What I’ve Been Up To This Week

As you may already know, I’m not keen on posting the minutiae of my life on the internet. What I do love to do, however, is spread some love for the great things I’ve been listening to, reading and generally enjoying. So, what’s in that list this week?

What I’ve been reading: At the start of the week, I finished Tithe by Holly Black, which was really enjoyable, even though it wasn’t quite what I was expecting. I thought Kaye was a great character and the fey world she was drawn into was fascinating. Now though, I’m reading Night Life by Caitlin Kittredge, what I’d describe as an urban fantasy/supernatural mystery. Well, something like that anyway. The genres within fantasy have always been pretty silly. Anyway, I’ve gone from one feisty heroine to another this week. Luna, the star of Night Life, is a werewolf cop and one of the most engaging, genuinely kick-ass women I’ve come across in fiction in a long time. She don’t take shit from nobody. Ok, enough of the terrible attempt at smack-talking. Suffice to say, I’m really enjoying this book.

What I’ve been listening to: Nothing new, unfortunately. I’ve dug out my Opeth CDs though, after seeing them live last night. Once again, they confirmed why they’re pretty much my favourite band. Mmm, Opeth. Oh, and The Dead Robots’ Society writing podcast. If you’re into writing and podcasts but you haven’t listened to this one yet, you should really give it a go.

What I’ve been working on: I’ve finally started editing my latest novel, so most of my writing time has been spent sat in front of a massive stack of pages, scribbling all over them and generally ripping them apart. There’s something strangely therapeutic about putting a big line through half a page at a time and knowing that you’re never going to have to go back to it again. Other than that, I’ve been making slow progress on another new novel. (I should probably give these code names or something; just saying ‘new novel’ is getting confusing.) So, progress has been made, but it’s slow.

What I’ve been playing: Descent 3. Which is almost 10 years old now, but in terms of flying around and shooting things, it’s still a pretty good game and one which doesn’t make my laptop implode when I try to run it. Plus, I didn’t actually finish it the first time I played it, probably back when it first came out. Hopefully it’ll be second time lucky.

And I think that’s it for now. Word counts will be coming soon, as will some more meaningful posts about the editing process that I’m working my way through. For now though, good luck for the final week if you’re doing NaNoWriMo. And for everyone else… Er, happy last week of November!

Why I’m Not Doing NaNoWriMo

I mentioned in my last post that I’m not doing NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) this year but that it would take a separate post to explain why. So here goes.

I should start by saying that this isn’t going to be a post lashing out at the whole scheme for encouraging people to write crap for a month. I’m of the opinion that pretty much every new writer has to write crap for a while before they improve. Even some great writers probably write crap in their first drafts, before polishing the novel up for publication. The whole point of NaNoWriMo is to get people writing, to give people confidence and to instil a bit of discipline, all of which I think are great aims.

So why no NaNo-ing for me this year? Maybe I should go back a bit.

I first attempted NaNoWriMo in November of 2006. I heard about the whole thing at the last minute and, despite having nothing particular I wanted to write, I decided to give it a go. I failed miserably. I barely got 5000 words written. In my defence, it was my first year at uni, in a new city (the first time I’d lived in a city, in fact), at a time when I was just getting settled in and making new friends. To be honest though, I was pretty lazy and I gave up quicker than I should have done.

A year passed. A year in which I wrote virtually no fiction at all. I barely even read anything that wasn’t required for my course. This lack of writing – and lack of inspiration – left me feeling awful. Writing was the one thing I had remained passionate about my entire life and yet I hadn’t written anything for a year. It was time to take action.

My means of motivating myself to get my arse into my chair was NaNoWriMo. In 2007 I ‘won’: in other words, I wrote just over 50,000 words in 30 days. The novel I wrote was truly terrible and probably the worst thing I’d ever written. I’ve never been back to it and I don’t suppose I ever will. That’s not the point though. The most important thing was that I was writing again and I haven’t really stopped since.

