bing bypassed me Glumy, the Junior Engineer was a Dinopaws guy (and now he's all grown up and going to secondary school in September , which is a bit sad....)
I do have helpful cats tho. With enormous feet that pull the keys off laptops. glares at big furry idiot

Baru tell me about yours!
I write about the 1660s and NONE of my playlists are in any way historical. Currently writing a brawl on a ship to Limp Bizkit and damn but it works. It's a mindset isn;t it?

Yes even the frame of mind works.
Mine is set in an outback Aussie mining town- crime fiction.
One POV character is a bit rough and ready- her playlist is Rocky/ country- some Jimmy Barnes/ midnight oil/ Bruce Springsteen etc.
The other is newly arrived to town and a bit of a city slicker- hers is classic Motown and jazz.
Both show my age rather than theirs but no one will hear the playlist 🤣

I dunno, it might feature in the film soundtrack Baru?

Hee hee love the confidence mrs Russell! DH keeps asking when I’m going to finish the book and sell it to Netflix so he can retire

Good for your DH! Mine is my adviser on all things maritime, so I'll sort of hash out a plot at him and he'll go "hmmm yeah but...." and then I have to go away and rewrite it.

I'd LOVE there to be a film of mine, but I imagine I'd fall out like hell with anyone who didn;t agree with my casting. BUT IT'S MY BOOK DAMN IT I KNOW WHAT HE LOOKS LIKE!!!!
I mean we're imagining stuff anywhere here to write the things, why should we not imagine it on Netflix!

...but unfortunately my characters have decided they'd rather do something else.

Don't you kind of love it when that happens though? I introduced an ostensibly relatively minor character in chapter 3 but as I wrote her meeting with one of the junior MCs she told me her backstory which was really wrenching and possibly makes the story work better (I think).

I love making playlists for what I'm writing...moreso with fanfic. I've got a few ideas for the book soundtrack but haven't put it together yet.

And yes @MrsRussell when I say book soundtrack I absolutely mean 6 part BBC TV adaptation.

@MintyCedric it'd be lovely if I didn't have a contract to make the buggers do something else!!!

On the other hand, I now have a working title for the random book, which is to be called The Bastard Sanctuary. Not as rude as it sounds, a bastard sanctuary historically was somewhere between official sanctuary (like a church) and sanctioned gangland. Also, one of my main new characters is called the Bastard, so it works at two levels.

Well if we're talking adaptations I always imagine mine in animated form and select voice actors for them. The main two are currently voiced by Jay Baruchel and Chris Pratt, but that may change.
MrsRussel always good to get a title in place. Still have no idea for mine.

Glumy how do you save it as a file with no title? I ask because my Google Drive is absolutely heaving with Doc1 and Doc2s and I have no idea how to give them working titles!

And how do you have Jay Baruchel without wanting to write "thanks for nothing you useless reptile!" ...or is that just me....

MrsRussel oh but this time he gets to be a useless reptile
it's just saved as one of the main characters names at the moment.