NANO fail? Not really...

At the start of Nanowrimo I announced I would be partaking in the "Chocolate Frog Challenge" - one chocolate frog would perish for every 5000 words written.

At the end of Nano three frogs lived to tell the tale of an apparent Nano fail... Or is it?

The surviving frogs...

On Day 1 of Nano, I sat down with a premise, a couple of characters, a bit of a world build and an opening chapter. I could have frozen there and then but I stuffed the internal editor into a box with a brick on the lid and let the creativity go. A whole new world began to unfold for me as new characters jumped on to the page and  Singapore in 1910, almost unrecognisable from the modern, bustling city state, began to emerge.

Harriet World

It was inevitable that I had to pause now and then for research. As the characters came alive, I needed to know the city they were moving around. A fruitless search for a contemporaneous street map of Singapore ensued and I had to make do with a modern map and bits and pieces of older maps...and my own memory. I lived in Singapore for three years in the early "noughties" and as I dug through my notes and photographs, it was almost as if I had been subliminally challenging this un-yet-thought-about story. The result is a "Harriet World" on my cupboard door.


Then there was Scrivener...if I have not extolled the virtues of the love of my life, then that is probably a post for another day. I wrote directly into Scrivener, scene by scene, using a different colour label for the POV of my protagonists so I now have a lovely long colourful list of scenes. I set up character cards for each character as they entered stage left, grouping them in folders according to where they fitted. I have a folder labelled "Corpses".

Likewise the research - every little tit bit of research got squirrelled away in the Research and Locations folders and the best thing of all is that if there should be more Harriet books, I can save the information as a template and move it from book to book, adding to it as I go. I LOVE Scrivener.

I stalled at 37,000 words with maybe 5 or 6 scenes left to go before "The End". Why? I hit the last week of November and it was like hitting a brick wall. What is it with the last week of November? It's as if everyone wants to cram everything in to it, in the anticipation of December being busy. I had work, I had late meetings, I had daytime meetings, I had social events...I had no time to write...and so the 30 November rolled around leaving Harriet Rough Draft #1 unfinished so tantalisingly close to the denouement (but thanks to the magic of Scrivener there are cards with the concepts for the last few scenes scribbled on them so I wouldn't forget what came next).

Nano fail? Absolutely not! It was never really about writing 50,000 words or finishing a book - I already knew I could do that. What I have proved to myself...

• I have most of the rough draft for a book I thought I would never have the courage to write;
• I proved I could write a mystery while remaining a "pantser";
• I have established a world that is just screaming for some more stories to be written;
• I proved I COULD write the rough draft to a story in just 30 days!

What's more, I have characters I love, a setting that is just speaking to me and a fierce desire to finish Harriet #1 and move on to Harriet #2....

So thank you Nanowrimo, I will probably be back next year.

The author in Harriet mode...the Pith helmet arrived at the start of Nano

 PS The remaining frogs were put out of their misery on the completion of Nanowrimo

HOW DID NANOWRIMO GO FOR YOU?

The Chocolate Frog Challenge - Preparing for NaNoWriMo

This is a Chocolate Frog. Not just any chocolate frog...This is a Haigh's Dark Chocolate Peppermint Frog and  let me tell you he is delicious!

This is the first year I have signed up for National Novel Writing Month. It runs from 1 - 30 November every year and the rules are simple - You must write 50,000 words of fiction by midnight on 30 November. That's words of NEW fiction. 

Now I've looked at my diary. I have days when I attend a place of paid employment and other days with 'huge commitement' written all over them. To accomplish 50,000 words I need to average 2500 words a day. Holy excess of words, Batman!

Now you might think because I am a published writer, that I don't need a challenge like NaNoWriMo but take it from me, I am:
a) the world's slowest writer and
b) the world's greatest procrastinator.  (Social media is the worst thing that ever happened to me...)

So these are my NaNo commitments.

• There is to be no more than 1.5 hours internet time in total per day...that includes checking and responding to emails, writing blogs, Facebook etc. etc. In other words the "business" and the "busyness" of my writing life MUST  be conducted in that time frame. I anticipate 1/2 hour in the morning, 1/2 hour at lunch and 1/2 hour in the evening.
• If in the course of my writing, I encounter a research problem, it is to be passed over with a "Check this fact". Blockages are to be met with "more stuff here". 
• There is to be no playing of Spider Solitaire.

So what am I hoping to accomplish? 

It's time to start something new  and at the end of November I hope to have the rough draft of a new story...the first in a series of mysteries set in early twentieth century Singapore - the Harriet Gordon mysteries. I've done the world building for Harriet so now all I need to do is start telling her story.  

Harriet leaped out of a 1903 copy of The Straits Times I was perusing in the Singapore Library. There in the classifieds I found the following advertisement...

“Shorthand and Typewriting. An Englishwoman undertakes casual work as a stenographer and typist. From Monday to Friday after 5.30pm daily. On Sunday after 3pm. She guarantees rapid and careful work together with ABSOLUTE SECRECY..."

How could I not write a story around that???

Harriet Gordon

Meet Harriet Gordon...stenographer, typist and possibly - amateur sleuth.

So back to my chocolate frogs.  My froggie has 9 little friends. That is one chocolate frog for every 5000 words I complete in the NaNoWriMo Challenge! Here they all are.

So to keep myself honest, I thought I would bore you all with my progress over the next 4 weeks with a weekly frog count. Like Agatha Christie's "Ten Little Indians"...my hope is they will gradually disappear until by 30 November there are no little frogs!

(NOTE TO SELF:  Schedule regular exercise into NaNoWriMo to work off the evil influences of the chocolate frogs!)

If there are any other NaNoWriMo participants reading this post...what are your plans for keeping yourself on track?