Tag: ROMANCE

One tattoo, two elevator pitches, three synopsis and much advice

March 24, 2019

I make excuses but there’s only one reason I don’t clean the house my husband bought us last year; I dare not disturb his rotting body.

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OMG – it’s been too long my lovely friends on WordPress – how the devil are you all?

I’ve been doing lots of studying on The first line hook. How did I do?! Did that catch your attention? 🤣Man of the Woods is safe and well, I assure you.

The old fallen trees in our woods have been receiving his attentions all winter and we now have enough fire wood stored to run a small island.

So, what have you all been up to with your writings recently? You tell me yours and I’ll tell you mine.

I was editing last time we spoke, and since then I’ve sent the manuscript to fresh eyes for a viewpoint and some feedback about whether the story ‘works’.

I met with two industry professionals who (without reading a word of our books) attempted to show and teach us the magic of an elevator pitch. How to condense your 77,000 word novel into two sentences. Jeee whizz, have you tried that recently?

‘Well, there’s this woman ….’ is not going to cut it 😂

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Two worlds collide when English carer Martha is left a vineyard by Blanche, whose extended family in Tuscany have deep rooted links to the mafia.

Secrets start to unravel, as does her resolve to never fall in love again, when she meets Antonio on his release from prison.

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I didn’t think that was too bad, but what it showed the profressionals from the outset was that my story crosses two genres and they asked me where I saw my book sitting in a book shop, i.e. next to which authors?

The sizzle of excitement which the question evoked was short lived when no-one could think of anyone, and I came away with the advice to think hard about what primary story I wanted to write;

1. Antonio’s crime thriller tale

2. Martha’s romance

But I want both. Am I being greedy? I don’t think so; it’s simply not the same story without the grit.

I did come away with a possible new title – and everyone I’ve spoken to seems to like it.

So I sent it on to two people to read whose opinions I trust to be honest and constructive. I’ve since received one feedback report which makes for fascinating reading. I believe it all, and now I’m stuck. On how to start the necessary changes I mean.

I’ve walked away from it while I take a breather, doing that thing all writers go through when they question what on earth they are actually doing.

I think one of the biggest problems is that I never had a plan, a plot, let alone an arc for Martha to follow. I pantsered my way towards the midpoint and ground to a halt last summer; you watched me. Then slowly the wheels of the cumbersome steam train shufftied (my new word) round and we made, with loud efforts full of steam, steady progress through to autumn.

Reading ‘Save the Cat’ was a game-changer. I wished I’d had it eighteen months earlier. Even though I typed THE END in early January, and have happily skipped through it twice pretending to know what I’m doing during a phase called ‘editing’ I’ve never been truly convinced I knew what this was about. And the message is coming through loud and clear – IT SHOWS.

Can I really do this?

Meanwhile, you know me, I had to keep typing. My writing buddy over at alitlebookproblem said pretty much the exact words I’d been thinking – TAKE A BREAK FROM THE WIP.

Last autumn I thrashed out a 17,000 erotic piece and submitted to carina press, remember? A polite rejection 8 weeks later hasn’t put me off trying again and I remembered how I enjoyed the words pouring from my fingers, so last week I typed another. Except this time, I did more research.

Mills and Boon’s Dare line has been around for a little over eighteen months now. Some talented writers have produced many great tantalising tales. They are still love stories but with far more explicit sex on the page. Pure and simple unadulterated sex (is that a conundrum?). I read four titles and certainly saw the ‘pattern’ which some call formula. Meet the hero and heroine in chapter one, none of this fiddling about taking the reader on a long arduous journey to find him/her. Settings are exciting cities around the world, New York (been there once and got stuck in a motel outside JFK), London (go there a lot), Milan (yup, tick), Paris (twice – hey I could do this).

So I’ve typed the first three chapters and a synopsis of a sexy little tale involving an independent and sensual businesswoman on the verge of expanding her business into LA (been there four times). She just needs a massage before she leaves. Except Scott gives more than the sports therapy his business card portrays….

