Haunted Houses in Cornwall and NaNoWriMo

As it Halloween let's talk about haunted houses or at least look a great article from FT this weekend on them here. The one I want is here....off to find the money - hah!

NaNoWriMo begins tomorrow and because I am foolish and had so much fun last year...I'm doing it again. I'll be writing ENEMY - save a stranger from the sea, he become your enemy...

Of course I'll be working on ridding THE CORNISH HOUSE of all the sighing, head shaking and sitting up straights that I can managed too...

Are you NaNoWriMoing?

I did It or What NoNoWriMo Taught Me

Today is the first of December and I'm exhausted and I haven't even begun the Christmas stuff yet, but I have completed the required 50,000 words for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). I had no plans to do nano this year. Last year I planned it and researched for a few weeks while resisting the urge to write. On the first of November I was off like a shot and life interfered and I ended the month 20,000 words better off, which I was pleased with because without the spur of nano I might not have managed 5000.

So this year I wasn't going to try because I knew my schedule was full to say the least, but on the first I couldn't resist the call. All l I had was the title...The Summer of the Black Hare, which came about from the appearance of a jet black hare on our lawn on glorious evening this past summer.

With a hare to chase I set off accepting that I wouldn't cross the finish line, but that I would have exercised my writing muscle which had a bl**dy big cramp in it from close revisions....you know the sort - just how many times have you used the word just and so on. So from microscopic inspection to glorious freedom - I set off.

I knew I wanted to really stretch. I knew in the back of my mind that August Rock needs to be written in first person (of which I have little experience just Explosive Dreams see link if brave) so I decided that The Summer of the Black Hare would be written in first person and set in Cornwall (but as it return out it only began there before doing some serious globe trotting). Thus I began on an adventure or as one blogger described it - draft zero. No pressure, no plot, no idea.

It has been fabulous, furious and fun. I have learned so much.

1. I can write in the first person and it challenged my mind to tell a story from one person's eyes only
2. I have a great imagination - believe me this is a wild tale
3. Especially after yesterday's rush to the end I can write 5000 somewhat coherent words in a very short space of time even though I had no idea where its going
4. When stuck throw in pirates, dead bodies or turbocharged vampires - it gets the plot going no end
5. Sometimes freedom is good for the writing soul
6. Don't be afraid of not knowing and really tossing everything at your character
7. It's important to have sspace to write something wild for no audience in particular- you'll never know what you'll discover
8. I didn't expect that this would be out of my 'genre' but it is and the sense of freedom in writing in arena that I don't read (but do watch - tv and films) was so refreshing that I think it will bring new pace to my other work...

So the work stands at 50,002 words - what now? Well the story is definitely not finished. My 'normal' first drafts usually landed at 80,000 to 90.000 lean words. I would say this is even leaner - I mean why write speech tags or connections between scenes or even paragraphs or even scenes that you know must exist but you haven't thought of them yet when the rush is on....I think it will take me another 20,000 words to come to THE END when I discover what that is. So this December in the midst of Christmas letters, cooking, shopping, wrapping, and of course travelling I will write those 20,000 and be ready to begin in January refreshed and having learnt a new a new skill (no, not bull sh*ting but first person).

The Summer of the Balck Hare will never see the light of day - at least not as it stands, but that wasn't the point for me. The reason for NaNoWriMo was to recapture the joy of story telling. I already knew I could write a complete novel or six but I had lost sight of the joy that writing brings when it is set free. I think many other writers find their release in short stories, but it is a skill I have never mastered. In short stories many writers can spread their writing wings, which I think we all need to do - and I guess this applies in all creative fields. If you don't use and push the creative muscles they can atrophy. In the past writers weren't straight jacketed into a category they could write where their imagination took them and the their readers followed, but times are not the same...so I'm already looking forward to next years NaNoWriMo. Are you?

