Novel writing

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Posted on 18 November 2015
In NANO, Novel writing, Scrivener, Training

Faced with the prospect of editing five NANO novel drafts, all written in Word, all in various states of chaos, I found myself pushed towards adopting a better, more organised approach this year, using Scrivener. This time, the planner in me was determined to have an outline in place before I started. And she did. But the pantser in me, who lets my characters have free rein, has been having fun,...

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Posted on 1 November 2015
In NANO, Novel writing, Scrivener, Training

Day 1 and the waiting is over. I kicked off at midnight and wrote my first 882 words in a word war with some of my buddies, the Devon Wrimos, in the NanoDevon chat room - and then needed some sleep. What's a word war? Scroll down! What's a buddy? Scroll down even further! Now that NANO has officially started, a new feature has appeared to the right of my Inbox icon at...

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Posted on 25 October 2015
In Guest blogpost, NANO, Novel writing

During the recent series of Red Pen Launch webinars, I was blessed with the support of romantic novelist and veteran RedPenner, Patsy Collins. With NaNoWriMo less than a week from now, I've invited Patsy to tell us her plans for November. So, Patsy, NaNoWriMo 2015. Will you be taking part? I've not completed NaNo during the last couple of years, and previously I've 'cheated' at NaNo and used it to write 50,000 words of...

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Posted on 22 October 2015
In NANO, Novel writing, Scrivener, Training

The secret of winning NANO - going through that 50K barrier before time runs out on day 30 - boils down to setting goals and meeting targets. On the NANO site, each time you enter your word-count-to-date, a bar chart tells you how you're progressing. If you're on schedule, writing your 1666 words per day,  it's good to see today's column above the target line. If you're slipping behind, it can...

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Posted on 15 October 2015
In NANO, Novel writing, Training

NaNoWriMo fast approaches and it's crucial, before I start writing for real at midnight on 31 October, that I make some decision on tense and voice. First question: which tense to use? Past or present? Past tense would be the easy option. It's the natural way of telling a story - something that happened in the past, recounted now. Using the present tense can create a sense of immediacy. It can...

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Posted on 9 October 2015
In NANO, Novel writing, Scrivener, Training

Before I write - and also during the writing process - I make notes to myself about any research I need to do, and additional information I'll need. I  create a list of questions I'll need to answer. For Safari Supper, one such question is: 'How will the murderer kill the victim?' For now, I am assuming it's going to be by poisoning but, to arrive at a plausible method, I...

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