Out came the 8,000 words like ants to a jam spillage. I printed off the pages, found the pink pen, made some grammatical changes, played with syntax. Lucy and Scott are there in the first chapter, I disturbed by mere mentions of third parties. The internal dialogue pov is from them both, split 50/50 like many M&B titles and the pacing I believe is worthy of what would be the next 42,000 to complete the expected fifty total that is a M&B category romance in this category.

This time I have a story arc in mind, a HEA and a change of mindset across the book for both characters. All we need now is for the peeps at M&B to like my voice, amongst the thousands of submissions they will be receiving weekly for this line, because everyone probably thinks they can write a sex scene….. don’t they?

Don’t know how he got there, but can we just take a moment 🖤

My tiny tattoo.

My reminder that I’m a little shining star within my world.

Yes I can do this because I could self publish – any of – these titles at any time. However…

When I process my clients’ horse rugs, I do them to the best of my ability. And I want the same for my writing. I want each piece to be the best it can be, and alone I’m not convinced I can make it so, hence the confusion as to what help I should take.

Do some blogs again, said Julie.

She was correct – I’ve so enjoyed sharing this with you this morning. I love chatting and shall make a cuppa and read some of your blogs now.

Oh, and Michael? I’ve killed Matsu, it’s a complete disaster 🙈

This notification from WordPress cheered me up though 🎉

Is anyone there? I’m presuming you all got bored and shuffled along …

February 12, 2019

… rather like customers at a car boot sale, and my blog is that trestle table sagging in the middle, random items trying desperately to look interesting and all down to a pound because I’d rather not haul them back home again.

Goodness it’s been ages since I went to a car boot sale. Certainly not since the kids became teenagers. When they were smaller – both under ten and outside the rugby season – we would often drive to a nearby and regular car boot venue on a Sunday morning and become ecstatic as we snaked in-line towards the spaces in the car park (sheep field Monday to Saturday).

Man of the Woods would put the driver’s seat flat back in the truck and have a nap, and we’d promise to bring him a bacon buttie and coffee within an hour.

I’d give the kids a fiver each and they had free rein to buy whatever tat they liked. That freedom was a drug to them, but the tricky challenge was deciding if they should buy the first item they spotted and decided they couldn’t possibly live without, or risk losing it into the arms of another child while they continued their search for something ‘even better‘.

(Have a hand-painted scene by a backstreet artist on Skiathos which I watched him create in about fifteen minutes 😱)

I’ve been having a few Marie Kondo moments in the house recently and have practically re-stocked the local Sue Ryder shop with enormous amounts of clothing, shoes, games, books and … stuff. Like, why did I keep random wire shelving units… or wooden boxes… or candle sticks and I don’t mean a decent silver pair such as those in ‘Les Miserable’. Did you watch that? We did and loved it.

I was invited to watch the opera once, probably twenty years ago. I delighted in the opportunity to surround myself with intellectual people and accepted. I had absolutely no idea what was going on – during any of it. I recall the stage revealing a spiral walkway and a battle scene but my history lessons at school had been spent day-dreaming through the windows.

Here’s another history lesson.

I’m reading this novel by Jodi Piccoult – Small Great Things. I’d heard of it and seen the cover bandied about of course but had no idea what its conten might reveal. I can tell you, I’ve not been able to put it down!

Prejudice… is what it’s about, in one word.

Jodi has weaved the most believable characters into this contemporary tale. People trying so hard not to be racist, they are tripping over their political correctness time and time again.

The book is about seeing what humankind can do – has done – to each other.

Within sentences of meeting the white supremacist, I hated him with a passion. Yet even he and his world and what led him to his beliefs, has burrowed under my skin of intrigue. I just hope they can sort all this out amicably 😢. (Yeah, right … I doubt they are going to be buying each other shortbread any time soon.)

