tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21777240859784560732024-02-19T05:33:19.474+00:00Sniplings and ScribblebitsA collection of random writings, poems, snippets and scribblings.Mumbletoeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02054628232035000733noreply@blogger.comBlogger96125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2177724085978456073.post-6990023256787688412017-11-02T14:59:00.006+00:002017-11-14T03:08:19.946+00:00NaNoWriMo diary 2017I have sooooo much editing to do, and so many projects to finish... but it's hard to resist NaNoWriMo! The Swindon group do it so well! Look at all these lovely goodies they gave us in the planning meeting! :-)<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX7nsFNWyseBi1w9Ke63ZbWZOwXZ6OR4A7_Gu3On7gmN7R2Vp52SeeXZN2gL7czcNhVq0-m18o-SZR9hQQAXby2nc94cnlJk-tsxQMzz9gYVpGHbKrlcXcMU39qWRqDxbbZrQiYMms0_A/s1600/DNOi66fW4AErR4S.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX7nsFNWyseBi1w9Ke63ZbWZOwXZ6OR4A7_Gu3On7gmN7R2Vp52SeeXZN2gL7czcNhVq0-m18o-SZR9hQQAXby2nc94cnlJk-tsxQMzz9gYVpGHbKrlcXcMU39qWRqDxbbZrQiYMms0_A/s320/DNOi66fW4AErR4S.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Writing prompts, a "motivational monster", and a huge<br />
cup of frothy coffee. Bring it on, NaNoWriMo!</td><td class="tr-caption"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
This post is my NaNo diary for 2017. I'll be updating it throughout November 2017. It'll mostly consist of me moaning about my word count, so you've been warned!
<br />
<br />
If you're a NaNo-er and fancy a new writing buddy, <a href="https://nanowrimo.org/participants/mumbletoes">click here to see my profile on the NaNoWriMo site</a>. We all need more buddies! :-)<br />
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<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><u><b>NaNoWriMo diary 2017
</b></u></span><br />
<br />
<table border="0" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="3" style="background-color: whitesmoke;">
<tbody>
<tr><td><span style="color: #990000;">
1st Nov
</span></td><td style="text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: #990000;">
5,156
</span></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"><span style="color: #0b5394;">
NaNo is off to a good start this year! Some lovely fellow-writer friends put on a Halloween party and then (at the very moment of midnight!) we all started typing like mad! </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Okay, we didn't really "type like mad". In true writer tradition, we all started moaning (like mad) about NaNoWriMo. Writing is a funny old game... it's horrible at the time, but lovely when you're done! A bit like running a marathon - it's just one of those things that's great to look back on and say "I did that". Doing it, however... ugh. </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Anyway, we type-type-typed and typed some more. I hit 500 words before yawns overtook us all. Once home from the party, I stayed up a few hours and managed to hit the daily NaNo target of 1,667 words. It was quite nice waking up on the 1st of November having already done my quota... I might try that again next year! I carried on and managed 5,156 words in total on the first day, which gives me a lovely head start.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">I'm struggling though. So far all I've produced are weird little flash fictions, and it's been very much "blood from a stone" when getting ideas to fall out of my brain. Maybe it's about time I actually started to believe those people who tell me that NaNoWriMo is easier if you plan it first?
