My first con

No, I haven't cheated a little old lady out of her life savings, I've just finished attending Eastercon, the British National Science Fiction Convention. It was in Glasgow this year, which was handy for me as I could pop in on the train every day rather than shelling out for a hotel room.

I was pretty nervous, because I only knew one other person who was attending (the soon-to-be-published Susan Murray, more about her in future, I'm sure). A few folk I chatted to on Twitter would be there, but apart from that I would be walking into a mass of strangers. Urk.

What I found was this: lots of friendly, interesting people who were enthusiastic about a wide variety of aspects of science fiction. I've made new friendships, cemented older ones and made plans to see people at future conventions.

The weekend was packed with interesting talks and panels about science, fiction, and where the two meet. I learned a lot, thought a lot, had a number of new novel ideas, laughed a lot, fell more in love with the genre, met authors and publishers I admire, and genuinely had one of the most amazing weekends I can remember. This con will definitely be the first of many!

When does "Write what you know" go too far?

Write what you know. It's something that every writer hears almost from the moment they're starting out. I've been thinking recently about what that means.

Now, it's not to be taken literally. It doesn't mean write only your own life story and experiences, because then the literature available in your average bookshop or library would be woefully anaemic. Kurt Vonnegut and H.G.Wells would have very different reputations if they had only written about things they had seen with their own eyes. I always take it to mean, start from what you know and build from there. Think of everything around you as potential inspiration, keep your senses open to anything that might appear.

Recently, however, I've had that pushed to the limit. I witnessed an unpleasant incident in a public place, which I reported to the police, so I won't put any more details here. The following day, however, I was mulling over a plot problem and it came to me that what I'd seen could happen to my main character. As soon as the idea struck me I was horrified with myself, using someone else's frightening experience as material for fiction. But then, fiction is full of characters experiencing nasty things, and surely some of those must be inspired by real events. That event would really help to develop both character and plot in a way I want, but a part of me wonders if it's ethical to use it. It would be adapted to fit the circumstances of my novel, of course, rather than being exactly the same, but is that still too close to the real thing?

I'd be interested to hear other people's opinions on this: when it comes to being inspired by real events, where do you draw the line?

Writing from someone else's imagination

I have never written fanfic. I know a lot of people who write it, often as well as writing their own original fiction, but it's not something I've ever been tempted to do. Why? Because it's hard! Taking characters that came to life in someone else's mind and putting them into a plot that came from mine never seemed to work for me. I'm a huge fan of Harry Potter, Doctor Who and Sherlock, all of which have stacks of fanfic written about them every day, but I have never written any myself. I have plenty of my own original ideas to be getting on with, I tell myself.

That's why, when I first heard about the Dark Crystal Author Quest, I glossed over it. I absolutely adore the Dark Crystal, in fact I adore everything Henson, but I didn't think there was any way I could fulfil the requirements of the contest. What they're looking for, in effect, is fanfic. There's the original canon and a timeline, with guidance material for authors taking part in the contest that helps to evoke the general time in which they want the novel to be set. I glanced at the website, but didn't think any further about it.

A couple of weeks ago, however, I saw a tweet about it and decided to give the site another look. This time, I read the background material in much greater detail and downloaded the author's resource document, and something marvellous happened. I found myself getting ideas! Ideas that fit within the canon and utilised the characters provided, as well as some of my own characters who appeared in my head. Ideas that made me really excited. Within a day or two I had a whole novel briefly plotted out.

So, I'll be one of the many people entering the contest. I have no idea of my chances, but that's not really the point of this post. It's more of a celebration of my excitement, of the inspiration I felt to write a story that's built on someone else's world. I've always wanted to write harder fantasy, and this has given me that opportunity. Even if I'm not successful, I'll probably still put what I've written online as Dark Crystal fanfic, and use what I've learnt to begin world-building for some detailed fantasy of my own creation.

