NaNoWriMo

I've just finished NaNoWriMo and I'm a winner!

NaNoWriMo stands for National (though it's now International) Novel Writing Month. All around the world, hundreds of thousands of writers sit down on the first day of November and try to write 50 000 words of a novel before the end of the last day of the month. It's a crazy adventure, but you get to connect with others on the forums and there's a great sense of collective support. As long as you finish, you're a winner. (Now that's my kind of competition!)

What you wind up with is not really a novel, of course, but the first draft (or word-dump) of the first 50k words of one. Then you have to finish the first draft and then the real work - editing and rewriting (and rewriting some more) begins. Still, it's a big chunk of words down on the screen and really motivates you to get finished.

It was fascinating to sit back and watch my hands feverishly banging out on the keyboard, and reflect on the process from time to time. Here's what I noticed and learned:

1. It is possible to write, even when you're "blocked" or unmotivated or uninspired. (Who knew?)

2. This is not reallly how I like to write - I like blocks of time for thinking, dreaming, being inspired.

3. I write much faster if I've drafted the chapter ahead in detail.

4. If I'm on a deadline, approach with caution - I might bite!

5. Writers are the most fantastic, generous and supportive community. (I knew this already, but it was great to confirm it.)

6. A pile of sunflower seeds for nibbling saves my fingernails. Sort of.

7. Coffee. (Enough said.)

8. You can write more, and faster, than you ever suspected.

9. Husbands, children, dogs, lightning strikes, workmen and, oh heck - the rest of the world, are not respecters of the creative process.

10. I love writing. Because, stories!

Right, now I'm off to finish this thing I started :)

Rocking Steady

I'm at such an exciting part of the book-publishing process. The publishers (Protea) and I are busy with typesetting Rock Steady, the sequel to Turtle Walk. Hopefully this week we'll get to play around with covers!

I had great fun writing this book - it just flowed and I was able to write quickly. I think it's tighter, funnier and more intense than the first book in the series. Checking the typesetting last week, I had another giggle at some of the parts. I know it's considered "cool" to put down your own work and twist in neurotic agonies about your inadequacies as a writer, but I never aspired to be cool. So I'll go on record as saying I love this book and hope you do too! Like Turtle Walk, it falls into the Young Adult genre, for readers 11 to 15, but I've had readers as young as nine and some way older than teenagers.

It's due to come out in February, and I can't wait. Thank you to all the readers who have told me how much they loved Turtle Walk. One reader said she had read it six times - we writers live for this feedback! A mother approached me in the school parking lot (where I do a lot of waiting and occasionally even some writing) and said her daughter "never read", but had read Turtle Walk after I did a visit and talk to the girls. Now she can't wait for the next book to come out.

Reading has been such an important part of my life - a loyal friend, a reliable comfort, an excellent escape. It is my deepest desire to bring the pleasure of good stories, well-told, to other youngsters - to get them addicted to reading.

Bloody Book Week Masterclass

Me, in full fan mode, with author John Connolly. Picture © Roger Bull for the Bloody Book Week 2012Earlier this month, I had the priviledge of attending a writing masterclass with crime-writing heavyweights John Connolly, Jeffery Deaver, Mark Gimenez and South Africa's own Andrew Brown. The gents were kept on track by the talented and always delightful Mike Nicol - an expert "crimi" writer himself. The class was one of many fabulous events in the Bloody Book Week festival hosted by Radio 702's Jenny Cryws-Williams.

It was such a treat to hear the anecdotes which spark the stories these writers create. GImenez spoke of learning that his Texan senator goes jogging while wearing a gun, and once shot a coyote on a morning run, and how this started his story-neurons firing. Connolly described a touching account of a crime he had covered in his early days as a journalist and how this percolated in his subconscious for years before getting woven into his Charlie Parker stories. Deaver joked about getting his ideas from a farm or the corner store. Andrew Brown has no shortage of material to draw on - he's both a lawyer and a reservist for the South African Police.

What fascinated me most was to hear how different their writing processes are. Deaver researches and then plans and plots meticulously for up to a year, before sitting down to write - quite quickly - his draft. Connolly is more of a pantser than a plotter, and figures out things as he goes along. Deaver says he writes for a particular, researched audience target market - 'I'm a producer of a product.' Connolly has no real reader in mind, but emphasizes the importance of the main character in a series:'In a genre fiction series, the readers' loyalty is to the characters, not the writer'.

Mike Nicol sweats over the choice of his character's names, Connolly lifts them from the obituaries columns in Maine newspapers! Deaver says how important technical accuracy is for his realistic novels. Connolly's novels have a supernatural edge, so perhaps it comes as no suprise that he thinks,"What duty does fiction have to reflect real life? None at all. Fiction is refractive by nature".

All the writers were funny, down-to-earth and approachable. I battled to reconcile the dark, evil, violent and downright scary elements of their stories with men who seemed so normal! They were also so generous with their advice - I left feeling inspired.

It was also great to see, in the audience, a group of eager school kids who had been brought by their teacher to the master class. Wow - what an opportunity for aspiring writers!

Wherever you are, if you have a chance to listen to writers speaking about their craft, sieze it - you'll find it fascinating! From the writer's perspective, it's also wonderful to connect with readers. Never be shy to chat to us or ask us questions - we treasure you :)

Writing and re-writing

My current WIP (work in progress) is a novel for older YA, but I've just hit a hole in the road.

A few months ago, in the grip of fevered inspiration, I dashed off a heart-grabbing scene in which the hero and heroine almost kiss. I knew roughly where in the story it belonged, but now that I've written up to that point and reread what I wrote back then, I can clearly see that the scene no longer fits the heroine's emotional progression.

Aaargh!

Either I need to rewrite the scene (losing much of its punch) to fit her happier state of mind, or I need reorder the whole plot line.

The writing process is supposed to follow an orderly progression: conception (the idea); plotting (the outline); writing, and editing. But for me, the process is rarely that neat or linear. When the muse strikes, I need to get those words down, and worry about how the whole thing fits together later.

Let the cutting and pasting begin...! 

International Short Story Day

On this day before the longest night and shortest day, writers around the world are joining writing "chain-gangs", each of which has 6 writers, composing successive entries in a single relay-written short story.

The sites opened at 08:00 GMT and each team was given a opening sentence and had to wing it from there!

I was the second writer in the Joburg chain gang, based at the delightful Love Books in Melville. First writer, Fiona Snyckers, took the story in a dystopian direction. I've never written in this genre, so it was a challenge fr me - but such fun! I got to invent a few new words and terms.

If you would like to read the story (and vote for our team), go here: http://bit.ly/MwlLNf 

It would be a great idea for teachers to do this in classrooms, don't you think?