Mae Archer
  • Home
    • Return to Me
    • Hollywood Dreams
    • Vintage Dreams
  • Blog
  • About Me
    • Media Kit >
      • Hollywood Dreams Media Kit
      • Return to me Media Kit
  • Amra Pajalic Website
  • My Shop
  • Grant Writing Course

Nano Day 1

1/11/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
It's that time of year again when writers have to decide to Nano or not to Nano. National Novel Writing Month is an opportunity to dedicate yourself to finishing a novel and the idea is that having peer pressure will make the task easier.

I tried completing Nano for 6 years until I finally cracked the formula of finishing 50,000 words in a month. For me the process is about getting words down, figuring out my storyline and characters, and having some rough scenes in progress to work on for later. Once I cracked the secret to Nano I took it on in a private challenge and wrote a few more manuscripts and firmly cemented that this the process that works for me to finish a book. I will confidently state that there is only perhaps 1 % of my manuscript that is not edited in some way, which probably comes to a sentence or two. As Anne Gracie said "first comes the draft, and then the craft."

The last project that I used this process on was Hollywood Dreams. However I found that I had to re-write nearly the whole book because I veered too far off course. One of the plot twists I developed was that my heroine, Maree, thought that Tom was gay and he played along with it. While it was a lot of fun to write, it did not work in a book as that's a dastardly act that there's just no coming back from.

So this time around I've done some plotting and thinking before I came to the book. Two resources that I find invaluable during this process is Save the Cat by Blake Snyder and  Donald Maass' Writing the Breakout Novel workbook. Save the Cat helps me to think about my novel thematically and have a rough idea of structure, while The Breakout Novel's most helpful exercise is combining roles of secondary characters which has already led to some delicious plot details.

So I have committed to Nano this month in order to finish my third novel. I've had a bit of difficulty getting words down. I started a new job this year and the demands of full time work in a new profession has tested my stamina. I have written about 10,000 words already, so I'm technically not meeting the Nano challenge correctly as I'm not working on a book that I haven't started, but I'm just using it as a tool to get my motivation going. I find that signing up officially on the website, entering the daily wordcount and receiving emails reminding you where you should be, really help to put pressure and meet the commitment.

I am also going to be blogging about the process so that all this public commitment gives me a kick up the pants. I'm going to set a modest goal of $20,000 words this month just so I don't feel like a rotten failure.

Today's wordcount was 2,313 words. I'm really struggling with getting back into the headspace of the book and the scene I was working on is not really flowing. I've got my characters on their first date, but the sparks aren't really flying. It's been months since I worked on this book so it's just a matter of persisting and getting the characters come to life. I'm also wanting to get a lot of words down while I've got an (almost) long weekend (I have to work on Monday), so that when there are days when I can't write I won't fall too far behind.

0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Author of Return to Me, Hollywood Dreams and Vintage Dreams. Short story is published in the anthology Little Raven Two by Little Raven Publishing. Pen name for Amra Pajalic.

    Mae Archer's books on Goodreads
    Return to Me Return to Me
    reviews: 10
    ratings: 13 (avg rating 3.46)

    Hollywood Dreams Hollywood Dreams
    ratings: 2 (avg rating 5.00)

    Little Raven Two: An Erotic Collection Little Raven Two: An Erotic Collection
    reviews: 1
    ratings: 2 (avg rating 4.00)

    A Storytelling of Ravens: The Best of Little Raven Publishing 2011 - 2014 A Storytelling of Ravens: The Best of Little Raven Publishing 2011 - 2014

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    March 2022
    July 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013

    Categories

    All
    Author Feature
    Books I Love
    Guest Post
    Hollywood Dreams
    Links
    My Favourite Things
    On Writing
    Publishing
    Return To Me

    RSS Feed

For media enquiries contact Pishukin Press
  • Home
    • Return to Me
    • Hollywood Dreams
    • Vintage Dreams
  • Blog
  • About Me
    • Media Kit >
      • Hollywood Dreams Media Kit
      • Return to me Media Kit
  • Amra Pajalic Website
  • My Shop
  • Grant Writing Course