Age stats of the Empire Top 100 Sexiest Movie Stars

In a change from my usual type of post, I thought I'd stick this up here. I'm always fascinated by ages in films, including how often there's quite a disparity between the ages of male and female leads. As the Empire Top 100 Sexiest Movie Stars list has come out recently, I decided to a bit of statisticating (yes, it's a word now).

*I found all of these ages on IMDb on 6/10/13, and I'm well aware some of them may be inaccurate, as not everyone wants their real date of birth online. Still, I'm working with what I've got. Also, I'm not a statistician or anything, I just worked out some basic averages.


The Top 50 Men

Youngest: Daniel Radcliffe, 24
Oldest: Alan Rickman, 67
Age range: 43 years

Total age of the Top 50 men: 1980 years
Mean age: 39.6 years
Median age: 37.5 years
Mode age: 32 and 36 years


The Top 50 Women
(This posed a slight dilemma, as two of the women on the list are deceased. I chose to use the age they were when they died, rather than the age they would be were they still alive, as I felt that presented the most accurate portrayal of the list.)

Youngest: Kristen Stewart, Jennifer Lawrence and Emma Watson, all of whom are 23
Oldest: Julianne Moore, 52, and Grace Kelly, who was 52 when she died
Age range: 29 years

Total age of the Top 50 women: 1761 years
Mean age: 35.2 years
Median age: 34.5 years
Mode age: 38 years

Without statistics on the people voting, it's not really possible to draw many scientific conclusions - I just worked these out simply out of curiosity. What does anyone else think of these stats?

Getting Too Comfortable

This is the first of my *proper* post-Festival of Writing blogs, so I thought I'd begin at the beginning. After all, it's a very good place to start. (Yes, I'm mixing my references, but it's my blog so I'll do what I want.)

On the Saturday morning, the first event was a keynote address from Adele Parks. Now, I must confess, I have never read any of her books, but I will be making the effort to. She spoke about her journey to being the successful published author she is today, and was a compelling speaker. There was one small point in particular that really resonated with me, however, and that was when she talked about her writing dropping off for a little while because she became too comfortable in her life as it was.

In the last six months I've gone from being really fired up about my writing and its potential to completely avoiding adding anything to the story. Before going to the Festival, I actually said to myself 'If nobody's keen on this one, I'm just giving up'. (Thankfully, someone did like it, but that story's for another day...) I thought this change in attitude came because I was being realistic - if I hadn't found any success so far, was it really likely to happen? Might as well just call it quits and not bother any more.

No! I had such a lightbulb moment last weekend when Adele Parks said those two words, "too comfortable" - that's exactly the problem I've been having! I enjoy my day job, which is more than many people can say. My little flat is really nice, and I like living where I do. The rest of my life is pretty good, and I don't have many worries about what I'm going to do or how I'm going to improve my situation. Sounds cushy, right? Not as far as my writing is concerned. For many people, maybe there isn't such a thing as "too comfortable", but for any artist there's got to be some sort of friction, some kind of working edge that's pushing you on to create, to change the world as you see it.

So, if my life is comfortable, how am I going to keep bringing myself back to my laptop and writing? I think an awareness of the situation will definitely make a difference - then, when I am coming up with endless excuses not to write, I can find a way to squash those excuses and just keep at it. Making a list of reasons why I write and why I want my novels to be published is another way I'm trying to keep myself going. I'm still riding high on the positive atmosphere of the Festival, so right now it's easy to write, but when that dies off I'll have to keep reminding myself that my life shouldn't be comfortable until I run out of stories to tell.

Riding High On Words! Post-York reflections.

The weekend of 13th-15th September was the annual Festival of Writing in York, run by the Writers' Workshop. Three days of mini-courses, workshops, keynote speakers, one-to-one sessions with agents and book doctors, competitions and a gala dinner, attended by writers and publishing professionals from around the UK and beyond. There are no words to describe just how incredible this experience is. 