If you read my post some weeks back ‘Everyone’s Talking About Jamie’ you’ll recall I support all things equal, tolerance of different people. Perhaps I should add a small caveat here. Anyone who is hard-working at living their lives without attempting to disrupt others for their own gain.

Long term readers of my blog will know that following a year of counselling, I don’t tolerate bullying within my own walls – and that’s a middle class white family. Believe me when I say there’d been plenty of prejudice going on there to fill a small back street in Paris with old furniture. My mother’s living room is so jam packed with verbal judgements aimed at everyone, from the dentist, the woman in the flower shop, the dog breeder on the end of the phone that the air in there is stifling.

How’s my book coming along did I hear one of you ask? Aside from the fact I’ve not touched it for five days at the time of writing – and I’m going to blame Jodi and weekend antics for that – I’m two thirds of the way through incorporating the pink pen edits 💃🏼

This is taking considerably longer than anticipated as some pages, such as this one under my home-made soup, were practically re-written 🙈

I’ve also finished a brilliant read called ‘Save The Cat’ by Jessica Brody. This 15-beat method of plotting a novel makes more sense than putting your shoes on the correct feet. How I wish I’d discovered this book before I started this story!

Following a small tantrum I knuckled down and read to the end, furiously scribbling notes along the way of additions seriously needing to be made to my manuscript. So this will be the next edit. No-one said it was a quick job, and the last thing I want to do is submit to anywhere while I know it can be so much better.

(It’s 4 in the morning FFS. Why aren’t you asleep?)

Brain iron filings.

(Pardon?)

It’s what my head feels full of when I do that turning-over thing in the early hours in the dark, listening to Man of the Wood’s steady breathing. I debate about rejoining the pages of an unread-novel, or stew over ideas for the manuscript. I lick my lips with a dire need for a coffee with CoffeeMate; newly discovered and being consumed in copious amounts because it is soooo creamy.

(So now you’ve been down two and a half hours will you go back up to bed now? You know you’ll look like death all tomorrow otherwise…)

Thanks. But no, I’ve got a court case to read about. One where the white lawyer is going to be played by Julia Roberts in the forthcoming film adaptation. Viola Davis will be playing Ruth, the black labour and delivery nurse accused of the murder of a baby in her care. It’s going to be such a moving and important film of our time.

Hope you’re all having a good week. If you’ve read to the end, do leave a comment just so I know who is still reading this blog. I think the algorithms may dictate that because I’ve been far less active than I used to be, my blog is floating somewhere in oblivion. Three days ago, I had one visitor 🤣 seriously. Just the one!

The pros and cons of Writing Retreats … and how to catch irritating flies once and for all

December 9, 2018

It’s a buzz like no other, the overfed bluebottle lazy mode.  It flies a tad too fast to actually swat with any success but not energised enough to leave the damn room it seems.   For those final days in the third week of November – or more importantly NaNoWriMo – I typed at home, upstairs in my writing room (JK would be so proud that I’ve given a title to the box bedroom) to the soundtracks of Alexander Desplat* while the word count to my WIP grew at a steady rate.   I occasionally opened the window if the wind was in the correct direction in the hope those huge flies, I think there were three, would depart.  They never did. 

This year I used the annually recognised adventure to thrash out terrible unplanned words in order to raise the measly manuscript which all summer had sat around laughing at me, defiantly remaining the length of around a third of an average novel.   

This First Draft, let’s called it FD, sat under the cherry tree with me as I photographed corners of my laptop, dappled sunlight on the pint of orange squash for the benefit of my Instagram followers, and chortled about my attempts to build backstory.

FD hovered at the edge of the fleece blanket on the grass in full midday sun when I tried to use pen and paper to plot.   I’d often doodle instead and watch ants make their way towards my scorched red thighs.

FD has plagued me and taunted me with kisses of promised scenes so evocative that I believed I simply could not let it go.  It’s like I’ve been having an affair all year with something delectable.  Yet something always a few centimetres out of my grasp.   I can see it quite clearly, in all its Italian glory; the sunsets, vines, the chemistry between Martha and Antonio, the dark chapters and fear.   But have the actions of my fingers on the keyboard over the months done that vision justice?  In one word, NO.

