A year already - Some reflections

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The trees are turning red, orange and yellow, their fallen leaves making golden carpets on the ground.  I hum Jeff Wayne's 'Forever Autumn' and wonder where summer went. Oh wait - it was on a Wednesday wasn't it? I remember now, I nearly missed it!


In less than a week it will be my Birthday, I'm an October baby! Even more momentous though is the fact that a year today I made my very first post on Authors Electric.

 What a wonderful supportive Group this is, and I feel so happy and privileged to be a part of it.  I've learnt a lot from reading everyone's monthly post, and although I don't profess to be able to pass on the same level of  knowledge that some of the writers here do, I hope my posts over the past year have at least been interesting.
click here for link to NaNo

In another month it will be National Novel Writing Month again. An insane four weeks of writing furiously with the goal of achieving 50,000 words in thirty days.  I find it a great way to get motivated.  Somehow I seem to work better to a deadline.  I've completed it three times and now have one novel which I'm desperately trying to revise and polish, and another two on the 'back burners'. I really need to get organised and work on revising these stories which are complete but need a lot of polishing  NaNo is great for making one get the words down quickly but of necessity the end result is very rough.  I'm not sure whether I'll be doing NaNo again this year.  I might just use it to finish revising the current WIP. 

Click to go there
Then there is the Festival Of Romance in Bedford in the middle of November.  I'm really looking forward to attending this again, it's not only a spectacular event, now in its second year, but a wonderful opportunity to meet other writers who have previously just been names in an email or on Facebook or the various groups. Thanks to some amazingly hard work by the organisers the event promises to be an even greater success this year and is the nearest I'm ever going to get to attending anything like the American RWA conferences.

 So, onwards and upwards, as they say. It's been an eventful year, what with negotiating the world of electronics self publishing with my story 'Dancing With Fate', originally published with a small American Press, a trip of a lifetime to the States, and some interesting happenings in the horse world in my 'other life'. Now I just need to focus on my writing again, stop 'reflecting' and get on with that darned revision!

You can find out more about Lyn and her books on her  WEBSITE
She also blogs at her own BLOG, and THE AUTHOR ROAST AND TOAST

Comments

Enid Richemont said…
I've never done NaNo, so I'm intrigued - how exactly does it work? How does it keep your nose to the grindstone when you could opt out at any time?

I wrote my first adult novel using a weekly writing class, brainwashing myself into believing I had to get a chapter finished before the next class, and it worked. Not sure I could do it now, though.

Love your cover images.
29 September 2012 at 11:38
Hywela Lyn said…
Hi Enid - actually NaNo works in a similar way to your 'brainwashing'. You sign up and commit to writing something like an average of 1700 words per day until the end of the month. The thing that stops you 'opting out' is (a) you can set up a network of 'buddies' for mutual support (b) you enter your word count each day and if you drop behind there's a neat graph to spur you on to catching up, (c) if you complete at least 50,000 words by midnight on the last day you can paste the novel into their on-line 'verifier' (you get instructions on how to 'code' it first in case you worry about it being stolen, although they promise to erase it as soon as their software has 'verified' the word count.) Once your wordcount is verified, you get a personal certificate which you can print out, a little badge for your site (see my post) and money off offers, plus a 'Create Space' version of your book if you want it. I find it really exciting to see the little bar next to my name growing longer as the wordcount increased. (If you decide to do it, and want to 'buddy' with me, the name I use is WelshDragonLady.) I've just realised I forgot to give a link to Nano, so I'll do that now!

29 September 2012 11:59
29 September 2012 at 12:02
madwippitt said…
Blimey I think I'm doing well if I manage 1000 words a day! Maybe this is what I need to speed myself up!

And Happy Birthday!
29 September 2012 at 17:15
Hywela Lyn said…
Hi Madwippitt

You know it sounds a lot - but it's surprising what one can do in a couple of hours - and its speedwriting, with no editing, or worrying about spelling, grammar etc.
It's just a matter of getting the words down to be edited when NaNo's over. (I use a programme called 'Write Or Die' which is fantastic for keeping you writing!)
30 September 2012 at 00:05
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