I feel like my whole attitude to writing has turned around this weekend. I've had a big dip recently, but I'm finally back to the stage where I spend my day excited about writing later on, planning what I'm going to add to my chapters. There are so many things I can blog about, so I'll save a lot of the big things for future posts, but I wanted to do a quick blog this week while I'm still getting my head round everything. So here are a few things I've learnt this weekend:

• Published and unpublished writers have a lot more in common than I realised.
• It's really not that hard to walk across a room and talk to someone.
• If you keep working at it, you will undoubtedly improve, provided you listen to advice.
• Sometimes all you need is one other person to look over your work to figure out the improvements that are required.
• I'm not as rubbish at characterisation as I thought, but I do need to put time and effort into making my characters engaging.
• Writer friends are some of the best friends I will ever make.
• Every Pixar film is a trail of tears with excellent story structure.
• At the Gala dinner, the best table to sit at is the #funtable. 

More to come!

Proactive or Reactive? How to respond to rejection

I'm currently ensconced in the cycle of submitting one of my novels to literary agents, which means a lot of research, crafting carefully worded query emails, checking word counts and rigorously following submission guidelines. There are lots of dos and don'ts out there to help unpublished writers find their way through the process, but there's just one of those that always boggles my mind: how to respond to a rejection.

Option one: react. React angrily. Rage and shout and send an angry email. Tell the agent just how ridiculous and stupid and ugly they are, and how they'll regret not recognising your genius when they had the opportunity.

Unsurprisingly, this is the "don't". I'm flabbergasted than anyone even needs to be told this. Surely this is just common courtesy, ordinary human decency, to avoid this response? But apparently not. Every agent will be able to tell you about writers who reply to rejections, sending emails that are full of insults and threats and the bile that's thrown up in the heat of the moment. Would you reply to a job rejection like this? Possibly, but you really shouldn't. If you asked someone out and they said no, would you rail and curse at them? I hope not! (If you would, then I do not want to be your friend). Apart from the fact that it's just plain rude, do the people who behave in this way think it's going to make the agent change their mind? All they're doing is showing they'd be difficult to work with.

Option two: be proactive. Take it on the chin and keep going. Accept that it's part of this business and move on.

I've now reached the dizzy heights of rejections in double figures (admittedly for three different novels, over several years, but still...) so I think I'm qualified to comment. Of course rejection is HORRIBLE, especially when it's the agent you desperately wanted to love it, but sitting and rocking in the corner of your bedroom isn't going to get you published. This week I've had three rejections, but I've also sent out more submissions. I am determined to keep going, because somewhere out there is the agent who will absolutely love this novel and believe in me as a writer. I'll only find her/him if I keep looking.

I'm not saying never respond to a rejection: I've responded to some myself, but only ever politely. Most of the time I've had form rejections, but some have clearly been worded specifically for me, so if that agent is willing to take the time to do that I'm going to thank them for their time. But that's all you should ever do. Take the energy that comes from disappointment and use it to keep you going - above all, be proactive.

Thickening the skin

I'm back on that terrifying rollercoaster that is submitting my novel to literary agents. I've had two rejections so far, and each one has been painful. Of course it has. I'm not going to lie about it - when you see an email from one of the agents you've sent your precious words to, there will always be a little thrill that hopes for a full request. After that, I assume it becomes a game of hovering over your phone, hoping and praying that the call will come...but I've not got that far yet.

All advice reminds writers not to take rejection personally, but that doesn't mean it's not disappointing. I know, this person hasn't met me (in most cases), they're not my friend or colleague, they're not judging me as a person. They're not even saying that my novel is terrible, just that it's not right for them. But rejection is rejection, however much you rationalise it, and it hurts.

I hope that as I go on, my skin will toughen up, because after each rejection I get a pang of despair. I feel like I'm rubbish and I should give up. Luckily, I have encouraging friends, and written feedback from professional editors that I can read to claw back some self-esteem. The drive to get published is strong enough to shine through the gloom, so I'll keep going!

