Anyway, since this particular tag doesn’t involve me having to do anything particularly difficult, and since it gives me a chance to show off again, I shall oblige.

This challenge is called the Lucky 7 game and involves me publishing 7 sentences from page 7 or 77 of my work in progress. The work I have chosen is, of course, Monkeygeddon, and yes, I’m still working on it and yes I probably should have finished it by now, but tough. Anyway, it’ll be worth the wait and you can always encourage me to get on with it by sending money. I’ll be putting a donate button on one of my other blogs at a later date.

For now though, here are my 7 lines:

Gina charged through the door sending a monkey, that had been sitting on the other side, flying. Big Chris crashed through right behind her and fell to the floor. Gina, thinking quick, turned back to the doors and slammed them shut as Chris slid an axe through the handles to hold them closed. The chasing monkeys hit the door hard, screaming their bloodthirsty desire to rip into our two heroes, but the axe held.

Gina and Big Chris slumped against the door, breathing heavily, glad to be alive as the clawing killers tried to dig through the heavy wood behind them. But from the gift shop came a scream that would make a lesser person piss themselves and a large, angry, macaque leaped at them. Teeth and claws flashed in the jungle style lighting of the foyer as it launched its attack and instantly found itself impaled on Gina’s quickly raised spear.

Slowly, twitching and gurgling, it slid down the spear where Gina could look her foe in the eye as it finally breathed its last.

“Oh, just fuck off.”

So there it is. As usual I can’t be arsed to tag anyone else so if you’re reading this, consider yourself tagged and get on with it. Post 7 lines from page 7 or page 77 of your latest work in progress. People will come from miles around to read it and you will be famous, like me.

The general act of writing became a general huff of disbelief in myself which finally culminated in my not completing, or even starting, NaNoWriMo this year. I got as far as the general concept for the story, but no further.

I also failed to complete any of the projects on my 2011 list. This was made more complicated by my constant changing of the jumpers I was using for goalposts. Far too many projects were added to an already long list and I left myself in such a state of confusion that I didn’t know where to start.

So, what have I learned and what will I do now?

The first thing I learned was not to have quite so many projects on the go at once. So I’m cancelling all my quick and dirty pulp stories for the time being. As much fun as they are, it’s too easy to get side-tracked and lose myself in new stuff.

The story concept I came up with for NaNoWriMo fell apart when I tried to pull the plot together and needed so much work doing to it, that I didn’t see myself ever getting around to starting. So, Deathalopod, is officially on ice. However, I did get something very valuable from the planning process, even if it was a bit vague.

The lead characters I created for Deathalopod were full of personality and seemed too good to just let go. Then I realised that if I dropped these characters into Monkeygeddon, all the problems I had with that story seemed to be solved. The biggest issue with my tale of killer monkeys is that everyone in the story wants the same thing – to get out, alive. That’s all well and good, but it means that my hero gets lost among the crowd of characters (15 at the last count), with the new characters, the hero has a much more defined role.

I also found myself revisiting other projects, such as my kid’s horror story, and spent much time researching circuses and freak shows. On top of this I’ve been making various notes and lists of titles and characters that I plan on finding a use for. Some of these have found projects, the rest are waiting.

So now I’ve got a better idea about what I’m doing with my stories, I have a plan of action for 2012.

I’m limiting myself to my original 4 projects which are:

1. Monkeygeddon – A trash pulp tale of killer monkeys on the rampage in a theme park.
2. The Chilling Tale of Skeleton Bob – A supernatural horror story for kids about a rather nasty child-killer with a secret.
3. Harry Character is not Dead – A novella about the dangers of parallel universes and getting what you wished for.
4. Septimus Jaggs’ Circus – A framed collection of short stories concerning the characters in Mr Jaggs’ circus.

Each project has its own file in Scrivener and the three longer projects have their own Moleskines for proper planning. There will, I hope, be a variety of short stories throughout the year, but I am not going to be adding any more long form projects to the list. If you should hear me mention writing a sitcom, please stop me. It’s for the good of us all.