How do I know that?  Because the half hour one-to-one I had on the first full day of my writing retreat in Devon with the talented Julie Cohen was spent chatting about what the first three chapters and my early attempt at a synopsis had ‘given’ her insofar of vibe.   Now, while we all know that newbie writers have to learn their trade so can be forgiven a weak synopsis, it is precisely that document an agent or publisher will go on to read if they enjoyed the first three chapters, and it would be on the back of that synopsis that they would decide whether your efforts in front of them are worthy of more of their time, or are destined for the ‘No, thank you.’ pile.    (Some may read the chapters first to see if they like the ‘voice’ and then the synopsis to see if the storyline is up to scratch, but either way the combination of these two things are rather key.)

Hence, a synopsis is important to get right, not simply ‘acceptable for a first attempt.’   We are no longer in school dear friends.  We are out in the big wide world of fiction writing (I’m picturing a Lord of the Rings battle scene with black skies and slashing rain against old linen clothing if you will) wishing to get noticed amongst the massing throng of equally eager newbie writers all guarding their debut manuscripts tightly in that wind and rain should a precious page flutter down to the mud while all of us – that’s thousands – stand around for our chance at the one wooden door with the metal spikes ahead.

So, did I learn how to write a synopsis and was I told how to write my first three chapters so they were more compelling than I’d assumed they already were?  No I didn’t.   What was the point in me attending? I hear you ask.    Well, there are writing courses and writing courses.   There are probably courses on grammar, courses on editing, uses of the English language, how not to use cliches, cover designs – and more I’ve yet to read about – because the tutors for each of those subjects have knowledge to share and an income to earn.   So we, the desperate sponge-newbies wishing to soak up tips and information, have to choose courses wisely.    

I couldn’t be more delighted that my first writing retreat was spent under the watchful eye of Julie who has published over twenty books and at this present time may be best known for her Richard & Judy Bookclub read Together.  She asked us on day one if we wanted her to be gentle or tough, because tutors realise we have spent a lot of money to be there and a ‘had a nice time thank you’ might be the top priority of some attendees when they return to their homesteads and their family members ask them how it was.   

‘Be tough, I need to hear the truth.’  I told her, taking a deep breath.  And she was.  

The previous evening, our first, we had sat around the beautiful woodburner (after I’d re-started it and subsequently became know as the fire lady) and each took turns to tell the group what our book was about.   This sounds easier to do than it was.  Julie had a pad and a pen and we all sat with our socked feet tucked under ourselves hoping not to have to go first.  In fact, I think I did go first as one mantra I hold in life is get-it-over-and-done-with then you can relax (I taught my kids to do that with homework at weekends, so Sunday nights never held that sickening feeling of playing catch-up).   Anyway, off I went into the world of Blanche, Antonio, Martha, vineyards, interspersed with lots of nervous giggling and “I’m not selling this very well, am I”  to which Julie said with a smile – and had to repeat to others later,  “Just tell me what it’s about, it’s not a test.” 

Some time later, we’d all taken a turn and discovered the wonderful variety of ideas for possible future fiction existing in one room, including Julie’s own present WIP, which we were privy to – it was worth going just to hear that alone!   We had also had to write down on a piece of paper, for no-one else’s perusal other than our own, a couple of answers to a couple of questions.    

1) What message, if any, do you want your novel to convey to the reader – does it even have a message?   (Some scribbled furiously at this point and some stared into space.   I stared at the various stunning candles dotted around the room).

2)  Can you think of any other novels which might be similar to yours? (This is embarrassing as we all have our favourite famous authors, but surely we can’t possibly even hope to get anywhere near them in terms of quality, so I’ll just write JoJo’s name in very small letters at the bottom of this page and draw a square around it and wait for the next question.  Luckily we haven’t got to say these out loud).

