Christina Hollis: Creative Writing To Order—NaNoWriMo 2014

I love writing romance (you can find some of my titles here) but I also enjoy reading Ian Rankin's crime fiction and the Montalbano stories by Andrea Camilleri. For quite a while, I've had a couple of characters in mind whose backgrounds are a bit too close to my own to make them a good fit for a romance.

I've never had time to give these characters the space they need to develop. Then along came a Romantic Novelists' Association Workshop, organised by Ann Ankers of the Marcher Chapter. There was a call for samples of work-in-progress, but as I'd just turned in a book and hadn't  started writing my next romance, I didn't have anything to hand. With the requirement of only a few pages, this workshop felt like the ideal place to try out something new, so I produced the first few pages of a—what? Crime, or thriller? The sample was so short I wasn't sure how the story would develop, but everyone at the workshop loved the sample opening. That made the project worth pursuing. There's nothing like the response of readers to improve a writer's work, so I was happy to take their suggestions for improvement on board, and start thinking about a plot to ensnare my two unusual suspects.

My Next Release, from Wild Rose Press

I like to work within a framework of targets and deadlines, and it just so happened NaNoWriMo 2014 was about to kick off. I signed up. It gave me the chance—or is it the excuse? ;) —to put everything else aside, and concentrate on producing a rough first draft of this new work in progress over the thirty days of November.

We're just about half-way through November now, and I'm currently forty-seven percent of the way toward the fifty-thousand word target set down by the NaNoWriMo organisers. It's been hard work, but definitely worthwhile. Plotting my word-count progress in public on the site is pretty scary, but it also acts as a great spur. The sense of achievement is amazing!

The best thing of all is, whether or not I qualify at the end as a NaNoWriMo winner, I'll have the basic structure of my story in place. I can build on that. It's so much easier to edit, rework and rewrite text than it is to start from cold, with the equivalent of a blank sheet of paper.

Writing is all about turning castles in the air into a real story world. Have you ever taken part in NaNoWriMo? How did you get on? You can follow the progress of my current writing project by hitting the "Like" button on my new Facebook Author page, here.

Christina Hollis writes both contemporary and historical fiction–when she isn't cooking, gardening or beekeeping. Her books have been translated into over a dozen different languages, and she’s sold nearly three million books worldwide. You can catch up with her at http://www.christinahollis.blogspot.com,on Twitter and Facebook, and see a full list of her published books at http://www.christinahollis.com Her next release, His Majesty's Secret Passion, will be released in early 2015. 

Only a week left to Nano - eeeek! By Natalie Anderson

I can't believe it's the 23rd of November already - ummm, like HOW??? I've no idea how the month has just fled ahead of me like this... and of course, there's that Nanowrimo challenge... anyone else thinking 'oops' about that?

Actually my nano challenge is more a personal one rather than the official 50k in 30 days - I've a deadline in December and thought I'd join in on the passion and sense of community in the Nano world and get my draft done. I do love the sense of spirit and togetherness - it's a crazy fun challenge and awesome achievement.

I started off okay - but then four days into it my editor and I discussed where the story was going... and really, it wasn't going any place good. Day five = new story. Much more fun story. So much more fun to write (which is the point for me!) and I was off...

But of course, as is often the way, there were then a few family challenges and I just haven't gotten the word count on the paper as high as I should (but the story is still a LOT of fun - yay!). Anyway, the likelihood of my getting to 50k by the 30th is pretty remote. But that's okay - I'll have almost finished and I'll certainly finish (and polish) ahead of my deadline. And then it'll be Christmas! Hmmm - not sure when I'll get organised for that one, but 'she'll be right' as we say in Kiwiland...

But to my way of thinking, there's no 'failure' in nano - not if you're writing more, or writing more often, than what you were when the month started. If you're now in the habit of writing daily (and you weren't before) then in some ways that's a better result than actually finishing your book. The key is just to keep going beyond the end of the month.

So, are many of you out there participating in the Nanowrimo challenge? If so, how are you getting on??? Remember - no panicking allowed - only grit ;) There are still seven whole days - and if you really wanted to 'win' the challenge proper and you've got a blank page, then you 'only' have to write 7143 words a day - easy peasy!

Or not. Either way, I do hope you're having a blast writing your book - if you're passionate about it, then your readers will get that vibe from the page. And in romance, we want passion!

Natalie's latest book, CAUGHT ON CAMERA WITH THE CEO is out in the US in DEcember. To win a signed copy of it together with the second story in the duo - REBEL WITH A CAUSE - and some choccie and charms in time for the party season, then head to her Facebook Page by November 30.