Writing extracts, with that little bit extra.

I've decided that I'm going to start putting things I've written up here that consist of more than just a small extract. After I've written and edited to some extent I'll post chapters/pages up here for people to read if they want to. I'm really unsure how much readership it's going to get but it's better than having my writing sitting on my computer and not getting read by anyone else but me.

National Novel Writing Month

We've not quite reached the end of November, aka National Novelling Month, but tomorrow is the official day for validating word counts and winning.

And I have a confession to make.

I will not have completed my NaNo.

Not for a lack of trying, not because I gave up - but simply because I got bored. However, I've learned a few things from this -

1. Writing every day feels good. Whether it's 100 words or 7,000 words, it still feels good to write every day.
2. Pressure is good, but also bad. Pressuring yourself too much to write a certain amount every day isn't productive - I know when I put the pressure on myself purposefully it helps but when I feel like other people are handing me deadlines I'm actually more inclined to procrastinate. But to have that word count to hit every day and reach it feels like a lovely small achievement to have.
3. I wrote a lot more this year than previous years. For once I managed to get past 12k words, and reached 20k words. For most of the time I was ahead, which felt really good, and when I took a break of a few days it didn't matter, because I knew I could easily catch up and surpass the word goal I was supposed to be on. This let me know that I am actually very productive.
4. Spewing out writing is bad. The folks over at NaNo argue that it doesn't matter what you write - it matters how much you write. And they also argue it's good to get it down on paper. Maybe so, and yes it does feel sort of good knowing that stashed away on my PC I have 20k words of the beginning of a novel. But I picked an idea I didn't really care about, which was probably something that factored into why my writing this time around felt so flabby. I certainly daren't go back to read it and I won't be editing it - because it also feels terrible knowing that I wrote a lot, but it's all... crap. It's probably the most boring thing you could ever read.
5. NaNo has pros and cons. As my concluding point I'll say obviously NaNo produces good results and bad ones. While I like that it encourages me to write every day, it also encourages me to write badly. I like that it frees me of forcing myself to write absolutely perfectly the first time, which removes a lot of pressure, but I hate that this in turn makes me type out utter pulp.

I think in the near future I'll possibly attempt it again - if I ever find the time and motivation. It's something I'd love to achieve, but for the most part I can say if I ever give up again it won't really be giving up - it's simply because my interest has waned. The one thing I definitely found out is that NaNo is actually pretty boring, and perhaps that's something I have to consider when sticking with an idea for 80k + words.

No plot? Nasty problem!

Actually I do have a plot so now I don't have a problem. I've finally decided on something to write about for this year's NaNo challenge. It's a fairly character-driven and altogether involved story. I had a few doubts about whether I really wanted to write something that I'd written on previous years - as much as I like the other ideas I have, they're stagnant at the moment for me. I love them to pieces but I've worked on them so much for so long it's nicer to have a breath of fresh air - a totally new setting and plot, to the two I've worked on for the past two years including NaNo Novembers.

Saying that though, the plot and setting isn't exactly fresh. It's based loosely on something I've written out a plot for before. But the reworked setting doesn't quite fit with the plot anymore, so it's still new and exciting. It also draws inspiration from science fiction like V for Vendetta, Blade Runner, Fallout and Watchmen in terms of theme and setting, and 'feel'. It's not got anything futuristic about it but instead it's sort of Alternate Universe, so that'll be interesting.

I worked on it with Nat, because I decided that I needed someone to bounce ideas off. And she'd the same idea, really, because Nat herself had been stuck for ideas or not really wanted to resurrect something already planned. Recycling old characters is something I don't mind doing and we're working off basically the same plots and setting just from different angles and viewpoints of said characters. I think it's going to be an interesting venture; the same story told from a slew of different perspectives, with all characters having a part to play in the 'grand scheme of things' and some events in their timelines tying in with other events for other characters.

Unfortunately my description probably makes it sound really complicated, and I'd love to post some kind of a summary about it, but right now there's not a definite one. I'm going to settle on one when I update my NaNo profile itself but for the moment I can't, as the site is being re-worked over the weekend and if I made any profile changes until Monday they would all be lost tomorrow.

I'll see how proper planning works out for reaching my word goal of 50k this year. I usually do some thinking during October but I feel properly prepared this time around and I'm hoping it will make a difference to my word production rate. 22 days to go!

Good Morning Starshine!

This being the first post in my new blog, I should probably set about telling the world what it's purpose is. Ink Blots is solely for everything writing related that I create or want to blog about; whether I'm ranting that I'm having writer's block, or a particular word just won't come to me, even if I've had the most brilliant idea, perhaps I have some extract I'm proud of to share with everybody. Whatever it is, it goes here. I realised that I don't really use my regular blog very much; and when I do I write, sometimes, quite a bit about writing itself. I admit that I haven't focussed much on my writing for the past two years - exams, study and exams have been the downfall of this particular past-time. I began to fear, mid-college year around April/May time, that my creative writing would or already HAD stagnated due to the way I've been moulding my writing to essay form, for whatever subject it's on. I was proud of my writing style; I always had been, it always effortlessly sounded like I'd written it when I read it back to myself. I don't want to lose that, and for that reason I started blogging again.

Well, with NaNoWriMo 2011 just around the corner (23 days, 21 hours!) I've decided that no matter how tired, grumpy, lose-the-will-to-live I get, I'm going to write my 50k of words this year. Every year, I fall down around the 12k mark. It's usually because I have a roaring good start, writing at least 4k in the first day because I'm so full of gusto. Then I'll write another 1.5k the next day. So I've hit almost 6k in the first three days. Then I think, I can afford to take a break. I'm ahead of where I should be! I fall behind for a few days, make up for it by storming ahead adding another 7k to my total and then... fizzle out. There is a certain point at which you lose interest in a novel you're drivelling out 1.6k words for every day. I know the idea is to get it written, but I always always can't help myself from thinking I'm murdering my plot, my characters, and doing them a disservice by writing utter shit. So clearly I need a change of mindset; NaNo is so that you get something written, no matter how under-developed your characters are, no matter how twisty and loopholed your plot is. It's about writing the words, even if they read back like something a ten-year old would write.