Mad Iguana

RL = Real Life

What’s RL @Raine? Relaxation? (Genuine question)

My first – Ang Gal – took 8 years, including false starts, numerous rewrites, and a mid-boggling number of edits. I want this new novel to take no more than 8 months. half that, if I can get a good run at it.

Oh my gosh, well done guys! Hats off to you. Power to your elbows!!

I’m way behind – my family invasion came early and is continuing. On a more positive note, it has made me get going on a completely new novel that I’m reasonably happy with so far. I’m trying something I’ve seen recommended elsewhere and not bothering with chapters (yet). Seems OK for now.

I’m doing a weekend away in mid-January (Dunford…[Read more]

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!

My novella-for-novel crisis is sorted now. I was putting a scene that’s integral to the resolution far too early. There needs to be several tension-building stages that lead up to that scene.
It’s a result of being over-hasty. And it’s a result of not being a ‘planner’.
Trust in your characters to show the way …
Now over 21k and possibilities…[Read more]

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]

@AlanR — it’s not often but it can happen Meg Hunter’s debut, The End We Start From” was only 17,000 or 18,000 words if I remember correctly.

I do have an outline, but it isn’t detailed, and maybe I should have developed it more before starting. I’ll have to stop now, anyway, and fix a couple of plot holes. If I was a true Nano’er, I suppose I would plough on regardless and fix the mess at the end of the month. But I can’t work like that. I see no point in writing that I know will be…[Read more]

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

Thanks for the positive feedback on the title. Still motoring: Just passed 16k. The problem: I’m too far into the plot. Maybe it’s too simple? In danger of being a novella.

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!

Well done on the creative burst @alanr – that must feel good. And I really like that title.

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

@alanr — intriguing title! I like it.

@raine that’s even better – assuming 50k is your target. You’re on track.
Like some others, I can’t write and leave mistakes in. It slows me down, but I’m not concerned. I prefer 25k good words rather than 50k error-riddled ones.

And now I have a title for this supernatural story: The Never Never Item

Thank you everybody! xx

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.