Wednesday 26 October 2011

NaNoWriMo and a Photo Competition

I was thinking about an idea for a short story, which was getting quite complicated and then I realised it is NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) in November! So I thought, hey, why not? and signed up. So I'm currently plotting and planning my way to a novel, which will be about climate change in a future independent and fractured Scotland. The aim is to get a 50,000 word first draft completed by the end of November. As someone whose favourite literary forms are haiku and flash fiction this will be a fun challenge! Anyone else signed up for NaNo this year?

Meanwhile Crafty Green Boyfriend has been busy and would appreciate a few votes for his photo in the Friends of the Earth Christmas e-card competition (yes I know it's early!). You can see all the photos on Facebook here - Crafty Green Boyfriend's picture is the robin. You can vote for it by clicking the Like button under his photo. (You need to be a member of Facebook to vote and of course you are at perfect liberty to vote for someone else's photo!)

As ever, text in red contains hyperlins to other websites where you can find out more.

9 comments:

Larry Kollar said...

Wow, good luck to CGB! I don't Facebook just yet, so I can't play.

Much luck to you with NaNo. Just under 1700 words a day isn't that big a deal, but there are days when you'll have to do something else. I'd love to give it a shot, but life won't leave me alone long enough to focus on just writing for a whole month. Your topic sounds fascinating, and you may recall my blog-novel FAR Future touching on similar topics (and until I wrote that, I was a confirmed short-story writer myself). I guess writing a novel could be compared to a bus trip cross-town: if you know the stops and connections you need to make along the way, the rest of the trip takes care of itself.

Carol Steel said...

Best wishes with the novel writing. Good for you!

I voted for CGB. His photo was the most Christmas-y one! Good luck to him as well.

d. moll, l.ac. said...

ok, i voted, i hope he wins, that is such a special photo

Karen M said...

That's a really beautiful photo. Unfortunately, I'm not on facebook.

Good luck with the novel writing. It sounds like a very interesting topic. Every now and then I think I might like to write a book. Generally I get a first chapter, a final paragraph, and then the rest in between doesn't seem important anymore, so it doesn't get written! Best to leave it to the pros like you, I guess.

ashok said...

Good Luck J

RG said...

Good luck on NaNoWriMo. I'm in again - although not officially - but I will stive to write every day for about 1700 words and try to finish what I started last year.

For those commenters having "excuses", NaNoWriMo is the perfect way to get over them - it is not so time consuming, just takes discipline. And there is SO much support and help and advice and training. No excuses!!!!

Anonymous said...

Good luck with the novel (I was thinking about writing a post sea level rising spec fiction novel one day - not doing NaNo though - haha).

Caroline Gill said...

We shall follow your progress with great interest, Juliet. I am full of admiration.

GO FOR IT!

We have just had a fascinating talk here at UCS by Faber novelist, Louise Doughty, on her (non-fiction) book, 'How to Write a Novel in a Year'.

Crafty Green Poet said...

Farfetched - thanks! Yes I do remember your FAR Future posts. You're right, writing 1700 words a day isn't that big a deal. Making it all fit together well and read well is....

Carol - thanks! Yes CGB's photo is the most Christmassy, thanks for voting...

Diana thanks for voting...

Karen - well, this is the first time I've even though about actually writing a novel, so I'm not a pro, particularly given my preference for haiku and the like...

Ashok - thanks

Rabbits Guy - ah, so you'll be writing all November too, what mischief will the bunns be up to then?

Gabrielle - I look forward to your novel one day too then!

Caroline - thanks! Thanks for the links too