The benefit of writing events

Two weeks ago I went to the Writers' Workshop Getting Published event at Regent's College in London, and came back buzzing. I've been so busy since then, both with writing and the rest of life, that I've hardly had time to breathe, let alone blog! Now things have calmed a little, I thought I'd share my thoughts on why it's so important to go to writing events.

• Meeting other writers. This writing lark can be an incredibly lonely one, and it's great to meet others who are in the same position as yourself. You can discuss ideas, share submission woes and swap editing tips, as well as having someone to prop up the bar with at the end of the night.
• Advice. I've yet to go to a writing workshop or keynote address that I haven't gained something from, even if it was a lesson in what not to do. This particular event really got me thinking about a number of different aspects of my novel, and the plot is tighter now as a result. Events are especially wonderful if you get one-to-one advice included as part of your ticket.
• Networking. As long as you go about it the right way, writing events are a great place to meet agents, editors and published writers. Just don't leap out in front of them when they're on their way to give a talk, or pass them notes under the toilet door. Common sense, really.
• Inspiration. There's something about being in a room full of people who are all full of interesting stories that I find incredibly inspiring. We're all working away in our time, doing our best to get our stories out there, all committed to making them the best they can possibly be.

At the start of this year I made a resolution to spend time with other writers as often as work and finances would allow, and I'm already seeing the benefits. Don't spend all your time locked away in your writing cave - come out every so often, smile and shake hands, have a normal conversation with someone in the publishing business. It'll be great, I promise.

The Next Big Thing blog hop

Had a bit of a blog hiatus, due to being incredibly busy in the day job, but now I'm finally getting around to this thing. The "Next Big Thing" blog hop has been going around for quite a while now, and I was tagged in it nearly two months ago, so it's about time I answered some questions about my current novel.

What is the working title of your book?

The Gathering of Silver. It's been through a couple of different titles, but that's what I'm sticking with right now.

Where did the idea come from for your book?

A number of different places, really. I have a folder full of random photographs that I've nicked off the internet that I use as writing prompts, many of which have vague plot or premise ideas scribbled beneath them, and I had an idea about some sort of GM or alien plant that gave off a scent that produced a completely safe high. I hadn't thought about the idea in ages, but then I was sitting in a workshop listening to Gary Gibson speak and suddenly thought, "Yeah, I'll write that one next!" After that, I just kind of left the idea to simmer - I find that things only really come to me if I don't think about them directly. My subconscious needs a lot of time to play! I can't miss out the help I got from my bestie Hannah, however, who can always be relied upon for slightly twisted thoughts: I sent her a text along the lines of "Why would someone kidnap teenagers?" and within 30 seconds received the response "Body parts". See, every writer needs a Hannah.

What genre does your book fall under?

Science fiction, for young adults.

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

When Rowena's little brother Alfie goes missing, she must contend with corrupt Wardens, mysterious symbols and gangs of maimed, amnesiac teens in order to find him and bring him home.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

I don't have an agent but I'll be submitting my work as soon as I've finished this round of edits. I intend to pursue traditional publishing and have no plans to self-publish, but never say never.

How long did it take for you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

Well, I wrote the majority of it in four weeks, but the ending dragged, so it was two months from start to finish. I take a few weeks to plot a novel, then bash the first draft out pretty quickly.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

Urgh, that's a really tricky one. I find it hard to compare my writing to other novels. I have so many influences, classic sci-fi writers like Vonnegut and Wells and modern YA authors like Lauren DeStefano and Maureen Johnson. The story itself I have jokingly been calling Nancy Drew meets X-Men.

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

Ooh, this is fun! Rowena would be someone like Ellen Page as a teenager. Anyone who knows me knows I'd love Benedict Cumberbatch to play Heath Wilson - a talented actor for a complex character. Other than that, I'm not really sure - I would just be thrilled if it ever happened!

Who or what inspired you to write this book?

