No, I'm not doing Nano

 

I recall about a decade ago asking a fellow author who'd been doing the rounds longer than me what this Nanowrimo thing was all about? She patted me gently on the head and explained that it was a thing one did in November, writing as a kind of group activity - inasmuch as writing can ever be a group activity. The aim is fifty thousand words in a month. Spit it out as fast as you can, then edit your little heart out in December.

I tried it once. I tried Camp Nano, too. Camp Nano was useful because I had a good start to a novel but I'd been busy practicing procrastination - and I was good at it. Being in a group, having to report in on daily progress was an incentive and I finished that book. Yay Me.

But really, the way I write doesn't suit the Nano process. I'm not one of these people who writes fast, gets it all down and edits later. I'll write one thousand or so words in a day and the next day, I go back over what I've written and fix it up before proceeding. And in order to be able to proceed, I need a clear vision of what I'm going to write. Sort of practiced the words in my head. So I might not write every day because the words haven't spoken to me.

Actually, in this year of plague I haven't been terribly motivated to write. Some people have shut the real world out and lived in their own creation. I envy them. However, I have made a start on a project, title unknown. And I did a little course in plotting a romance which was great because it forced me to produce detailed outlines of the characters in the book. It was amazing how that brought out ideas and coalesced the plot. So, after I get a little milestone out of the way, I'll go back to it and have a novel out next year.

2021. It's got to be better, doesn't it? 

The book I finished in Camp Nano? That was Retribution.

Tensions simmer on a world where Humans blame Yrmaks for their defeat in a recent war. For Celia Whitley, former head of Imperial Security and director of Humans First, it’s a great place to incite an interspecies war. All it takes is money and weapons – and she can organize both. Revenge over the Yrmaks who murdered her husband will be hers.

Imperial agent Tian Axmar wants Whitley dead – but her boss insists the woman be brought back to face justice. Whitley’s trail had gone cold until Tian, partner Brent Walker, and auralfang, Puss, learn of a stolen cargo of heavy weapons.

Tian and Brent scramble to prevent a war on one world from spilling over to engulf the Empire. But interspecies war is not the only vengeance Whitley wants. Tian, Brent and Puss will need all of their cyborg abilities to prevent the cruelest blow of all.

This novel is the third story starring Brent Walker and Tian Axmar. Like the other Dryden books, it’s a space opera full of action and adventure. And of course it includes Puss.

If you’d like to read a bit more about Princess Amira and Admiral Ul-Mellor, take a look at A Matter of Trust. How Tian and Brent got together is the story in Eye of the Mother. And we first meet Puss in For the Greater Good.

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Or buy from Payhip and get 20% off. Use coupon code G4U677DOVK

On your marks.... set...go

NaNoWriMo is off and running.

I've done a bit of plotting, using Holly Lisle's Plot Clinic. Well... kind of. I know where I'm starting, I know where I'm going next, I have my characters, and I've got a good idea how it's all going to end. At the moment, anyway.

Here's my opening scene, completely unedited.

The woman's body crashed onto the table, then slid to the ground.

What the hell? Time slowed down. Jirra watched the table topple and thump onto the pavement, bouncing once before it stilled. Toreni stood, then knelt beside the body, pressing her fingers to her neck. Chet went into copper mode, extracting her pistol from her shoulder holster, scanning the road and the restaurant. One look at the awning above the table they'd been sitting at gave a clue. The edges of the hole flapped a little.

Jirra shook herself. Toreni was talking to the woman, so she must be still alive. "Should I call an ambo?"

The woman moved, mumbled words which sounded like 'kill'.

Toreni looked up, her gaze calculating. "No."

Running footsteps announced the arrival of the restaurant's proprietor, wide-eyed and shocked. "What happened? I heard a crash." He noticed the fallen woman and sucked in a breath. "Is she all right? Should I call an ambo? The… police?"

The few patrons still inside craned their necks for a view. The only couple who'd been at one of the outside tables had left. Jirra didn't blame them. Nobody on Shar Burk wanted to know about an incident like this if the Sharpos were called.

Chet stepped in, holding up her fake security badge for long enough for him to notice it. "We'll take care of it. Looks like an accident in the hotel." She pointed at the hole in the awning. "No sense involving the police and we can get her to a hospital."

The tension in the manager's shoulders oozed off him. "Yes. Yes. No point in involving the Sh… police."

Toreni was helping the woman to her feet. Jirra noted the expensive cut of her orange gown, now torn and dirty. A ragged cut ran down her left cheek and her face was swollen and bruised.

"We'll settle the bill," Chet said, taking out a credit chip.

The manager waved her away. "No. Consider it done." He smiled. "Do come another time."

Huh. In other words, bugger off quickly before anyone else notices. That suited Jirra. She joined Toreni, helping to balance the woman between them. Jirra caught a hint of perfume mingled with blood and fear. This hadn't been an accident

Misfits 3 is on its way.

 

I'm going to do NaNoWriMo

Goodness me, hasn't the year flown by? It's nearly November and I haven't written a word of fiction all year. Okay, I've accepted I'm not going to be the next JK Rowling, but writing is still a good way for me to keep my brain active, so I'm going to do NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). It's held every November and I've discovered I actually signed up once, way back when I still had a Yahoo email account. Since 2013 my statistics are very even – I achieved exactly zero words every year.

Why have I decided to have a go this year, for real? Because I need the motivation and the discipline. NaNo might help. It might not, too, in which case I've lost nothing.

I had three choices for a suitable project:

• ·         Morgan's Misfits 3, the next story in the Morgan Selwood universe
• ·         Puss in Space 2, carrying on with Brett, Tian and Puss in the Dryden Universe
• ·         Something completely different, with no associated baggage.

I've decided on Misfits 3. I've written up to 10k words on this book in the past, and stalled - more than once. I couldn't get past that point because I ran out of plot. It's time to consign the previous attempts to history and start again. I'm a cross between a plotter and a pantser - I do think even make-it-up-as-you-go types like me need to have at least a route map before writing starts, and I hadn't done that. But this time, I think I've come up with a reasonable plot with plenty of room for disasters and re-starts (AKA plot twists). This description isn't exactly a blurb, and I hope it works as a starting point.

Marisa, last mistress of Governor Soldar, manages to escape alive, if battered and bruised, from an attempt to kill her. She's found wandering dazed and feverish by Toreni, Chet, and Jirra. They recognise her and take her off to their ship. A ship delivering a consignment of X-stream, a new power supplement which will multiply the speed and efficiency of existing engines, has disappeared in transit to the Union's capital planet. Admiral Ravindra suspects a leak in Fleet's security service has led to the disappearance, so he hands the task of finding the missing vessel and its cargo to Morgan's Misfits. Governor Soldar, dictator of Shar Burk space station, is at the top of the list of Ravindra's suspects. If he receives the X-stream the worst pirate fleets in controlled space will be super charged. Marisa may well be useful to the ladies, providing them with information about Soldar that on-one else would know.

While the ladies are chasing a missing ship, that bounty hunter who has been after Jirra since she refused to marry the man her father picked for her has reappeared. I'll bring that situation to a close in this book.

By the way, parts of the writing I did before will show up in the story - just not in the form it was in when I wrote it.

I'll let you know how I progress. You'll find me at the NanoWriMo site as GretavdR.