So, let’s hope that 2012 is a little more successful than 2011 was. It can’t be much worse.

It starts tomorrow, NaNoWriMo that is, so it’s a good job we’ve all done our best to plan and plot and generally prepare for it. You have right? I know I have…

Oh no…

Wait….

No. I’ve done bugger all in the preparing stakes. Oh, well now, this can’t end well…can it?

Well let’s not panic just yet. Let’s take a breath and have a look at how much preparation I’ve actually done, or not. Because, as usual, if my crap and nonsense can put some of you at ease, then I’ve done my good deed for the day…year…something.

I hate you all.

Last year, I spent most of October planning my story. I had character lists, plot points, things that I needed to remember to do early on to set up things later in the story, all kinds of things. I wrote them out in a special notebook while wearing my writing hat.

This year I haven’t even got around to stocking up on Percy Pigs which I needs for writing.

Am I completely unprepared? No, I cannot lie and say that I am pantsing it, but it’s bloody close. As you probably know, I’ve got the bare bones of a plot about a coastal town that is attacked by a huge school of killer squid. It’s going to be called, Deathalopod! I had the idea around Spring and have been collecting research material since then.

I’ve got squid books, magazines about surfing and diving, websites with first hand accounts of squid attacks and some utter bullshit from a man whose OTT macho antics have made him a shoe-in as my main character.

I’ve got an idea that the story is set during a surf contest so there’ll be plenty of people in the water. Our old friends,The Military, will be responsible for inadvertently causing the attacks with one of their crazy experiments. And, The Military, will help to solve the problem at the end. There will also be a female squid expert who our misogynistic hero will have to rely on to help him defeat the squid.

Preapared?

Does that sound like I know what I’m doing? Does it sound like I’ve got the plot down? It might, but I haven’t.

I have no idea how it all starts. I have no idea what my character names are. I have no idea how many extra characters I’ll need. I have no idea how many different ways of killing people with squid I can come up with to keep it interesting. I have no idea of what needs to happen to keep the plot flowing. I have no idea where these plot points should happen. I have no idea if there needs to be a secret bad guy working in secret behind the scenes. I have no idea how my hero is going to persuade, The Military, to let him use their secret weapon.

In short, I have no idea.

So while technically I’m not pantsing my NaNo this year, it certainly feels like I am. All of which leaves me with only one thing to do.

Prepare

Tonight, I shall be working through my plot. There will be lots of pacing and hat wearing. I’ll try to at least come up with some names for my lead characters, whoever they may be. I know I need the male and female leads and I know what they do, but what about secondary characters?

I’ll be happy if I can work out where the story begins and exactly how it should end. The middle bit I can work toward as I write. I’ll be especially pleased with myself if I can work out a handful of set pieces for each act so I have something to be working towards.

The details will be worked out at the end of each writing day. That way, I always start each day knowing exactly where I’m going.

In conclusion then, no, I don’t feel prepared at all. I have the vaguest of ideas and am sure that I’ll fail this year. But that just makes it more exciting, doesn’t it? Yes.

So good luck NaNoers or WriMos or what ever you want to call yourselves. Remember, there’s loads of us doing this, so don’t be shy if it starts to get too much. If you need help and support, you only need to ask. If you want to add me to your buddy list, just search for Mr Uku and you’ll find me.

Oh and one more thing:

I’ve decided to use Scrivener for Windows this year. I’m not sure if that’s a good idea or not, especially as the current beta runs out on November 7th.

With that in mind, I’d like to give you all my top NaNoWriMo tip.

Whatever bit of software you use to write your masterpiece with, BACK-UP. Don’t think it’ll never happen to you, cos it will. Save your work after every paragraph. If you’re using Scrivener, make sure auto-save is turned on.

