Tag: writing a novel

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A Lockdown, Perfect!

carolyncordon

Well, a writer lockdown with writer friends is always a time when good writing has happened in the past, for me. We meet up at our favourite hotel, and all write more of our chosen work, perfect!

Plants as inspiration?

I’m writing a novel at the moment, well that’s the idea anyway. But to be honest, I’m doing a lot more thinking about writing this novel, than actually writing it. If I was at a writer lockdown, I’d be inspired by the others, and get more of that novel written, I think.

But this is not a writer related lockdown, it’s a six day lockdown for all of South Australia, to hopefully halt the spread of the Covid virus. This is a totally different thing. But a lockdown is a lockdown, and if I have to spend six days at home, what to do? Well, I can swap that around and actually spend the six days of Covid lockdown that the government has brought on, and do my best to use those six days actually writing this novel!

I can’t go out anywhere much, and my writing group venue will be closed, and even though the group will be holding an online meeting, I won’t have to spend that time in travel, to get there and back. So I tell myself, Hey, get writing Carolyn! I know my main character, and various other characters in that novel would like a bit of action happening. It must be boring for them, stuck inside my head …

So that’s what I’m going to do, I’m going to do my best to use these six days of lockdown, and I’m going to write more of my novel! There, done – and tomorrow, I will do my best to spend at least a couple of hours writing more of the novel, and increase my word count further!

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November will be Novel month

carolyncordon

I’ve been playing at the idea of being an actual novelist, writing little bits and pieces for this ‘novel’ I’m supposed to be writing. But there’s been more playing at it than actually putting in strong work at actually writing this novel. I’m not happy about that, so have decided November will be the month for me to put my shoulder to the grindstone, and really give it a solid chunk of this novel written.

This ‘novel’ “Winds of Death At Talloola” is to be the first in a series of Cosy Murder Mystery novels, all based in/or around the town of Talloola. Talloola is a town I’m created for this novel series, and while I love this town and the people living in it, the actual writing of the first novel is taking its sweet time to get going.

My laptop keyboard looks different this one, but both are capable of assisting in writing a novel!

But I’ve decided today, that in November, I am going to make sure my novel progresses at a fast rate than it has been, and to make sure that happens I will post my word count in a comment on this post every day if it is at all possible to do that. And barring unconsciousness, it should be possible!

So, I hereby declare November to be the month the first in the series of “At Talloola” books gets much closer to the end of the novel than it is to the beginning. At the moment, with a word count of around 20,000 words, I am around 30,000 words away from an acceptable word count. This novel should be around 80,000 words by the time I type ‘The End’.

I did a tiny bit of maths, and it looks like I need to do an average of around 1,000 words a day to get to where I want to be, and I’m sure I’m able to do that. I just need to sit down and write, a something, no matter how small, every day, and put in some bigger sessions if and when I can. If I sit down where I’m sitting right now, at least once a day, which I do, every single day, then I can meet this commitment!

Yes, for me, November is definitely Novel month, and it is also, coincidentally (or not) NaNoWriMo where in November, many people around the world commit to writing a novel (of at least 50,000 words) in the month of November. So if they can all do that, I can meet my own challenge too!

Cozy Mystery

Not One or the Other, but Something Else!

carolyncordon

Deciding to write a novel is a heck of a lot easier than actually writing the novel … I’m very much more comfortable with writing poems. Even writing a collection of poems is much easier than writing a novel.

My most recent poetry collection

With a poetry collection, even if you are writing on a particular theme, each poem is a single thing, while with a novel, you’re working on one big thing, that all joins completely together, to make the whole. With a verse novel, it might feel a bit different, being a combination of the poem plus novel thing. I’ve not written a verse novel, and suspect I’ll need to go back and look at the verse novel I know is in my bookshelves, somewhere, to get a better feel for the differences present, or not, in that particular genre.

But back to the writing of a novel, there is talk about whether a writer is a plotter or a pantser, I just did a quiz to see which of the two it indicated I was. The answer to the quiz though, based on my answers didn’t lend an easy answer, it said I was a hybrid. Maybe that is why I’m not able to get an outline settled on and then the novel written, or the novel just written, and then I’ll work out what I’ve actually done.

This is where the quiz is, if you’d like to give it a try yourself: https://www.writinglaraferrari.com/plotter-or-pantser-quiz

I want my plot, but I want surprises too. And if I actually end up writing something else entirely, well, at least it will be something, a novel, hopefully a novel that is something similar to a Cosy Murder Mystery!

I have an increasing number of people waiting for me to finish writing this novel, so I’d better get back to doing just that, as well as watching this Adelaide Crows football game, that is looking good at the moment, with Crows on 2 goals, 2 points, to Greater Western Sydney on 1 point. Go Crows!

