Typically these Writing Months (or WriMo’s if you’re hipper than me) are for getting that damn manuscript finished. Fifty thousand is a decent chunk of words, and in a thirty-day month like June, comes to about seventeen hundred words per day.

Shouldn’t be too hard then.

I’ve already broken rule number one – use this WriMo to work on one manuscript. Yesterday I did that, but today I finished off a short story final draft instead. So now the word count is up there slightly ahead of schedule (4,037 since you ask) but only 1,100 of those are on the manuscript. Sigh.

Still writing being distracted by other writing is better than writing being distracted by anything else. Right?

If you find it hard to get started in writing, it’s because doing almost anything else is preferable. Writers write only when the urge to write overcomes the urge to do something, anything else. Some well-known writer said something along those lines.

Here’s Cory Doctorow on writing in an age seemingly built of distractions: http://www.locusmag.com/Features/2009/01/cory-doctorow-writing-in-age-of.html

I was not happy with the ending, and neither was anyone who read it. I took all the other comments on the story, put them to one side, and mulled over the ending. It needed changing, no doubt about that. I mulled some more. But what to?

As of a few days ago, I know what to. But six years? Seems a bit extreme. When you’re having a problem with a piece of writing it’s a good idea to put it away, work on something else. It will come. It’s not important if you start a story and them stop writing it for a while. What is important is that you keep writing.

I remain glad I entered the QWC Writing Race though. Held at their soon-to-be-old venue, there were twenty writers in a room, feverishly hammering away on their keyboards. I found this very motivating. All those keyboards being tapped away, I couldn’t resist adding my own tapping to the noise. Two hours and three and a half thousand words later and I had found a new hobby. Writing racing!

I didn’t come first (third overall in word count I think) but I had great fun, and started a whole new manuscript, ready to take over when Blood Crossing is doing the rounds. Which is nice.

Out of this experience I can only say – writing can be a solitary activity, but it doesn’t have to be. Give writing with others a go, not a collaborative work, just writing next to one another. You might find it motivating too.

You don’t need to craft the best line ever seen in the English language, you just need to raise the reader’s interest. Get them early.

Four books plucked from my bookshelf yield the following first sentences:

“She had been running for four days now, a harum-scarum tumbling flight through passages and tunnels.” Neil Gaiman, Neverwhere.

“The Druid stood in the doorway, as still as a figure carven in dark stone, watching the riders come up the hill.” Juliet Marillier, The Dark Mirror.

“I had been making the rounds of the Sacrifice Poles the day we heard my brother had escaped.” Iain Banks, The Wasp Factory.

“The Deliverator belongs to an elite order, a hallowed subcategory.” Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash.

At first glance, there’s not a lot in common there. However in all cases, these first sentences set a scene, and introduce either the main point-of-view character or prime mover of the story. In addition, each one sets a scene – a desperate chase, a druid’s house on a hill. Each poses a question, such as “escaped from where?” or “who is the Deliverator?” Each draws you into the story while also carrying you through to the next line.

All this in a few short words. Your first sentence doesn’t need to be a paragraph to get things started. Start with what is important to the story as it starts, and take it form there.

My current draft begins with “It was the last day of Danny Sangford’s life, but not the final day of his existence.” I think I still have some work to do.

Happy writing!

There’s a lot being said, so I’ll link to it here:

Ashley Grayson Literary Agency
Ripping Ozzie Reads
Jackie Kessler
John Scalzi

The rule is that money flows from a publisher to an author. If it’s the other way around, they are not a publisher and you are not an author.

Be an author, don’t be a sucker.

My two favourites:
Conquer Procrastination …write EVERY day
Don’t ignore SCENE STRUCTURE … In each scene, state the Character’s motivation upfront, Show opposition through another Character … Develop Conflict/Struggle climaxing with a Disastrous/ climactic Ending.

Check out the full article here.

Where do your words come from?
I have no idea, but I would like to take a holiday there.

Where did you grow up and where do you live now?
Ah. Well I grew up in the South of England, but went to school in Scotland. Boarding school. Military boarding school. Now I live about as far away from Scotland as you can get and still be on Earth (where are those Moon colonies?), in Brisbane, Queensland with my wife and 2.4 children. The .4 is the dog.

What’s the first sentence/line of your latest work?
London. The city I was born in, and the city where I became what I am today. I tremble as I enter this city for the first time in a century. This is the city of my failure. I will not fail again!

What piece of writing do you wish you had written?
It would have to be Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson. We should all have a character called Hiro Protagonist.

What are you currently working towards?
Finishing my novel, currently titled Blood Crossing, and seeking agency representation. Plus I have been sucked in to NaNoWriMo.

Complete this sentence: the future of the book is …
… irrelevant to the future of the story, and that’s where my true interest lies. I love my books, but only for the stories they contain, not for the bulky non-water-resistant objects they are. If I find a better storage medium for stories I write and stories I want to keep copies of, I’ll jump to it. Nothing’s come along yet, but I think we’re getting there.

Now to the point. It can be difficult, when writing a novel, to keep track of characters, time passing, and other structural issues. No longer! Justine presents a nifty way of keeping track of such details. I’ve already applied it to my current novel in progress. It helped. Oh how it did help.