</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td><span style="color: #990000;">
2nd Nov
</span></td><td style="text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: #990000;">
11,443</span></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"><span style="color: #0b5394;">Had a bit more luck today! Found some old half-finished novel attempts and added a few more chapters to each. I started a new novel as well: a fun one about God suddenly turning up in a guy's living room and telling him off for being too wimpy to ask someone on a date...</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">"I need you two to get together," says God, while drinking coffee and sitting on the guy's sofa. "Your great-grandkids are very important for the next stage of my plan." </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">So far this new story's turning out to be good fun, so I might stick with it (rather than leaping around to various projects).</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Last year's NaNo was frantic. Several of us raced, and that led me to finish the official NaNo word count in only three and half days. For some daft reason, I thought I'd try to race that record this year... but it's not working! However this insane plan did give me 6,287 words today, so the total is now 11,443. I definitely think this is a good way to do NaNoWriMo: getting ahead in the first few days really does take the pressure off. </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td><span style="color: #990000;">
3rd Nov
</span></td><td style="text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: #990000;">
16,494</span></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"><span style="color: #0b5394;">I'm carrying on with my 'god on the sofa' story for now, because it feels like it has novel-length potential. It's shaping up to be quite a fun story! God's given up trying to get a nervous guy to meet his his soulmate, so is putting pressure on the guy to get him to actually <i>talk</i> to the girl. It's going well so far, but I definitely need to flesh out the protagonist a bit more on the rewrite.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Today's total was 5,051 words which gives me a NaNo total of 16,494.</span><br />
<br /></td></tr>
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<tr><td><span style="color: #990000;">
4th Nov
</span></td><td style="text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: #990000;">
20,317</span></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"><span style="color: #0b5394;">Today was the first Saturday of November which means it was the first NaNo "write-in" day! A gang of local scribblers met in the local library to:<br />
</span><br />
<ol><span style="color: #0b5394;">
<li>write,</li>
<li>motivate each other about writing, </li>
<li>moan about writing,</li>
<li>and generally just try to force some words out of the head and into a manuscript. </li>
</span></ol>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">
Unfortunately, even though these write-in sessions come with the best of intentions, I've got to say they really don't work when it comes to upping the word count! We all sit around chatting over coffee and cake, and very few words get typed. Oops.</span><span style="color: #0b5394;">Maybe I'll get a bit more done if I remember to take my headphones next time.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;">I only managed to get 745 words done by the end of the two hour session, but was later able to push the day's total to 3,823, which has taken me over 20k! Official figure is now 20,317 words, and I'm hoping to hit the NaNo halfway point tomorrow.</span><br />
<br /></td></tr>
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<tr><td><span style="color: #990000;">
5th Nov
</span></td><td style="text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: #990000;">
23,339</span></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"><span style="color: #0b5394;">It was a struggle to get started today, but a late push gave me 3,022 words. I'm still having trouble focusing on one project, but I tend to work that way anyway (not just in writing but in everything!).</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">It's nice to see each of the projects progressing a little further each day. I wrote a few pieces of weird flash fiction to get me warmed up, and then put the rest of the typing effort into an old novel attempt that had been put aside and forgotten about. </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">This 'old novel' is a paranormal romance story... that's a long way from what I usually write, but I'd heard that genre is one that sells very well so I thought I'd give it a try! It's turning out quite corny, (but I think that fits reasonably well with the genre!) and I've thrown in a few vampires and a werewolf just for the hell of it. After all, it's not like a million other writers aren't writing paranormal fiction about vampires and werewolves, right?! </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Total NaNoWriMo word count is now 23,339. Nearly halfway!</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td><span style="color: #990000;">
6th Nov
</span></td><td style="text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: #990000;">
26,472</span></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"><span style="color: #0b5394;">I'm still struggling to force myself to write during the day... but I'm managing to get some done late at night. I've always had problems getting writing done during normal working hours!</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Today gave me another 3,133 words (spread over several different projects) which took me over the halfway point - woohoo! The NaNo total is now 26,472.</span><br />
