Winning

Today marked the first day of officially validating your NaNoWriMo word count, so I can now post this as an officially verified winner! They even added an extra ten words to my word count once I'd validated, cheers all round. So now I've printed out my winner's certificate and added a winner's t-shirt to my Christmas list, what does the future hold? Have I caught the writing bug? Will I be signing up next year?

I can safely say that I enjoyed the experience, which was probably down to the fact I went in with such low expectations and came out with a 50k novel. I've dabbled in writing before now, but never to this extent and it certainly made me consider doing more writing in the future. It also reassured me about going on to study English someday in the future which has become an ambition of mine recently. Plus, I've already started planning out the sequel to this story, as well as beginning the editing process of my NaNo novel. Oh and I've started an entirely new story, too! So it's been a positive experience overall.

Of course I have the advantage of not having an awful lot going on in my life at the moment, so who knows whether I'll have the time/energy/opportunity to be as successful next year, but I'll certainly be giving it a go!

Writing is a mind field of a profession where if I'm to take it seriously, then I have to prepare myself for disappointment. But for now I'm just going to enjoy writing as a hobby and enjoy crafting something I can be proud of at the end of the process. Already I'm proud of the characters I have created, the story that ended up just how I wanted and the amount of words on the page. And I've done all this whilst battling M.E symptoms which makes the achievement all the more staggering for me.

If you haven't validated your word count yet then do it now! :) just go to the "edit your novel" option and click the link.

I can't think of a thing worth sharing right now so I might edit one in later, shh ;)

Until next time,

Sarah x

NaNoWriMo - I'm done!

So I promised to blog about my progress during NaNoWriMo and I didn't. Well, that paid off because today I passed the 50k word count at finished my novel! I'm sure I'll document my experience more fully in blog posts to come but I thought I'd note down some of the things I have learnt on the way.

1. I can write 50k words in 15 days, who knew?!
2. Planning my chapters was a complete waste of time. I went off chapter plan on day one and didn't even look at it the rest of the time.
3. Characters are the most important thing. If I hadn't spent the time and effort thinking about my characters that I did, I would have gotten nowhere.
4. Music is the best inspiration. I downloaded Spofity mid-NaNo and found some songs that helped spur me on.
5. Writing that much is going to send your brain into overload. At one point I spelt gesture with a 'j'. I'm still embarassed.
6. Writing is fun! So much fun. I can't wait to get stuck into more stories. I hope I never lose the love I've found for writing during this month.

I'm sure there are loads more things to say about this month, but I'm too frazzled to remember them. If you haven't given NaNoWriMo a look before and are wondering what it's all about, then I'd recommend it to anyone. It's a great experience. So my ultimate "thing worth sharing" is this wonderful website.

Until next time,

Sarah x 

Planning, Planning, Planning

So today I'm sitting here, not able to do a lot besides chill in bed with my laptop due to a dodgy hip. Whether it's the cold weather, too much walking, too little walking or just plain M.E being mysterious that has caused the pain and discomfort, I'm not sure. I get a fair bit of trouble with my joints, pain, weakness etc so I'm not too worried about it, it's just a bit of an inconvenience.

It does, however, give me time to blog! Hurrah. And so I thought I'd update on how my NaNoWriMo planning is going so far. The answer is surprising okay! I have a lot of plot information written down, as well as details about my characters. I've drawn some maps of locations used in my story, and have the chapters outlined.

Chapter outlining turned out to be the hardest part. I know I have a lot of specific events in my story that will have dedicated chapters, but when I first tried to plan each chapter I stalled at a total of eleven chapters, which isn't nearly enough. Following advice from others, I've set myself a goal of thirty chapters so I can write a chapter a day, or I can hope to at least. I have one thing on my side, and that is that I know the ending of my story. I've had this idea for a long time but have stalled when attempting to write it down, so I'm itching for November to begin so I can get going!

Of course this could all change come November. I'm still facing the problem of worrying my health will get in the way. If it does, then my health comes first and I won't finish. It's not a big deal, I'm only really doing this for fun after all! But who knows whether my weak wrists or difficulty with concentration will just make things too hard, time will tell.

One thing I am trying to do in the build up is make sure I'm writing each day, so this can be my writing for today. Hey, it's not particularly interesting writing, but it's practice at typing which is one thing I'm going to need. I also picked up a copy of the Guardian newspaper today, well my parents did, as they do every week. Included is a brilliant "How to Write Fiction" pull out section, which has some really wonderful trips and hints for writing, and includes several writing exercises which I will certainly be giving a go.

One thing I'm getting from NaNoWriMo before it's even started is the great sense of community. I've had a quick browse of the forums, where everybody seems friendly and supportive. I'm happy to share support with fellow participants on Twitter, so anybody who stumbles across this blog can find me at http://twitter.com/thatsizgirl I'll probably add a little Twitter widget to my blog as well for anyone who wants to keep track of my progress.

I'm entering this project as a complete novice writer really. It's something I enjoy, but not something I have any real formal experience with. My qualifications are limited (albeit through no fault of my own) but what better way of learning a craft than throwing yourself in at the deep end? I hope to add a few updates to my progress on this blog, I'm certainly excited about it. I just hope my enthusiasm will last until November!

For a "thing worth sharing" I have to direct people to BBC Iplayer to look up Stephen Fry's brilliant show on language Planet Word. As an ex-English Language student, this show has reignited my love of all things language, and it's a must watch for everybody. Episode three was hilarious so I shall link to that, it's also the most recent - http://www.bbc.co.uk/i/b01614w9/

Until next time!

Sarah x