I can't put my finger on one particular inspiration, but all of the writers and people in the publishing industry that I've met or interacted with over the last year have, in a way, contributed to its existence. I have begun to see the major flaws in my previous novels and knew what I had to improve in this one, so I really feel that I've taken my writing forward with this novel. I wanted to write a YA sci-fi novel that was exciting and had an element of mystery to it, without falling into the chasm of argh-not-another-dystopian-novel. One piece of advice I've been given (can't remember the source, sorry!) is to avoid making sci-fi novels too different from the world people know, so I built this up from a premise that people could identify with, the bond between siblings and the terror of a family member going missing.

Right, I think that's enough to be going on with! I haven't tagged anyone else in it, because most writers/bloggers I know have already done this, but if anyone I know wants to be tagged, please let me know!

Writing goals for 2013

A new year, a new opportunity to work towards my writing goals. In 2012 I learnt a massive amount by taking an editing course, attending a writing festival, and picking up hints and tips from writers, editors and agents via the internet and social media. This year I want to make sure that I make the most of every opportunity and continue to develop as a writer, so here are my goals.

1. Work hard

This may seem to be self-explanatory, but I have sometimes been guilty of spending far too much time talking about writing than actually doing it. Nothing is going to happen in my writing career without a lot of effort, so I'm not going to slack off this year.

2. Spend time creating an excellent submission package

I'm not going to say that this is the year I'll get an agent and a publisher (although I hope it is), rather that this is the year I'll work on my novel, synopsis and submission letter so they're all of a high standard.

3. Take opportunities to meet other writers

Social media makes it easy to interact with other writers, as well as people in the publishing industry, but it's not the same as actually getting together in person. Last year I really enjoyed the writing festival I attended, as well as gaining a lot from it, so this year I'm going to keep my eye out for similar opportunities and attend as many as I can afford.

So those are my writing goals for 2013, and I'll blog about how they're going as the year progresses. What writing goals have you set yourself this year?

Post-NaNoWriMo tips #5 - Research

Research is something you need to do before you write, but it's also very important after you've written. If you want to take your writing further, by being published, you need to learn about the industry you're getting into.

If you're interested in pursuing traditional publication then research the agents or publishers you want to submit to. Find out which authors and novels they already represent/publish, find out what they're looking for. Follow them on social media, look at their website or blog and ALWAYS READ AND FOLLOW THE SUBMISSION GUIDELINES. That one is important enough to deserve all caps, trust me.

If you want to go down the self-publishing route, find out the different options that are available for print and digital publishing. Join forums, chat to people who have already been there and find out about their experiences. Look into the best ways to market your book without annoying everyone with constant spam - "You can buy my book here!"  "Look at this review for my book!"  "Here's another link to my book, and my Facebook page, and my Goodreads page!" - I see far too much of this on Twitter, and it has not yet persuaded me to buy a book. I buy from authors who interact.

But I digress. When I first started submitting work to agents, I didn't have a clue what I was doing, because I hadn't spent long enough researching the query process. My submission itself was awful and unprofessional, I didn't really know what genre my novel fitted into, so I'm not surprised I was rejected. Now that I know a lot more about the industry, I am confident that my next submissions will be a lot smarter, clearer and more professional. I can't guarantee I'll get an agent, but I've got a lot more chance than I did a few years ago.

Research takes time but, like editing, it's worth it. Better to spend a few weeks really getting to grips with what traditional or self-publishing is really about than to leap in blindly. The more you know, the more chance you have of being successful.

Post-NaNoWriMo tips #4 - Editing

Once you've completed tip #1, the next thing to do with your manuscript is edit it. Some people like to dive straight in, whilst others prefer to put the novel aside for a few weeks so that they can come back to it with fresh eyes. Either way, it's an essential part of writing.

When I first completed a NaNoWriMo novel, my idea of what editing entailed was pretty narrow. I read through it pretty quickly, corrected any typos or grammatical errors, then sat back with a big grin on my face, mightily pleased with myself. What I know now is that was not really editing.