<br /></td></tr>
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<tr><td><span style="color: #990000;">
7th Nov
</span></td><td style="text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: #990000;">
29,560</span></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"><span style="color: #0b5394;">I was feeling stuck on m</span>y "god on the sofa" story, so <span style="color: #0b5394;">spent most of the day working on random projects instead. </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">The "random" stuff is all in one file. Earlier this year, I filled a single document with a ton of writing prompts, with the idea being that during NaNo I could avoid writers block entirely, because I'd just drop down to the next prompt once I'd run dry on the current one. There are over 500 prompts in the file, so there's plenty to keep me occupied. </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Unfortunately, this file's not working out quite as well as I'd hoped. I'm getting the words down but I'm not convinced any of them will be useful enough to be turned into finished stuff ready for publication. Also, I have to be quite awake to be able to write all these random pieces. Instead of being motivated by a new writing prompt, my sleepy brain is just saying "um, dunno" to most of them, which isn't the idea at all!</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Anyway, words got done, so I guess that's all that really matters for NaNo. I'll inspect the damage in December to see what's salvageable! </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Today gave me </span><span style="color: #0b5394;">3,088 new words, which means the NaNo total is now 29,560. Looking forward to hitting 30k tomorrow!</span><br />
<br /></td></tr>
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<tr><td><span style="color: #990000;">
8th-12th Nov
</span></td><td style="text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: #990000;">
40,024</span></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"><span style="color: #0b5394;">
It's been a right old few days of madness! What with one thing and another (translation: "life getting in the way"), I've really been struggling to get the words done. Every night I've reached 10 or 11pm and had to rush to the keyboard for some panicky typing. It's a silly way to work and I really should have just given myself a break... but somehow I've got it in my head that I have to aim for at least 1,667 words every day.<br />
<br />
Word counts for 8-12th Nov were 1,747, 2,004, 1,671, 1,908 and 3,134 which means I've hit 40k at last. Grand total is 40,024 and I'm currently having daft thoughts of forcing myself to 50k all in one day tomorrow, which is a terrible idea and will almost certainly be ignored.</span><br />
<br /></td></tr>
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<tr><td><span style="color: #990000;">
13th Nov
</span></td><td style="text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: #990000;">
41,775</span></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"><span style="color: #0b5394;">
I knew today was going to be a busy day, so attacked the word count early... and I have to say: WORD SPRINTS ARE AMAZING! Two 15-minute sprints (apparently my brain is capable of concentrating that long!) gave me 800-ish words apiece, so in just half an hour of work I had 1,751 sparkly new words!</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Okay, full disclosure... they weren't particularly sparkly. In fact they're a horrible mess. But they are NEW WORDS! And, because I'm a masochist, I attacked a new scene today (one that I had no idea how to write - and have been worrying about for quite a while) and guess what... it worked! Typing super-fast forced my brain to give me ideas, so I've now written all the way through the tricky bit and have come out the other side with no injuries (apart from possibly dying of shock).</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Current word count is now </span><span style="color: #0b5394;">41,775 and I still have the idea in my head that I could go crazy tomorrow and force myself to race to 50k. Shush, brain. Stop suggesting silly things please.</span><br />
<br /></td></tr>
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<tr><td><span style="color: #990000;">
14th Nov
</span></td><td style="text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: #990000;">
[updating soon!]</span></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"><span style="color: #0b5394;">
[updating soon!]</span><br />
<br />
<br /></td></tr>
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<br />Mumbletoeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02054628232035000733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2177724085978456073.post-27786971189171773142017-10-28T23:39:00.002+01:002017-10-28T23:48:43.109+01:00Bridport Prize 2017<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrLWT4VRzG1FZv-XETBrTy9-xsNp1NYY0qYUwxn8avnOvDd5bqBH_hmT8yzfjFZXRL7Kel8unFQyDTtwAm5LEwE6-4sjXYvGDG2qwR-aOc-SOeFHLTdioSMHDYcHE8FhdTRu-UvzDYyGU/s1600/bridport_new_2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="580" data-original-width="580" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrLWT4VRzG1FZv-XETBrTy9-xsNp1NYY0qYUwxn8avnOvDd5bqBH_hmT8yzfjFZXRL7Kel8unFQyDTtwAm5LEwE6-4sjXYvGDG2qwR-aOc-SOeFHLTdioSMHDYcHE8FhdTRu-UvzDYyGU/s320/bridport_new_2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
