writing in bed

Sometimes a good idea comes to me just as I’m falling asleep. Usually I don’t have anything to write on except my mobile phone which isn’t ideal. The idea can get too truncated and in the morning I wonder what it means. So now, as Nanowrimo looms nearer, I’ve taken to taking a notebook with me to bed, and just writing any old thing in it. Last night I did this for half an hour and no sudden idea for my nano novel appeared until after I’d turned off the light, got comfortable and warm enough and was really dozy. Then PING. A solution to a nitty gritty problem with my loose idea. Rather than get up to switch the light on I used a maglite and wrote a page of details that I’d be able to use. This is allowed in nanowrimo. You can write notes but not the actual text until Nov 1st. I’m sure some people cheat an awful lot, but I believe in entering into the spirit of the thing properly or not at all.
However, I’m still not sure whether my MC will be male or female, I don’t have a name for them, or a location.
Strangely, I never get the urge to write anything on waking. All I’m interested in is getting a cup of tea, and waking up properly before I have to get the family organised and off to school.
Tea and coffee this year are decaff. I know caffeine is supposed to be good for short term memory but last year I drank so much coffee I was like zebeddee from the magic roundabout. BOING. I went cold turkey with my favourite beverages this spring. Being tanked up on coffee and tea all day isn’t conducive to a good night’s sleep and if you need the day to write, then you should sleep properly. I’m going to rely heavily on bananas and oily fish on toast this november. But not at the same time.

books to read

Ok finally this damn image uploaded properly. If you’re going to do Nanowrimo, then you just HAVE to read this little gem. It’s fun and irreverent, it makes you laugh and it will keep you motivated throughout the month long slog of getting those 50 000 words down on paper, screen, parchment, or whatever your chosen medium. I’ve read it twice. Last year I read it straight after nanowrimo which was a bit odd, but this year I read it at the beginning of October to get myself reaquainted with the madness that is nanowrimo. I will be reading it again at the end of the month, whilst I am on holiday, along with a Julie Myerson novel called Me and The Fat Man, which I am not going to upload an image for.
If you came here via the nano site, and you haven’t yet read a copy of Chris Baty’s book then I strongly recommend that you do. Pinch, borrow, buy or read over someone’s shoulder, just do it, you’ll not regret it and I think it will make you experience of nanowrimo that bit more fun.
If you have dropped in here from outerspace then visit the nano site and see what all the fuss is about.
The next book I want to tell you about is this:
As you can see from the imageof my copy, it has been very well read. I don’t know how many times I have referred to this book over the years. It is a series of essays on writing but you mustn’t let that put you off. David Lodge is an academian and an author and has a very accessible style of writing. Each chapter/essay begins with an excerpt from a well known work of fiction and he then talks about the theme he’s chosen which is relevant to that excerpt. For example, chapter one is all about Beginnings and he uses the opening paragraphs from Jane Austen’s ‘Emma’, and Ford Maddox Ford’s ‘The Good Soldier’.
It’s a book for people who read fiction and a book for people who write fiction. The range of different texts he uses to illustrate and complement his chapters is quite diverse, both classic and modern. You can dip into this book, according to whatever kind of fiction you might be writing or whatever element you might be needing help with, and there’s stuff in there that you might not have considered before as well, which could help breathe new life into a flagging manuscript.
So you’ve got the perfect mixture here, to get you in the mood for Nanowrimo.

candle

In the run up to NaNoWrimo and during the month of november I’ll be making (probably) infrequent posts of varying lengths whenever I feel like procrastinating and jeopardising my daily word count. last year I did a lot of my nano novel on a second hand silver reed tabulator, perfect tool for avoiding procrastination and irritating people next door – the walls are thin thin thin, you can hear them farting, sneezing, coughing, peeing, singing and ehem, on one side. The other side just laugh in a maniacal sort of way at the television which seems to be on all day long. Nice people though, in a simple kind of way. Harmless. Kind to cats. Tidy with their bin. Cruel to rats though, that’s the only thing.
However this year I am adding another tool to my writing kit in the shape of a macbook.