At the end of each day, BACK-UP YOUR WORK. Don’t just save it, back it up on a separate disk if you can. And if you haven’t done so already, now is a really good time to get yourself a Dropbox account.

You’ll thank me for it. It’s free, it’s easy to use and if you only ever use it for NaNoWriMo it’ll be totally worth it should the worst happen.

Right, that’s it. Be gone, the lot of you and bring me my Percy Pigs, I’ve got some planning to do.

UPDATE

It has just been pointed out to me that there is a special NaNoWriMo trial of Scrivener. Versions are available for both Mac and Windows although if you’re using the Windows beta you will need to uninstall it before installing the NaNo version. You can get all the details and downloads from here – http://www.literatureandlatte.com/nanowrimo.php

2010 was my first NaNoWriMo. I was challenged to take part by that there RosieBunny and after looking into it, I decided to have a go. Of course knowing what NaNoWriMo is and knowing what it’ll be like to actually take part are two very different things.

So if you’re thinking about doing NaNo this year or have already signed up, I thought you might like a bit of advanced warning about what to expect.

In my last post, I mentioned the people who will be slagging off NaNoWriMo and all who take part. They are a royal pain in the arse and what they want is for you to give up.

Do not listen to them. There will be plenty of NaNoers around to offer you support so seek them out. You’ll have plenty of other things to worry about without these jokers battering your self-confidence. Things like,

sticking to your target

As you must know by know, NaNoWriMo requires that you write 50,000 words in 30 days in order to be declared a “winner”. That means you must write 1667 words per day if you want to reach your target.

For some, that will be no problem. For others, it will sound easy until they actually try to do it.

If you fail to hit target in your first few days, the panic will set in and you’ll start to wonder why you signed up for this stupid event. But before you give up, have a close look at your writing technique. NaNoWriMo requires a technique that is very different from that used by most writers. This becomes especially apparent if you’re one of those scribblers who likes to edit as they go.

The NaNo mantra is, Editing is for December. Write that on a post-it and stick it near your screen at about eye level. There is no time for editing when you’re writing for NaNoWriMo.

This is the one thing that knocked me sideways last year. It drove me mad and I only managed a few hundred words for each of the first few days and had to write over 4000 words over the first weekend just to catch up. It was at that point that I cracked.

My writing, although not great anyway, was just awful. I knew I could do better, but to do so meant losing words. When I write blog posts for clients, I’m always trying to lose words to tighten up the text. But with NaNo, I can’t afford to be losing words. I had to convince myself that this was a good thing.

And it is a good thing. Once you get a handle on the main idea of NaNoWriMo, it all falls into place. And the main idea of NaNoWriMo is, of course, the word count.

Get that into your head now. The word count is all that matters. You will be very lucky if you produce anything like a first draft in 30 days. What you will most likely have is draft zero, a working version of the story or a full length synopsis. Once you’ve got your head round that, the writing becomes easier.

Now you can stop worrying about getting the text just right. You can stop those repeated attempts at trying to make your dialogue realistic. None of it matters, it’s all about the word count.

Once I had realised this my manuscript started to flow. The finished version is full of notes disguised as description and dialogue. Characters have long and very odd conversations about nothing while I try to work out what I’ve forgotten to mention earlier on. Excuses are made about objects that suddenly appear in the hand of a protagonist just when it’s needed.

All of it is horrible writing, that’s for damn sure, but it hits the target for wordage and serves as a reminder to me that it needs tidying up when I come to do the rewrite. The lesson is, don’t be precious about your writing, you’re not producing a finished or polished product at this stage.

Most likely you’ll be the only one who reads this draft (unless you’re a huge show off) so don’t worry about it.

Yes it’s hard to get over yourself when you start, but once you do you’ll feel the weight lift and you’ll start having fun. The writing will flow and your target will vanish. I finished last year’s NaNoWriMo a few days early having hit my pace at 2000 words per day which I completed in a few hours. It was much more relaxing than the fretting and hair pulling of the first week.