I received some great news in September, but was sworn to silence!<br />
<br />
However... the Bridport Prize shortlists are now out, so I'm allowed to say I managed to sneak onto the <a href="https://www.bridportprize.org.uk/content/2017-shortlists#poetry">Poetry shortlist</a> this year!<br />
<br />
And I also managed to get not one but TWO flash fiction pieces onto the <a href="https://www.bridportprize.org.uk/content/2017-shortlists#flash">Flash fiction shortlist</a>!<br />
<br />
Naturally it's a bit disappointing that my work didn't get picked for one of the prizes, but it's great to be on the shortlists alongside some excellent writing talent. Fingers crossed for next year!<br />
<br />
[The rest of this post involves maths, so you'd be advised to stop reading now!]<br />
<br />
The Bridport Prize is one of those competitions that has a "sifting" stage... in that a first set of judges create the shortlist, and then there's a further judging process to pick the winners. When the "congrats, you're on the shortlist!" email arrives, it also tells you how many entries there were this year... and I couldn't resist playing around with the numbers!<br />
<br />
This year there were 4,258 poetry entries and 1,343 flash fic entries. (This was possibly a quieter year for the Bridport, because I've heard the usual number of entries is closer to 7,000 for poetry and 2,500 for flash fic.) And from what I've heard (e.g. anthology comments from past judges), the poetry and flash fic shortlists are 200 and 50 respectively.<br />
<br />
The poetry shortlist consists of 200 pieces, which means that 4.7% of the entries made it through the sifting stage (200/4258 = 0.04697 = 4.7%).<br />
<br />
The flash fiction shortlist is 50 pieces, which means that 3.7% of the entries made it through the sifting stage (50/1343 = 0.03723 = 3.7%).<br />
<br />
Obviously there's a quality aspect to getting picked, but I still find it interesting to see how tricky it is for a piece to sneak through that first stage of judging. I have no idea how many sifting stages there are, or if any of these numbers help us, but when I enter a competition, my twitchy little brain quite likes knowing the odds!<br />
<br />
Best of luck to everyone for next year! The Bridport is a tough competition but definitely worth it :-)<br />
<br />
<br />Mumbletoeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02054628232035000733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2177724085978456073.post-72933613617724857292017-09-01T12:17:00.001+01:002017-09-03T13:48:54.435+01:00Bite of the were-rabbit<br />
New game! I'm writing a story driven by Twitter polls and a prompt taken from one of the daily writing events.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
🚧 <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Thurds?src=hash">#Thurds</a> ALONE<br />
🚧 <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Thurstale?src=hash">#Thurstale</a> (any)<br />
🚧 <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/3wordthurs?src=hash">#3wordthurs</a> NEGLECT INDIGNANT COMSTOCKERY<br />
🚧 <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/tfteotw?src=hash">#tfteotw</a>: <a href="https://t.co/K4VjnAeLlx">https://t.co/K4VjnAeLlx</a><br />
🚧 No more <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ThruLinethurs?src=hash">#ThruLinethurs</a> <a href="https://t.co/0FMicKnuyO">pic.twitter.com/0FMicKnuyO</a></div>
— Free Writing Events (@writevent) <a href="https://twitter.com/writevent/status/900571766271225857">August 24, 2017</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-5e9d86c8-3cfc-454b-7c59-317524976774" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial";">Chosen prompt word: <i>alone</i>. Here we go with the story... </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial";"><span style="font-size: 28.4881px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline;">Sertundeth Park wasn't dangero</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;">us. Not normally, anyway. Callibor Nim had cut through the park every day on her way home from Wannabeahero School, and she'd never had a problem. Unfortunately, today someone had decided to turn out the lights.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline;"> The lampposts in Sertundeth Park gave out infra-pantz light (which was designed to be used in areas so affected by dark magic that sunlight refuses to enter). To human eyes, the light was a dim purple but the park creatures had to wear paper bags on their heads to avoid being blinded. Today, however, something had gone wrong. Callibor was only halfway home when she was plunged into darkness. She immediately stopped dead, opened her school bag - <i>ziiip!</i> - and took out her knife.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline;"> Callibor's parents had bought her the best knife they could afford. It had a golden handle and was a foot long. Callibor's headteacher, Commander Arnda, said it was more like a short sword than a knife. It had 17 special features, including stun, fire blast, death ray, and cat. Callibor hunted for the flare setting. By the time she'd found it and the blade had burst into silver flame, it was too late. A were-rabbit had spotted her.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline;"> Were-rabbits were the most terrifying of all the were-creatures (although the were-rabbi - hybrid offspring of the autocorrect demon - was almost as scary). The were-rabbits bred like, well, rabbits and their murder burrows occupied every square inch of space beneath the surface of Sertundeth Park.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline;"> Although Callibor was normally quick with her knife, this particular rabbit was too fast for her. Before she'd even managed to yell in surprise, it had jumped up and bitten a large chunk out of her forearm. Giggling to itself, the were-rabbit bounded merrily away, leaving Callibor to collapse in pain onto a park bench.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">What happens next? You decide! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></div>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
