Huge Thanks!

The last time I checked the total copies of Of Lights and Shadows that had been downloaded was 96! I haven't checked back to see if the number has risen, but I just want to say thank you to everyone who downloaded a copy! I don't know whether people reading my book read this blog, or whether people reading this blog have read my book, but hopefully some of you do both! So thank you all. I know this blog post will show up on my Amazon.com page so people visiting it will see this.

It was a great pleasure to write the book, and I'm really pleased with it, so I hope you all enjoy it. And if it's not too much to ask, I would love it if you all left a review on the Amazon page. It would let others see what you thought and it would let me see what you thought. If there are problems with it I would love to hear them. And if it is just praise then I would love to read that too!

3rd Time Winner of NaNoWriMo (bow to me)

That's right folks, gather around to pat me on the back and congratulate me, I have completed NaNoWriMo for the third time. Wow, this year was an education, it was so completely different to the other years I entered.

Let me tell you a little bit of why.

As with previous years I had an idea for this NaNo, I had characters, a setting, a thin, vague plot of what I wanted the characters to do, and that was about it. Before starting I saw that the plot was thin, but it didn't worry me. I thought, I can do it anyway. But the moment I started writing on the 1st I noticed how extremely thin the plot really was. I mean, it was so thin I could see through to the other side. I had the idea, but I had no idea how to get to any of the points I had thought up.

This was because of a lack of planning on my part. I do not regret this, more than half of NaNoWriMo is made up of Pantsers anyway. If they can enter NaNo without a single idea of what to write about and come out the other side with a shiny novel then I can enter with a tiny plan and still come out the other end.

So throughout the first week there was a lot of brain storming, and writing random scenes, week two was a copy of week one with even more random scenes, and week three was writing random scenes and filling out previous ones in order to reach the word count.

This is the first novel I have ever begun to write where I didn't write everything in the order it happens in the book. In this story I wrote scenes that were interesting, leaving the ones that I found boring or too hard to work out where they were supposed to go, first. In my plan of order I will rewrite what I have, edit, then begin stitching the scenes together. It's a big job and that will begin on the 1st of December. Or some time in December. If I can rewrite it all before January then that gives me the whole of the new year for finishing the book.

Among the things that made this month interesting and different was that I worked two full days a weekend. That was, I think, 6 days where I couldn't write at all so I had to push myself to being ahead of the word count for at least three days so by the time the weekend was over I was still ahead.

Also, with my previous novels because I had a clear plan in mind I was ahead all the way through. With this story, however, some days I only just reached the count and went over it. This was a lot more fun because it was more stressful. I spent more hours on the computer really battling with myself to get words down that I had no idea I had.

Next year is too far away to think about, and by next year I mean next November, but I can't wait to go through another wild NaNoWriMo. Who knows how different it will end up being compared to the last three. Who knows what will change. Whatever happens, I'm already looking forward to it. We shall face it when it comes. I'll leave that story for another day.

Okay, it hasn't been a week...

In actual fact it's been 13 days? Well over a week anyway since my last update and when I said I would update. I have no excuse, I was perfectly aware that I said I would update and yet I didn't. It was just pure laze. But here we go...

• Day 5: Final word count for the day was 10,080
• Day 6: 12,419 (2,339 words written)
• Day 7: 14,661 (2,242 words written)
• Day 8: 15,115 (454 words written)
• Day 9: 15,550 (435 words written)
• Day 10: 20,183 (4,633 words written)
• Day 11: 22,335 (2,152 words written)
• Day 12: 25,076 (2,741 words written)
• Day 13: 25,076 (0 words written)
• Day 14: 28,373 (3,297 words written)
• Day 15: 28,373 (0 words written)
• Day 16: 28,373 (0 words written)
• Day 17: 31,365 (2,992 words written)
• Day 18: ?

As you can see I had some fun days of writing. 3 days where I didn't write a single word and 2 days where I didn't even reach 500 words.But I made up for each of those *failed* days by writing almost double what I should have been writing each day. I can explain the days were I hardly wrote anything, I was at work at for most of the day and didn't have time to write. Day 18 is fixed with a question mark because I haven't begun to write yet.

At the current moment my story is seeming kind of slow. I hit 30k yesterday and it kind of feels like I've spent the whole time making my characters raid a kitchen for a cake. I know that's not true, that only took one chapter to accomplish and there were a couple where I discussed the lay of the land, introduced multiple characters and started the main plot. I also began writing out of order. I normally write my stories in order of Point A to Point B and so on. But because of the way my story is turning out I'm writing Point A to Point B to Point D before cutting back to Point C for a couple of line and then Jumping to J, and so forth...

I'm still not sure about the characters. I don't like them as much as I do the ones in my previous books. I just haven't connected, and I don't think that's a good thing. If you are not connected to your characters, they are not connected to you. You don't share the same views on subjects, and instead of them offering their own personal input to where the story can go, they leave it up to you and it feels like you're forcing everything forwards.

I hate that feeling. But maybe it's just the month? This time last year I had hit 50k and was pushing onwards to 75k. Anyway. I still think the idea of the story is sound, but I'm not the best writer to tackle such an idea. I can't wait until the month if over so that I can look at the story in a new light and think about editing it.

So! I promised the Forward of my novel. In its very first rough draft, here it is:

Forward.

The first words are not the first words at all. When one asks what is the first word of a book, people begin to think and have already thunk for years that they mean the first word of the first sentence in the first chapter. For example *The*. *The* is the first word. In actual fact you are wrong. The first word is often the first word in a title, maybe the first in the copy write page. Maybe the book skips all of that to land you straight into the middle of the story. In this case, the first word is the first word in the chapter.

*Forward*. Leading us onwards. This is the first word. And, if I may say so myself, it is far more interesting than the word *The*. That word doesn't leave much to stand on or doesn't really catch attention at all. It is a boring, plain word, that is used so often in story telling or any sort of speech at all that one generally skips over it. Forward, however, grips you. It tells a story. Forward to where? Forward from where? What is wrong with where you are? What is better about where you will go?

All one can really do when one reads that word is to read onwards, which is a word very much like forwards. All your questions will be answered the further you read.

Forwards! To where the tales of many are told, the secrets of princes and commoners laid down in the dust bare to all to see. To each new day beginning with a rising sun no matter where you are and the weather overhead. To each new heartache, sorrow, and joy and gratitude.

Forwards, and one may find peace. Unity from destruction, life from ashes, love... love from the shackles that bind.