So take my advice, concentrate on the numbers rather than the words and leave the editing for December. You’ll have a much happier time of it.

November is nearly here and that can only mean one thing.

NaNoWriMo 2011 is charging towards you.

It probably has its head down and is making bull noises while you dance about trying to work out which way its going to go before finally making a decision and diving out of the way at the last minute only to find you’ve got it wrong again.

GORE! GORE! GORE!

You won’t be able to breathe for some time. You’ll feel dizzy. You’ll wish you’d never even tried to stand up to it.

And that’s what NaNoWriMo is.

Am I being over dramatic? No, I am not.

Alright, yes I am.

A bit.

Alright a lot. Honestly, can’t I have a little artistic license? It’s my blog you know.

EH?

NaNoWriMo, for those of you who don’t know, is the challenge to write a 50,000 word novel in just 30 days during November. Many people do it and they take part for many reasons that I won’t try and list, but I’ll tell you mine.

I want a book at the end of it.

I did my first NaNo last year and wrote  a genius work of fiction called Monkeygeddon. There’s a sample chapter here, if you’re interested. I had great fun writing it although it was a pain in the arse at times..

Get to the point

But I’ve wrote about all that sort of thing before, so what’s my point this time? Well, I wanted to offer a word of warning to those of you who might be thinking of giving NaNoWriMo a go for the first time this year.

NaNo is very exciting for those taking part. There will be well over 200,000 participants and the level of camaraderie you’ll find in the regional groups, Facebook groups and on Twitter will overwhelm you.

However, despite the figures, not everyone is going to get involved. Most of them will indulge us while we gush and pat ourselves on the back and you’ll get plenty of support from plenty of non participants.

But…

There’s always a but. And this but is to warn you about the people who make the snide comments. As if trying to write 50,000 words in 30 days wasn’t hard enough, you’re going to have to put up with a lot of people who will wish you’d all just give up.

They don’t want to hear about how many words you may or may not have written that day. They won’t care that you’re struggling. They won’t want to hear about your writing hat or your case of Percy Pigs. Some of them will take to their blogs to write hundreds of words about how you’re all wasting your time. Some will tell you that NaNoWriMo is responsible for the influx of awful books that suddenly appear in the shops. They’ll tell you that you’re the reason people hate self-published books and besides, all the good books have already been written.

These people are cocks.

So what can you do to fight back? Easy.

1. Ignore them. You will never convince them that what you are doing is worth anything any more than they’ll convince you to stop.
2. Don’t be a NaNo bore. You’ll want to talk about what you’re doing and you have every right to do so, but try to limit the bulk of these conversations to people who care. There’s loads of us out there so why rile up the masses when they don’t give a shit?
3. Remember, your 50,000 words are not a finished product. One of the biggest complaints from people in the business is that they do get sent a lot of first Drafts on spec. The bad news is, you haven’t got a first draft, you’ve got Draft Zero. It’s going to take quite some work to polish it up to a level where its worth sending to an agent or publisher.
4. Remember the NaNoWriMo mantra, editing is for December. That means, spend November writing your novel rather than worrying about fixing it. But more importantly it means; when you’ve finished, EDIT IT!

So, there you have it. I hope I’ve not put any of you off. I expect you to spend the rest of October plotting your story. But don’t panic if you only have half an idea, you can still push on through. NaNo is a great experience and if you get something, anything, out of it then it’ll all be worthwhile.

Have fun and if you need some support, come and find the rest of us. We’re out there, just follow the sounds of anguish.

PS

If you’re interested, my novel this year will be called, Deathalopod. It’s going to be the mayhem filled story of a small Cornish surfing village that finds itself under siege by a school of angry killer squid.

I know    I’m especially looking forward to the movie. As for Monkeygeddon, the editing continues. Yes it’s been a year, but think how good it’ll be when I’ve finished.