Back to 2008. In the last year, I’ve written numerous bits and pieces and am just coming to the end of a novel that’s taken me less than six months to write. I have a handful of things on the go and I’m writing nearly every day. NaNoWriMo last year gave me all those things I outlined before: discipline, confidence in myself and knowledge that I really can do this. And, as those are all things I’ve managed to retain over the course of the year, I don’t feel the need to participate in NaNo again, at least not for a while. This year, I have a dissertation to write, a degree to finish and probably a job to find come next summer. Most importantly though, I’m still writing.

So, whilst I may not be NaNo-ing this year, I want to wish everyone who is the very best of luck. You’re more than halfway through now. Keep up the good work!

It’s Word Count Time (Again)

Sometimes I think I write just so that I can post one of these little word count thingies on my blog. Then, of course, I remember that there are a whole load of other reasons why I write, but I still love these things. I only wish I could find one that would sit on my desktop and remind me that I should be writing instead of faffing around on the internet. Anyway, progress for the last couple of weeks:

Yes, it’s slow progress but it’s progress nonetheless, for which I am grateful. I’m feeling so braindead at the moment that it’s a relief to get anything at all down. Which is partly why I’m not doing NaNoWriMo this year, but I think that’s going to need a post all to itself…

On a final note, this is indeed a new project that I haven’t mentioned before. I have a tendency to start new things all the time, but the fact that I’ve actually planned out the story from beginning to end this time gives me hope for this one.

The other novel I’ve been blogging about continues slowly, but the word count there has only gone up by 1500  or so words in the past couple of weeks, so it’s nothing to shout about. I will, however, very definitely be shouting when I finish the damn thing! More on that, hopefully, in a future post.

The Books That I Re-read

Throughout my life, I have been an avid reader and yet, when I think about it, I very rarely re-read books. There are, of course, the books I had to read for school. There are a few beginnings to series that I returned to before reading the second book. Other than that though, re-reading is something I rarely do, just as there aren’t many films that I feel compelled to watch more than a couple of times.

So which books do I frequently re-read? There are, I’ve realised, just three:

.

‘Pride and Prejudice’ – Jane Austen

The book that spurred this blog post, as I finished reading it again just last night. It is, of course, a favourite with a great many people. Every time I read it, I’m reminded why. I love the characters, the dialogue, the wit, the misunderstandings and intrigue. I love Mr Darcy almost as much as I love some of my own characters and I probably love Elizabeth Bennett even more. It’s difficult for me to be anything but effusive about this book, despite the fact that romances as a genre doesn’t tempt me very often. Whenever I’m feeling upset or stressed or just in need of hope, this is the book I turn to (and I realise that makes it sound a bit like the Bible!).

.

‘The Lord of the Rings’ – J.R.R. Tolkien

Again, a favourite with millions of people, The Lord of the Rings is the book that got me writing in the first place. I started reading it when I was six, inspired to do so by my mum’s beautiful 1970s special edition (far more attractive than any of the special editions available now, too, which makes me feel terrible when I remember standing on the box it came in when I was a kid). Strangely, the things I love about this book are pretty much the opposite of what I adore in Pride and Prejudice. Here, it’s the epic scale, the locations, the lyrical language and the way I can lose myself in Middle Earth so completely that I feel physical pain when I finish reading and remember that it doesn’t really exist. This is the book that I pick up when I know I have a week or so with not much on, so that I can really be absorbed by it.

.

‘The Etched City’ – K.J. Bishop

This is by far the hardest of the three for me to describe. It’s what I call ‘literary fantasy’, set in an imagined tropical city and following the exploits of a doctor and a killer. It’s surreal, inventive, meandering whilst every little thing seems connected and full of symbolism that I’m still not sure I understand. The characters and setting have inspired much in my own writing, even more so than The Lord of the Rings and it’s a book I return to whenever I want to remind myself of what I’m striving towards. If there’s one book I wish I’d written, it’s The Etched City and it’s the one I recommend whenever I have the opportunity to do so.

.

So, which books do you re-read and what attracts you to pick them up again and again?