Of course, spelling and grammar are an important part of editing, but I don't often have many of those mistakes to fix - I'm not bragging, it's just one of my strengths. They are just the beginning, however. Editing involves looking at the whole story arc and deciding if the plot, pace and characterisation are all used to their best advantage. It involves looking at your prose and your dialogue, and deciding if your writing is as strong as it could be. To properly edit, you have to pick through your writing, turning over every sentence and deciding if you've expressed exactly what you want to express, or if there's a better way of doing it.

I took a self-editing course with the Writers' Workshop, which was really valuable. You don't have to take a course, as there are plenty of resources online to help you with editing, but it's really a worthwhile experience having feedback from professional editors and writers, as well as fellow amateurs. The most important thing is not to rush it - producing an excellent novel takes time and effort, as I have learned over the years. If you put in the necessary editing work, you will see results in time.

Post-NaNoWriMo tips #3 - Reading

This is my favourite part of being a writer - reading. Ok, it can also give me a bit of angst about the quality of my writing, or lack of it, but mostly I enjoy it. If a person says to me, "I don't read", I honestly have no idea how to respond. That's like telling me they don't breathe.

A writer who doesn't read will not be a very good writer. I won't listen to any argument on that subject. Reading stimulates the imagination, the same imagination a writer relies on to come up with their own ideas. Reading also helps the writer to understand different aspects of writing, such as voice, characterisation and dialogue. It can help with grammar too.

It's important to read the genre that you write, although I like to read various others too. It helps to see the differences between genres, as well as the similarities. I don't just mean from a commercial point of view - understanding the market, etc - but from the point of development as a writer, too. I didn't really understand what genre my novels were until someone pointed me in the direction of similar books; I just wrote the stories that were in my head.

Basically, I just think you should read because, well, why wouldn't you want to?

Post-NaNoWriMo tips #2 - Community

One of the best things that has come out of my personal journey as a writer so far is the community of other writers that I've met. Writing can be a very solitary pastime, so it's important to maintain contact with others who are going through the same process.

The forums on the NaNoWriMo site can get pretty quiet in the off season, but there are still plenty of people around to interact with on some of the boards. Personally, I love Twitter for interacting with other writers, and it's great for following a lot of published authors and finding out what they're up to. There are many other writing sites that have a community, including the Writers' Workshop.

For those who want to venture into the real world, most larger towns and cities will have a writing group who will meet regularly to share their writing or just to chat. Writing festivals and book festivals are also great places to meet fellow writers and book lovers, as well as to meet published authors and take part in workshops.

Find a way to get out there and spend time with other writers, whether it's in the real or the virtual world. You'll learn from them, you'll make friends, and you'll develop as a writer as a result.

Post-NaNoWriMo tips #1: FYS

Welcome to the first of my post-NaNoWriMo tips. I'm going to share a bit of advice based on things I've learned in the last few years. After the frenzy of November, it can be a bit bemusing where to go next. So, the first tip I have to offer is this: in the immortal words of Chuck Wendig, first up, finish your sh*t. (He knows what he's talking about, as you can see here).

It may seem like I'm stating the obvious, but the first thing to do is finish the first draft of your novel. I wrote 75,000 words in November but haven't finished the first draft yet, so that's what I'm working on this month. There are so many people on the NaNoWriMo forums who say "Oh, I really need to finish my novel from 2009...." - no no no no no. Finish it now. Don't start that new and exciting idea that's suddenly sprung up in the back of your head that is so much more interesting than this novel; get this draft finished first. By all means, write that idea down, don't let it escape, but stay focused on the task in hand until it's finished. You can't do anything with an unfinished novel, except complain about it being unfinished, and nobody but you cares about that.

Congratulations!

To everyone out there who took part in NaNoWriMo this year, I want to say a huge congratulations - regardless of how many words you wrote, you did something. You made a commitment to write, and you did your best to live up to that, which is the first important step on the journey to becoming a writer.

