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Yay for plots resolving themselves @alanr! Always a good feeling. 🙂

HOw’re other NaNoers doing? I’m on 36k, struggling a bit with days being taken up with RL, but am hoping to make it early next week – before a family invasion!

Fever Dream by Samanta Scweblin is a novella too – although I don’t know the wordcount – and it got shortlisted for the Booker!! I wasn’t her debut in Spain, but I think it was her first translated book.

I think there is more scope for novellas with the smaller presses, but yeah, I think a new writer would find it nigh on impossible to get…[Read more]

I’d guess probably not, Alan! Maybe publishing novellas is something to look forward to once one’s career is established 🙂 Though as they seem mostly to be written by big names such as Hill and Ian McEwan, you probably have to be very established.

Time to make yourself an outline?
Nice work though on the 16k!!!

Hello all!
I thought about doing NaNoWriMo but I don’t have time to write a sentence these days, let alone 50k!
That being said, I need some motivation so I’d love to do a Denizen’s SloMoWriMo – sounds like perfect motivation, and what great people to do it with!

Yes. Great title. Hope the creative/productive jag lasts.

That’s great, @alanr! Hope the flow keeps going. I am in the process of hauling myself over my 25k wall. Getting there, but oof.

Well done @elle. Such a sad little piece, and the bird image is perfect.

Thank you Daeds, I really appreciate it.

I’ve found your nonfic book on the Amberley publishing site and will order a copy forthwith! It’s a while since I read a pilot biog or autobiog and am looking forward to learning about Duncan Menzies.

Yay! Such a beautiful and chilling story…. well done!!

Good to know! Coffman starters are great. Basically using a shotgun cartridge to start an engine, minus the lead shot of course. I don’t just do naval aviation btw, my last nonfic was a biography of a RAF bomber pilot, flying instructor and test pilot before and during WW2. Any technical queries, feel free to ask

Thanks Elle. These are good prompts. I’m very into settings, which I think comes from my previous life as a conservation ecologist – working in some amazing wild places. So I’ve always got to have a strong sense of the natural world that my story takes place in – weather, plants, animals, noises, tides, rock types … yeah maybe I go too far, but…[Read more]

Sounds like you might be doing spider diagrams, Philippa – more poshly called mind mapping I think, but ‘mind mapping’ sounds too abstract for me. Anyhow, I find the technique very helpful. Completely agree with the two ‘touch points’. I need somewhere to head for – that itself is the basis of an idea. Also need to know the main theme before I…[Read more]

That’s really kind of you Daeds. I’m OK at the moment but there could well be something as I still do bits of research as I draft. I promise not to bombard you. My story deals with flying before and during WW2 but I admit I’ve kept naval aviation at arm’s length as something I don’t need to include, at least not in any detail.

You’ve already…[Read more]