3) How are you picturing your readers of the future will feel when they have finished the book – can you, in ONE word, explain the result of this feeling? (Shit, I should have taken those A levels).

Then suddenly it was nearly midnight and we all dispersed.   That wasn’t so bad, was it, I told myself as I climbed the steps to my little private room above a barn.   Debbie, our host and owner of Retreats for You in Sheepwash, Devon – and yes it is as cute as it sounds – had put hot water bottles in each of our beds while we had been laying our entrails out on the coffee table and I could have hugged her.   

The next morning after a hearty breakfast, where I did hug her, we group of jolly writers awaited the first morning’s session with a mix of excitement and trepidation.  We each had a half hour appointment on the sofa with Julie to listen to what she had to say – she’d had our first three chapters and wonderful synopsis emailed a few weeks before don’t forget.   Guess who went first?

“Ok, so I’m going to be tough.”  Julie lent forward to pour us both a tea and I elected not to reach for my mug in case my shaking hands threw it all over her A4 pad.   I smiled encouragingly.  “I’ve made a few notes from last night and I’ve got to tell you, I didn’t get any of that from your synopsis.   Now, is this a love story, or a crime story with a sprinkling of a relationship woven into it?”

“Er…”

“You see what you’ve got is a huge amount of Blanche in the first few chapters and while I understand you needed to know about why she went to Italy and her past, the reader doesn’t, and she dies, right?”

“Yeh … about chapter 5 I think.   And I do want it to be a love story about Martha and Antonio.  Yes I do.”  my heart is hammering in my chest now while I scrabble for something which sounds more confident.  I’m feeling about five.

“Well make it about those two then.   Blanche is dead right, so put her in the box far earlier!”  my heart actually stopped at that point … but you don’t know about all those chapters with Blanche and Martha looking through photographs from when Antonio and his brother were little and they’re so important.  I can’t tell her that now, she’ll think I’m nuts.   Shit I’m thirsty; that tea looks so good.   Oooh look, a labrador, come here and let me tickle your neck, I’m going to have to delete 15000 words of Blanche. Hell.  That’s my NaNo total fucked right there.  

“Ok?”   Don’t say pardon.  

“Got it.  So Blanche is in the box.”

“Yes!  Good.  I’ve a saying and I want you to keep it in mind at all times.  DON’T GO WIDE, GO DEEP.”

I’m watching her hand movements and I know precisely what she means.   I’m thinking ‘Time Travellers Wife’ during which I didn’t give a monkey’s what the side characters got up to, I wanted only to know/read about Clare and whatshisface.  

“Tell us about Antonio, what he’s feeling, what he wants, then the same with Martha.   Dig deep into their pasts, what makes them tick.   Why do they do the things they do and make the choices they make?”  Shit, I don’t know, they’re fictional characters!  I nod and actually have to risk a sip of tea before I pass out.  Julie goes on, “Have you done character sheets?”  

Bollocks, I’d been avoiding those .   “Nooo.  I’ve seen people doing them on IG and stuff.’ Well done, now you sound REALLY crap.

“They are really important.  I’m going to email you a questionnaire and you can make a copy and this afternoon I want you to spend time answering all the questions for each of Martha and Antonio.   There’s a lot of work there and don’t worry if you don’t write much of the book today.”   She smiled again then and it hit me that this genius of the literary world, who writes not just brilliant stories but has a sharp mind and incredible plot ideas was sat next to me, ME, sharing her views on my little tale.  Julie is not afraid of the publishing world and can think outside the box.  Her decision a year or so ago to leave one publisher who wanted her to change the ending of Together and find a new path proves she has guts too.   

I gathered up my papers, thanking her profusely, although what exactly for at that moment I wasn’t sure I could pinpoint and stepped over the two brown labradors snuffling in their sleep.  I passed the next attendee in the corridor.

‘Go ok?’

‘I think so.’  Back in my room, when I opened up the promised 4-page questionnaire Julie had already emailed across and read through the questions, I realised I’d not bothered to get to know my characters.  AT ALL.   Pants. 