This is only the beginning. Over the next few weeks I'll be blogging some post-NaNoWriMo tips. These are all based on the learning curve of my own experience over the last two years. Now, I'm by no means an expert, but hopefully I can share a few bits of advice that I've picked up, often by making my own mistakes along the way.

A shower of ideas

Today I hit a milestone in the novel I'm writing - 50,000 words. As anyone who's familiar with NaNoWriMo knows, that makes me a winner. Of course, there will be a lot more words to come if I'm going to finish this first draft this month.

I attribute my success to my crazy brain and the ease with which it throws up ideas. Recently I've really noticed one time when my imagination really gets to work - when I'm in the shower. Yesterday I had a bath in the morning (I know you don't want to know about my daily ablutions but it's part of the story) and I didn't manage to write anywhere near as much as I had hoped to. Today, a shower, and the rest is history.

My theory is that when you're carrying out such a repetitive, regular task, it gives parts of your brain the freedom to turn off, or perhaps to work on other things. When I'm in the bath I read, which is a great habit for a writer of course, but doesn't help me in the same way that just switching off does. You don't need to concentrate on the method of washing your hair (I hope) so your brain can relax, put its feet up and enjoy itself for a little while. For some people, perhaps times like these provide answers to the crossword, or solutions for an issue at work, but for me it's all about writing. I always come out of the shower desperate to write something down so that I don't forget it, and invariably it puts me in a great mood for when I come to tackling my novel.

Has anyone had a similar experience? Where do your best ideas come to you?

NaNoWriMo, or For The Love Of Writing

As I've said before, I'm not going to post about the pros and cons of NaNoWriMo - it works for me and that's all I'm going to say. This time of year, however, has become synonymous with writing for me because the first novel I ever managed to complete started life as a NaNo novel. That month reignited a passion for writing that had been gradually smothered by years of work and study - since then the spark may have wavered a little, but it flares up anew every November.

I'm an overachiever as far as NaNo is concerned - it's day 7 and at the time of writing I'm sitting just short of 33,000 words, more than twice the 11,666 that is par for this time of the month. I'm not going to guarantee the quality of what I've written, but the story is driving forwards and that's what matters. Ok, I'm a little competitive and don't like it when other people in my region get ahead of me, but also I want to get the first draft done while the ideas are still at the forefront of my mind.

The more I write, the more I love writing. I've been ill recently so don't have a lot of energy, yet I still feel like I want to run and jump and shout and sing about just how amazing writing makes me feel. I have a wide number of interests in my life, but nothing else gives me such fire in my belly that makes me desperate to be taking part in it. I will forever be grateful to the folk at the Office of Letters and Light who run NaNoWriMo, because now I honestly couldn't imagine my life without this burning passion.

Plotting and researching

It's nearly November, which means it's time for NaNoWriMo! There are plenty of blog posts about whether NaNo is any good or not, so I won't bother with one of those - suffice to say that I love it, and participating in NaNo is one of the highlights of my year.

This weekend I started plotting my new novel (using Scrivener), filling in scene outlines, making character notes and various bits of world-building. I began with a premise and some basic plot points, but by the end of the day I had a much more detailed understanding of my novel. My characters were starting to fill out, my world was becoming more intricate and the plot was taking shape.

The internet is a wonderful thing. I don't think I could write my novels without it! Of course, I'm prone to procrastination because of it, and some of my random ideas lead me into rabbit holes that waste several hours of my time, but it also really helps to stimulate my imagination. Everything from the adoption forums on the NaNoWriMo site to the results thrown up when I accidentally mistype something in a search engine - it all sets my mind working.

For me, a big part of planning a novel involves letting my mind wander down these pathways, finding new and interesting bits of information, investigating websites that are new to me or throwing strange ideas together to see if they work. It's so exciting, seeing a plot form in front of my eyes, out of such disparate elements! It's no wonder that this is one of my favourite times of year, because I enjoy this process so much, and it will soon be followed by the thrill of writing that first draft.

Now, if you will excuse me, I'm off to look up obscure alchemical symbols and see where that leads me...