Cozy Mystery, inspiration

Committing to Your Writing Project – One

carolyncordon

Today, I will write more of my novel, a cosy murder mystery featuring the amateur investigator Meredith Webster. I will add at least 500 more words to the first novel in the series today, and will try very hard to do the same every day, until it is all finished in first draft form, then I will have selected others read it, give me feedback, with a view to getting it published.

So, that is my stated commitment, and it is up to me, to get it done, not anyone else, just me. Of course, if other people are a=watching me, and avidly waiting to read this novel, in first draft format, and will be glad to give me feedback, that will be a good encouragement. And while I already have several people lined up for this role, getting feedback on this blog would be awesome to have too!

I’ve never written a full novel before, I have written a lengthy novella though, and I have several published poetry collections, a school reader, and three amusing books about a dog named Buster. I have read many cost murder mysteries, and enjoy them immensely when they are well done. I’ve got characters, a setting, and many ideas about the town and some of the possibilities for murder there, with potential book titles.

Talloola looks a bit like this town …

I am ready for this, all I need to do is to get the first book written. Simple? No, not really. I am letting myself get too distracted by too many other, non-novel things. So that’s why I’m putting the word up here, where others can read it,and I hope give me a nudge if I don’t report back regularly with an ever increasing word count!

At the moment, the word count is at 6,249 words, so by the time I go to bed tonight, there must be at least 6,749 words. If I get more words written than that, that will be great, but I won’t allow myself to count those extra words for the next day, I will work on writing another 500 words, every day, with maybe a day off, every now and then.

So if you are a writer, and have a particular writing project that you really want to get done, then committing to it, planning it and actually writing it is important. Life at the moment for us all, I think is different, many are in lock in mode, because of the Covid 19 virus. And this means we have far more time at home than is usual. So without making light of the real deaths that have happened, it is a time we can use to work on that writing project, and find something good, amongst the bad.

So, that is what I will do, ‘Meredith’ and I will work on “Winds of Death At Talloola”, finding out who the killer is, and getting them jailed for their crimes! I look forward to you all helping me! I aim to check back every week with a new and much bigger word count. Are you going to be on the team to help me get this done? Leave a comment if you are, and it will happen!

Writing

Working at Becoming a Novelist

carolyncordon

I have just begun looking at my “At Talloola” Cosy Murder Mystery series again, after leaving it and doing something quite different recently. I broke my ankle at the end of September last year, and my head was not interested in cozy mysteries, it was interested in my ankle. So instead of murders in a little village, I was writing poems about my broken ankle and related things.

Now though, now that ankle book, a poetry chap book is written, having 21 poems about my ankle. It is called ‘Angles on Ankles’, and is available from the publisher, Ginninderra Press, here.  I launched this book recently, and sold some copies, and have more copies available for sale ($5, plus postage) by simply asking me about it, in a comment.

So that poetry book is written now, so it’s time to get back to working at becoming a published novelist! The “At Talloola” Cozy Murder Mystery series is one avenue toward becoming a novelist, for sure, and I have several people who are wanting me to get on with that project, because they want to read them! I have to admit, I do too!

I also have another option though, a book that is already written, and here on my laptop, the first draft of a novel I began and finished quite a few years ago. I lost contact with that book, then discovered it again, sitting on our family PC, as if calmly waiting for me to be in the mood for it.

Once I found it, I did some word on it on my lap top, tidying up somethings, and working more on the story line, and ending. Then other things happened, and I left that one alone too, until now. So I have a bit of a quandary, which novel project do I run with? One stand alone novel, or a series of many Cozy Murder Mysteries, all with the same base cast of characters, and which I’ve begun doing a bit of work on.

I’m not sure, but I keep thinking there’s no need to choose which, I can do all of it, surely? Haha, of course I can, I am invincible! No I’m not, I’m an ideas person, but also a procrastinator … But my writing group is having a writers lock in, in just over a week, and that will give my several hours to put some good and steady work in on whichever I choose to work on.

I’m also without a car at the moment, so am basically stuck at home, mostly. So no excuses for not writing. So, I’ve sent the first chapter of the second book in my mystery series to a friend, because he asked to see it, and he liked it, so that’s another person wanting it.

But that novel in first draft stage, it’s been waiting for me to get on with it for about ten years, one little novel, already there in an early version stage, I can perhaps concentrate on that until the lock in? Maybe. I can at least spend a couple of hours on it today, perhaps to see what I actually have, and where it needs to go from now …

Yes, that feels like the best way, and if after putting this time in today, I decide I’m not that interested in it anymore, so be it, it can go on waiting. But that main character, and the others are still wandering around in my head, at the back, just reminding me now and then, that we’ve all had good times, getting the novel going, and plotted, and planned, and then written!

Yes, there are things that need fixing, but it’s there ready and waiting, and Laani and the other characters have been waiting for a long time. So that’s it, finish off this post, and get working on my novel, “An Ethical Dilemma”. I’m reading the book again, for the first time for some time.