So the week went on in much the same fashion.  We took the dogs for wind-swept walks in the rain and chatted about ideas which could fill our plot holes.   We talked, inspired each other, laughed and ate together.  A little knitting went on too.  There were four of us I’d class as aspiring authors, writers in our own right already and hopeful yet-to-be published and a fifth gem who I know from the Romantic Novelists Association.   Alison May was there more to develop her present WIP and what will become her eighth published novel I believe.  Alison runs writing courses also, so is much more experienced than the rest of us yet had this knack of including us all in discussions, scooping us up with her encouragement and hilarious wit.   My face ached with the humour she regularly injected into whatever room we found ourselves in.  She gave us a piece of serious advice which I promptly forgot, which was that when we returned home after this week, not to worry if we had a couple of days of low vibes about our work – it was quite normal to feel this way.   I met Alison through the RNA nearly a year ago and liked her bubbly personality immediately.   She is their Vice-Chairman and a New Writer’s Scheme advocate.    I am presently reading her latest published novel ALL THAT WAS LOST and it’s an intriguing story on dual time-lines with multiple POVs.   It shall have a post all to itself next week when I finish the book.  Back to Sheepwash.

Man of the Woods drove down to the tiny village on the river Torridge on the Friday afternoon which meant I was the one attendee who didn’t have to rush off after breakfast on the Friday to catch trains from Exeter, or drive their cars back along the M4 towards London to rejoin family.   Instead, I had a few hours to myself.  I sat with my adopted labradors and stared out across to the pub at which we’d be spending the next two nights.       

I was shattered. 

I was inspired beyond belief.   

I was in love; with my story, Antonio particularly, (must work on Martha) and what had just been.   

For me, the retreat was a roaring success.  I can say that with confidence now, nine days after coming home.   However, six days ago I did not feel like this.  I’d come to a grinding halt.   My story simply wasn’t good enough; without the backstory, what story was there?  

If I cut the fight scenes and lessen the crime element what was I left with?   

I simply wasn’t good enough.  Who on earth did I think I was?  

Perhaps I should just concentrate on hoovering the spiders around the bedroom ceiling and attempt to be a more efficient housewife and enjoy my already successful sole trader business of the last eleven years – forget the writing, and enjoy reading others’ work of fiction. 

Then something happened.  The little WhatsApp group we’d set up had been burbling along in the background.   I admitted I had stalled.   Someone reminded me of Alison’s warning and BINGO!  I was being perfectly ‘normal’!  Thank God.  

Somewhere along the line of months of writing, justifying myself and my words to the social media platforms, I’d forgotten another thing.   To be spontaneous and instinctive.    There are so many advisers out there; so many books and blogs and well-meaning people all delivering fabulous Dos and Don’ts that we can be left poised with hands above keyboards reciting all the rules and getting caught up in all the barbed wire of worries about typesetting issues as we go.  Or grammar.

So after the WhatsApp revelation, I got my notes out I’d taken on the final full day of the retreat and put into practice what I’d learnt regarding the use of Post-It notes.   Julie has a fabulous section on this on her website, so I won’t go in to detail here.  Suffice to say an hour after I started, I had both MC’s story arcs up on my wall, including new scenes (in other words new wordcount) which go deeper, not wider.     Blanche is in the box but I hope cleverly sprinkled throughout the manuscript in another form (not a ghost, I don’t do supernatural yet!).

Yesterday I went to bed with Stephen King.   He’s another affair I’m having and my regular blog readers will forgive me that.    I now open ON WRITING randomly whenever I want to be near him and never fail to be satisfied.   Chapter fourteen came to light last night and oh, how I read that with new eyes – it’s all about writing courses!

Julie’s GUIDED WRITING RETREAT was precisely that.   I was guided to this new version of myself.  I’m still an aspiring author.   I still hope and need to complete the FD but now I have a plan.  Not one I’ve copied from a book, but one I’ve seen in action.   Julie had us Post-It noting all over the walls of the cottage in Sheepwash, the story line from Cinderella.   We studied it, deleted bits from it and talked of the highs and lows of the story.   

