Purple Monster

This years NaNo is based in the Punk’s Universe (as they all have been!) and the initial idea for it occured on a long drive to Bristol but was a construct from a dream I had had. Then I had another dream about six weeks ago and it fitted perfectly though based a few more decades in front of the first story line.

I wrote both ideas out with plot twists and characters and the physics and engineering behind it all. And due to tidying the attic in prep for writing nano up there… I can’t find the note books 🙁

I can remember a lot of it but not all and it is just really infuriating – also I have misplaced the note book where I drew the big extended time lines for the Punk’s Universe. It is so big and complex now that this was an essential move to try and reduce continuity errors and to just keep the plot making sense!

So yeah brilliant start to nano but on the other hand I have managed to get 1000 words written before bedtime and that was with homework and stuff to do as well!

As GothNoWriMo screeches to an end, I realise I have triumphed and failed – I did not make the sort of word counts I have made in the past but I have got 30 K sitting there awaiting editing 🙂 The story itself now has a proper shape and an idea of where it is going!

So midnight comes and NaNoWriMo approaches and I will not be staying up to write – I am exhausted from half term of kid looking after and a book launch including physical party and * gulp * me signing books!

But hopefully tomorrow will see me writing away though I am going to spend most of it out and about with my 8 yr old going to see story tellers (part of my college homework honest!).

As always I am very excited and am hovering around the insane idea of still doing Picture Book Idea Month as well!

So normally I get Jelly Belly jelly beans (except when I was pregnant and nano-ing!) but I have found out that the boss of the company is homo and trans phobic 🙁 And puts vast amounts of his profits into what are essential hate campaigns. This means I will not be getting any for my writing sprints or for Christmas for that matter.

On the plus side it is the season of pumpkins so I shall be making myself lots of roasted seeds and things so it may well work out much better for my health than previous nanos!

This year I am not actually sure how I am going to find time to write my novel O.o for a start I am now at college albeit part time, I still have a hell of a lot to do and a big chunk of it is science writing which may well take up my writing time. On top of that though the baby is now 2 she is full of beans and a lot clingier than her sister was so writing with her around is almost impossible!

Last year I got around this by going on a writing retreat and attending write-ins but the retreats that I can afford and have the time to go on, do not appear to be running this year. Write-ins are going to be trickier to get to as well which sucks 🙁

So basically I am going to drop my expectation and set my goal at 30 K instead of 50 – this is a thousand a day which I can try and write before bed. Me and hubby normally share bedtime story duty but he has volunteered to do all the November ones so I can have that time to sit and write. The main danger is when I have a homework deadline for college – then by common sense the nano novel goes out the window :/

I am tidying the attic at the moment – we moved way more than a year ago and it still isn’t really usable properly as a studio so I am using nanowrimo as an reason to sort it out. I have lots of pictures and postcards and things that I have collected which I am putting up on the walls and on those little clip things you put photos in. These should help as aids to writing – a background world, a character or something more abstract – or at least that is the idea.

My main issue is that I still have no doors on the eaves so it may get quiet cold up there!

Of course if this is the case I still have the desk in the library with a domo monster blanket and easy access to the kitchen and bathroom!

I find writing spaces to be very very important for me – I am finding it increasingly hard to switch off from other things and write at the moment so I need some sort of physical queue that my body can accept as ‘oh ok it’s writing time’.

There is a kettle up there all ready though I still have no water supply so will have to carry a jug up three flights of stairs.

I am taking part in GothNoWriMo this month (gothic novel writing month were the challenge is to write between 30-70 K words in October on a horror theme) – but I am working on something that started out as a flash fiction and has grown into a series that looks like it may well go novel. This is a bit of a cheat as I already have some of it written but it is about a suitably creepy subject that I just thought it was perfect! It is not part of the Punk’s Universe but thought I’d better mention that I am doing it none the less!

You can follow my progress on Black Monster and Magenta Monster.

Also I am as always doing a children’s version of the challenge along side – so I am aiming to spend 30 hrs working on one of my kidlit projects – in this case a picture book of my kids poems called The Little Book of Spoogy Poetry which is having it’s launch party later this month!

And so it is April and April means ScriptFrenzy or Screnzy and I am re-attempting last years project of a Punk graphic novel. I was planning on being a bit more organised for it it this year but having the baby has thrown things a bit of course.

The initial idea had been to do Project FireStrom but i realised that I wanted to cover the Punk’s life so decided to start with the Fall of the Tower of Babel. This also has the added advantage of giving me proper background for the novels which start in the middle of the action.

Last year I started story boarding the graphic novel and didn’t get much further than the first ‘comic’ (my idea was to have 20 page comics which could be stand alone or make up 100 page graphic novels/comic books).

This year I have not done as much prep work as I would have liked so am going to still have to work out things like storyline etc…

Well wish me luck and hopefully some of you guys will be joining in the challenge too 🙂

This is a device that uses electric charge to make hair stay in certain positions – namely the mohawk type style that The Punk prefers. It can be set to different styles and may contain some optronics (optical electronics) as it has a ceramic organic look and feel to it.

Larger version can be used to make sculptures and structures, including buildings.

I love my writing challenges and so will be continuing with them this year though how it will go with a new born I’m not sure!

The next one in February which is WoPoWriMo – this is obviously poetry and so nothing to do with The Punk except last year I found myself writing poetry about the Tudor sisters as I was reading so much about them in research for my nano novel!

Then in April we have Script Frenzy which I’m going to be using as a work an hour a day on the Graphic Novel – this is not really what it is for but as I’m still working on the story board I’m not going to be ready to write the comic book script before hand!

The first week in May is National Write a Picture Book a Day Week – I got fantastic results from this last year! Though I couldn’t do it within the alloted time – I did get 7 picture book stories written 🙂

In the summer there is an editing drive for nano novels so hopefully I’ll be at that stage by then!

October sees GothNoWriMo were you write a gothic novel in a month – I managed this last year and hope to again though it is hard work having it just before Nano!

November is obviously Nano and Picture Book Idea month – I’m hoping not to be editing this time round as that was a brain twister!

Well the novel is not finished – suprise suprise! Never mind I have until November! I am determined to start a new novel for the next nano though as it will be a Punk novel it probably doesn’t really make much difference!

Anyway I hope you all had a good Christmas and I’ll see you in the new year!