Camp NaNoWriMo

Camp NaNoWriMo, basically normal NaNoWriMo but you're on a virtual camp. And it's in April, and you get to set your own writing goals. Just very similar. All fun. I'm doing it this year for the first time, and it is day two. I'm pretty excited for it. My word goal is only 20,000 but that's because I'm using Camp NaNo to finish two of my short stories. The main reason I'm excited is because of the stories, which is always the reason isn't it? I'll get to telling you about those in a minute, first, a little about the camp.

In normal NaNo you get to write with everybody. You're all connected and you can message whoever you want and find out about whoever you want. In Camp NaNo, however, you are placed into Cabins. Cabins are groups of twelve people, yourself included I think, I haven't actually counted to see if I'm included, and those are the only people you get to see. You can message those people in a big chat they have set up where you can see what everyone else posts, and I think you can also privately send people messages if you want. It's really a great idea because this way you can develop a better relationship with your fellow writers if those are the only ones there instead of having a selection of almost a million writers to talk to.

For the Cabins, you can pick to have complete strangers, or you can have a Cabin full of your friends, or a Cabin with some friends and some complete strangers. For this year, seeing as I don't actually know many people on the NaNoWriMo site, I've only got one friend in the Cabin and the other 10 (11?) are total strangers. That is actually cool, in the sense that I'm fine with it, as I like meeting new people. Only online though is it fine as I'm a shy person in real life. And I look forward to getting to know them a lot better in the coming month.

Now, my stories. You can write as many stories as you want and write as many words as you want for NaNoWriMo, so I'm doing two stories. The first story is called 'The World of Mr Green' and it's a fantasy sort of thing set in a little outback town in Western Australia that is run by this mysterious man that has the whole town hypnotised. A girl, Walter Saint-Jean, is a travelling magician who stops by the town to do a show before moving on. That was the plan, somehow for some reason the mysterious man, Mr Green, takes an interest in her and won't let her escape. She takes it upon herself to answer some valuable questions about him, namely, Who is he? What is he? and How is he?

This story is probably the weirdest I've ever written, not just in the setting and characters, but in the way I'm writing it. The sentence structures are off the roof and off this world. You'll either enjoy reading it, or will cringe dreadfully and drop the book. We shall see.

The second story is called 'Requiem for a Dead Thing' which I'm writing as a play. It's my first play, and it's interesting writing it. It's about this Lord whose son has suddenly died, and so he hires a travelling composer to write a requiem. His two other children, another son and a daughter, think it's a waste of time and try to scare the composer off.

It will probably be a lot more interesting to read than what I just wrote about it, don't worry.

And that's it, I think. I'm still editing 'Of Lights and Shadows' which is going slowly. Too Many Words!!! I don't know when I'll be finished that, or if it will still be published in June. We shall also see about that. There isn't really a problem if I don't publish it this year, it will be published eventually. Either as a normal book or as an e-book.

And that's it. Thanks for reading.
Cheers,
Peter.

Of Lights and Shadows: An Update on my Novel

Since my last blog post I've written another five chapters, five chapters which have drawn me closer and closer toward the end. When I finished the 17th chapter a couple of days ago my book was up to 97,000 words, the most amount of words I've ever written for one story, passing my fantasy novel The Assignment which was only 75,000 words long. Oh how meager that number is faced with the might 97k! It was quite an achievement for me and I'm quite happy with it, and the thing that makes me really happy is that my story isn't finished it. To finish it will take me over 100k, something I'm really looking forward to and just can't wait to accomplish.

I'm not really sure how many chapters I've got left to write in my book, or exactly how many words, but I feel I'm close to the end. It's quite possible that I could wrap it up in another two chapters, three at the most, and with the amount of words I've been trying to write per chapter that will be another 18,000 words. To a person that doesn't write that is an awful lot of words, but after looking at how many I've written already I think it will be a piece of cake.

And just for fun, because I wanted to, I wrote the final line to the story. I'm aware that when I finally reach the end that the line might not fit, or make sense, but I think it's a great line and will be a great finish to the story. If it fits. It's also good to sort of have an outline of the things that will happen in your book when you write one, and having that line writ I know exactly where to work towards.

It's all very exciting stuff, and I've challenged myself to finish the story before the 1st of March. That is, basically, only like one day for me because I have schoolwork to do in the morning which takes up all my morning. I only have two afternoons to write 18,000 words in. The most amount of words I've ever been able to write in a day was 6,000 words, I think. If I write that many a day then I'll have hit 12k, which, if you think about it, and I am thinking about it, might be enough to finish the story. It might even be too many words. I might finish it in less.

If you're not aware, I'm procrastinating by writing this blog post. Procrastination is the bane of all writers. I think I would put it as being worse than writer's block, for the simple reason that with writer's block you have a good excuse at not writing because you are unable to see how the story is to go forward. With procrastination the only thing keeping you from being able to move forward is yourself. And I hate myself for it.

That about wraps up my update on my book, just one more thing before I go. Clicking on the link below will take you to a preview of the first chapter of my novel. If you've been reading this blog then I hope I will have aroused your interest enough in my new book for you to want to check it out. If you do you'll be doing me a huge favour!

https://www.createspace.com/pub/community/demo.review.do?id=1143738

Writing Titles

Titles, depending on who you are and your thoughts on titles, can be very hard things to come up with. Even harder to come up with than the actual chapter, page, or whatever it is that you are writing that needs one. The reason they are harder to come up with is because you need to sum up basically the entire, for me at this moment in writing my story, chapter in something short. You don't want the chapter to be too long, otherwise it just looks funny and you end up giving too much away, but it can be just one word, if the one word fits.

I love titles, it gives you a sense of what is ahead of you in the story. Inviting little tidbits that get you reading ahead to find out what happens in chapters called 'The Jaws of Death', 'Skirmish in India' and 'The Body in the Ice Float'*.

My story, Of Lights and Shadows, is my second one to include chapter titles. I decided I was getting tired of just labeling them as Chapter One, Chapter Two, and so on, so I started naming them. And it has been most fun. I just love coming up with them, it is a challenge sometimes, I will admit, when there just doesn't seem to be anything in the chapter worth mentioning in the title or when you can't come up with a title that has anything to do with the chapter and so on. But in the end it is just so worth it, and, I hope, it adds to the story as well.

So just to get you interested in my story I thought I would post the chapter titles that I have come up with so far for my novel for you all to read. There are 12 chapters so far and I'm still writing the story so more will come, but here is what I have:

While My Baby Silently Sleeps

The Devil in the Deep Blue Suit

Home is Where the Drugs Are

The House of Silence Mourner

Their Kidnapping Consultant

Back in New York City

A Shot in the Night Time

Interviewing the Witnesses

They Shot Him Twice

A Little Touch of Black Mail

Another Clue to Follow On

The Eyes of a Snake

I hope they make you want to read the story just like they make me want to.

-Peter.





*None of those are actual title headings that I am aware of, they were made up on the spot by me.