I’ve always dumped myself firmly in the ‘pantser’ category of writers but I created a whole host of problems doing so.  I’m ironing them out now, using the tips I learnt on that final Post-It note day.   It was truly fascinating, and I can tell you one thing for sure.  Next year when I do NaNo – and I plan to – I shall spend October plotting and planning.    

No longer a pantser shall I be, 

as it simply doesn’t work for me.

PS  Leave a small amount of milk in a jug in a corner of the fly-bothered room.   For a week.  There were seven.

Get to know your characters if they are to sound convincing on the page.

October 28, 2018

I should have done this a very long time ago 🙈

As the weeks continue to soldier on past, I cannot escape the repeated advice about the importance of making lists about, doing research on, creating mood boards for .. your main characters.

Although I may ultimately share with my readers only 25% of that information (because they don’t need to know Antonio’s inside leg measurement) the descriptions I do weave into my scenes will come from a place of assured knowledge rather than a vague guess and hope it works.

I’ve been reading this guide over the last twenty four hours and it has to be up there with Stephen King’s ‘On Writing’ when it comes to a How To book which is so well-written, it’s a page-turner all of its own!

I’ve laughed out loud at the humour used to make incredibly valid points and cringed inside when I’ve seen examples of what not to type (*quietly goes off to alter things on the WIP and hey presto – no-one will be any the wiser*). I’ve so got this 💃🏼

National Novel Writing Month 2018

October 27, 2018

I’m reflecting on this time last year. I’d just joined an online writers group and they were all chatting away about something I thought was one of their Nana’s poetry classes, true story 😂

I tentatively made some enquiries and it turned out that the National Novel Writing Month (of November) was started in the US by some buddies who wanted to encourage those thinking about writing a novel to simply sit down and thrash out a first draft. No editing, no worrying about the plot, just get it down. In 50,000 words. In one month. Simples.

While there are sceptics who suggest you might be better to type slower and more methodically, reducing the need to eliminate rushed writing from your manuscript at a later date, many do still join the thousands each year because they know that writing communities help each other. This is like one mother fudge writing retreat in which we can all, and will be, posting wordcounts and encouraging each other through the tough days. 1,666 words a day sounds do-able, until you get left behind because life happened to get in the way.

Last year, around this time, I looked in awe at the writers who had planned and plotted and knew what scenes they would write on which days whereas I simply dived in at the deep end and started spewing words out.

The result became the basis for my present WIP, of which I am proud, and this year I wish to progress the wordcount during the weeks of NaNo (unofficially as you have to be working on a brand new project to register with the site).

There are many guides to help approach what we all admit is quite an extreme form of creative writing, and I have a copy of this book on my kindle by Megg Geri.

Megg’s site is really worth a visit if you’ve not been over yet. Full of fun tips and a book club and all sorts of editing and writerly offerings 🌸

This time around I know what NaNo means and what it stands for. Yet have I done any planning? A little…. and even some of those post-its have fluttered to the floor and mingled in with the to-be-but-never-will-be ironing pile 🙄

I’m going to have to be much more self-disciplined about blogging and insta and FB if I’m to give time to this. I did read some more of Megg’s tips in the bath last night, so I’m on the right lines!

I’ve warned Man of the Woods that I shall need to be left in peace for periods of the day. He pointed out he walks the little dog twice a day even now for at least an hour and what was I spending that time doing if not writing? He has a point… I am so disorganised.

My basic efforts daily will include:-

  • Bottle of water to keep hydrated.
  • Mobile phone out of the room until the end of any writing session.
  • Limit blogging to once a week (😱 just need to sit down a minute).
  • Make sure my playlists are ready for ambience.

🎵🎵🎵🎵🎵🎵🎵🎵🎵🎵🎵

Who else is preparing, mentally and any other way?