NaNoWriMo Progress and Travel Again

There is a bounce in my step...this year I'm on target and in fact ahead - just a tiny bit, on NaNoWriMo, which is so different from my experience last year. In the far reaches of my brain I have wondered why...because I do things like that, silly I know. I have come to the conclusion because I have let go. I have shut the inner editor firmly off and I'm writing pure fantasy because I know nothing of the thriller world or genre. It might be classified as a women's fiction thriller but of course there is no such thing. It is not like my previous venture into the thriller world with the experimental Dickens Challenge piece EXPLOSIVE DREAMS which was chick lit meets thriller. It is a wholly different beast and pure fun to write.

I began on the first of November fully expecting THE SUMMER OF THE BLACK HARE to fall in line with previous work - the work that has been growing into my voice for the past few years but no. I have discovered that when I try first person my voice morphs into a different mode. It wants to take risks and experience things differently. It still explores some dark things, but it is more playful as maybe when using 'I' a lightness from me must slip in - a touch of irreverence.

This is a good thing to learn as I have said here before AUGUST ROCK needs to be in first person so when I make that transition I will be aware of the consequences....for August Rock is not meant to be a thriller but it may become more shall we shall Gothic for lack of a better term...

In the meanwhile I'm cracking on with TSOTBH and enjoying every moment of it - because if I'm not I just move on - such freedom is bliss. I am also aware the title does not fit the book any more, but I doubt this book will ever see the light of day so it doesn't matter and I can write one in third person which will.... (Funny how one knows instinctively that the title doesn't fit - may explore this thought more another time)

On Tuesday I fly back to the UK again in time for the RNA Winter Party....oh the joy and the agony of what to pack and wear....maybe it's a bit like what to call a book....

Are you a 'try everything on in the cupboard sort of person' - or do you know without even looking what to wear -or what to title to call a book -or even what to write??????

Camouflage or Feather Boa? OK, So I'm Writing A Thriller Now

I had another plan for a post today on what is Sexy but NaNoWriMo has taken over my day, which is good because I'm catching up. I should be at 13,336 by the end of today and at the moment I'm at 11,132 having written roughly 3000 words so far.

There is a problem though in this willy nilly head long word count rush...I find I'm writing a thriller-of sorts. No problem you say...but I don't read 'em (that's DH territory) and I'm clueless-just writing what comes along next into my head, which is pure freedom and madness. However I'm not going to stop the insanity and try and make this fit. This year's NaNoWriMo for me is about stretching the writing muscle. I'm writing in first person and I can't tell you how many times I found myself slipping back into third. Out of the separation and into the firing line so to speak.

This is all good or at least so I'm telling myself. I have also discovered I have left the comfort of the Helford River and have found myself writing in the middle of a war zone in some yet to be identified African country????

All this is good isn't it? Have you ever left your comfort zone and ventured off course? Did you continue? Was it a path to despair or enlightenment? Or finally will I look good in camouflage rather than the boa thing?

The Nanowrimo Experiement

I had had no plans to do National Novel Writing Month this year in fact on the morning of 1st November it still wasn't on the cards. I was finishing the rewrite of A CORNISH HOUSE (complete on Thursday) and planned to go back to the rewrite of PENDEROWN or failing that pick up last year's nano project PILGRIMAGE.

But somehow I began THE SUMMER OF THE BLACK HARE and am having a ball. Having been so focused on the making ACH perfect, I'm writing with wild abandon in first person (have only done this for that other writing experiment Explosive Dreams) with no idea where the story is going. It is a tonic to my weary writing soul. I fully accept that this month's product will be nothing more that a messy outline of a book at best - a draft zero as one blogger has called. But I will have exercised my writing muscle and I hope that will bring a freshness to all my other writing.

Are you doing Nanowrimo this year?

Tanzanian Taster

There is so much I could say about Tanzania and our stay but it's Nanowrimo... so I will give you a few of the pictures we took (total over 3500)....