I may be gone some time…………
I’ve been told to warn you so here it is. My blog may be somewhat neglected during the month of November. Those of you who stuck with me during the distinctly dry months of August and September will be rolling your eyes and cursing my fecklessness. Wait though! This time it’s not what you think. This time I am will be abandoning my blog for a worthy cause. Yes it’s true – once more into the breach dear friends. I am to throw myself upon my sword, do battle with my nemesis, pee into the wind. I’m going to write a book!
I have this friend who has a really irritating habit of finishing what she starts. It drives me insane. I am much more of an initial enthusiasm kind of girl, you know the sort of person who throws themself into something 110% (sorry too much x-factor) and then…………………..oh look a butterfly…… A couple of years ago this friend told me about something called National Novel Writing Month or as those in the know call it NaNoWriMo. The idea is that you sign up with this site and commit yourself along with thousands of other crazed lunatics to write 50,000 words during the month of November. You have a rolling word count tool and somewhere you can post excerpts from your work so all of your fans can read them. She was very enthusiastic and I remember feeling quite smug as a veteran writer of first chapters and thinking to myself “ha, no way will you finish this”. Of course she did – like I said she’s annoying that way.
I’ve finally reached the stage where I don’t think I can survive much longer without actually writing a book. obviously I’m proud of my achievements so far – 372 abandoned Mill and Boon’s (one formal rejection), several embryonic fantasy novels and 20,000 words on the life of Pontius Pilate but I think I need more. I think for once in my life I really need to finish what I’ve started.
Support from my family has been pretty minimal. Sally threw herself off the toy ambulance several times in protest yesterday afternoon then staged a no sleep campaign last night. Helen is disinterested but did tell me that my book wasn’t as good as her website. Oh yes, Helen has her own website. Often she’ll start singing little songs or quoting poetry which apparently are from her website. Believe me if I ever work out the URL you guys will be the first to know! Allan’s lack of enthusiasm has been the hardest to bear though. He told me last night that he thought I did have a book in me but he didn’t think that this was the right time or the right book. Harsh. You must remember that he is a deeply damaged man. Last time I was really serious about writing a book we ended up spending a week in Israel looking at Roman remains and driving a lot closer to the Gazza strip than either of us was completely comfortable with. Anyway, I’ll show him, that’s why I’m on here blogging.
NaNo whatsity thing doesn’t start until November (no shit Sherlock) but I’m so excited I’ve started already. Once I know exactly how to link to excerpts I will try to link them to my blog. Those of you who enjoy my whimsical tales of ducks and hens will be sorely disappointed – I’ve gone back to my darkest time and made my main character a female pathologist living in Edinburgh. I imagine I will probably become the next Ian Rankin – except I’ll be a girl who writes about ducks and hens mainly with the odd murder thrown in.
Anyway here is the line that caught my eye when I started up my laptop at work this morning.
“You can’t slam the doors; they’re soft close so he kicks the filing cabinet in our office on his way out. I sigh and calmly
go about removing the brain.”
Oh yeah and for those of you who think I was joking about the trip to Israel…………………..
Here I am in the ruined city of Caeserea pretending to drive a chariot – he’s lucky this book is set in Edinburgh.
colonsaycroftess 
Good luck with the writing. It’s a lonely life…
You are going to love it Moo! And I have no doubt that you will succeed, NaNo has a great support network and you’re in the right place mentally. Sign up for the NaNoSkye group and look for the “skeleton challenge,” it’s a challenge-within-the-challenge that you’ll hit your word count every day, and the woman who runs it will email you mercilessly if you skip. She’s great.
I really want to do it this year but am not sure that I have a story in me… I might just start on day 1 and see what comes out!
Thanks Danae, I will do the skeleton group. Allan says he fears your stream of consciousness!!!
Good luck with that. At least it’s not Fifty Shades that’s got you going (fnarr!). Anyway, I reckon you’ve got more chance of growing a nice handlebar moustache for Movember (see http://www.movember.com, charity fans) than of finishing a book.
And I thought Gazza was from somewhere near Newcastle. Did you see him take his clothes off in Israel? How exciting.
xx
Yeah well you look like Sheldon from the big bang theory so there! Xxxx
Good for you, go for it! I started writing my first novel recently and although I got to 10,000 words and then completely rewrote it, I am sort of enjoying it. It might be very encouraging to do it alongside lots of other eager beavers, you do need some encouragement to keep you motivated because it can be a bit of a lonely furrow to plough. I look forward to your progress and seeing where your characters go (my book’s set in Edinburgh too, it’s nice to be able to revisit old haunts isn’t it?).
I read your blog post about writing your book a few weeks ago. I meant to reply…..Yes I’m enjoying having my characters wandering the streets of Edinburgh, I wonder if some of it is too true to life though. I may have to relocate them in the final edit…..if I ever get that far. I know what you mean about it being lonely too, I think that’s why the NaNoWriMo thing appeals to me. Hopefully I will feel as though I’m part of something.