The were-rabbit hops away into the dark, leaving you bleeding & alone on the park bench, clutching a knife. Do you... <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/thurds?src=hash">#thurds</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Thurstale?src=hash">#Thurstale</a></div>
— mumbletoes (@mumbletoes) <a href="https://twitter.com/mumbletoes/status/903285512710098945">August 31, 2017</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
Mumbletoeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02054628232035000733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2177724085978456073.post-46132720977990561972017-08-28T00:05:00.000+01:002017-10-29T03:49:07.314+00:00Editing blues<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWa8bnAhVNzlX716x9-tkFKsLjg1YEWZOsNg4JYovPWqPDJ5Fw5Vhz3r4gsuzG9A2A2rQL78eF1ksx7q4CfTOgQrz1EOj18CURR_j0DP_3LLwUym1lKXfykY3YXiKCx61wFhVQ2OCeOP4/s1600/715b3a498f90212803736dfb319bb937-d8yv8wi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="524" data-original-width="1000" height="167" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWa8bnAhVNzlX716x9-tkFKsLjg1YEWZOsNg4JYovPWqPDJ5Fw5Vhz3r4gsuzG9A2A2rQL78eF1ksx7q4CfTOgQrz1EOj18CURR_j0DP_3LLwUym1lKXfykY3YXiKCx61wFhVQ2OCeOP4/s320/715b3a498f90212803736dfb319bb937-d8yv8wi.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">'Unreliable narrator' by <a href="https://mikehowland.deviantart.com/gallery/53624605/Twisted-Tropes">Mike Howland</a></td></tr>
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2017 was a tough year for my poor fantasy novel! I had my heart set on editing my monster pile of notes/drafts/scribbles into a decent novel, but unfortunately it didn't work out.<br />
<br />
My main problem has been that the novel started in "third person" form. Specifically, it was a third person narration about Calvin (a poor orphan boy who, as you might expect, is probably going to find treasure, beat the bad guy, get the girl, and just generally do quite well by the final page).<br />
<br />
So that was the story I was originally trying to write...<br />
<br />
But then I added a dragon.<br />
<br />
Crimble is a tiny tree dragon with a personality bigger than the sky. She quite literally takes over my writing and it's damn hard work trying to get her to follow the plot.<br />
<br />
I added her as a minor character at first. She was just going to be a friendly little dragon sitting on Calvin's shoulder.<br />
<br />
It didn't work out that way.<br />
<br />
Crimble, it turns out, has a mind of her own. In my story, she's still sitting on Calvin's shoulder, but she spends much of her time berating him with sarcasm, ear flicks, and the occasional whack from her tail on the back of the head. Often all these at once.<br />
<br />
And Crimble, I discovered, wants to be written first person.<br />
<br />
THAT was the big problem. Everything I'd written was "third person Calvin"... and suddenly I found myself with a stack of "first person Crimble" chapters.<br />
<br />
I tried for ages (weeks, months, years... I don't know!) to merge my old "third person Calvin" story with the new "first person Crimble" chapters. Have you ever read a book that jumps between first and third person? Ugh. Some authors have done it... some have even done it well... but I still don't like it. In fact I've yet to read such a book without feeling a big jolt every time the author jumps from first to third. Try as I might, I couldn't rewrite my chapters well enough to remove that "jolt".<br />
<br />
Do I want my readers to feel jolted from first to third person? NO I DO NOT!<br />
<br />
So this year, I tried to edit my novel to remove this dreaded jolt. I've tried plenty of different ways before, and this year I decided to give up on my "first person Crimble" chapters, and just rewrite them in third person.<br />
<br />
My internal voice kept shouting "THIS IS THE WRONG THING TO DO!" but I ignored it. After all, what writer <i>doesn't</i> have that internal voice shouting-shouting-shouting all the time? Isn't the normal writer life purely about having a voice in your head telling you that everything you write is bad? (Please reassure me that happens to you too!)<br />
<br />
Anyway, six weeks later, after much misery and ignoring that infernal internal voice, I finished my new "purely third person" draft and re-read it.<br />
<br />
Ugh.<br />
<br />
I hated it.<br />
<br />
But I'm a writer and I was reading my own writing. It was NATURAL that I hated it, right? So I put the whole thing aside and spent a month playing with smaller pieces. Hooray for flash fiction and poetry - the perfect way to procrastinate on novel writing! You're writing, so you're not procrastinating, right?!! :-)<br />
<br />
Eventually I re-read the novel again. Yep, I still hated it. Rewriting Crimble in third person was a horrible idea. Wrong, wrong, wrong. For once, the doomsayer internal voice had been speaking the truth.<br />
<br />
What was missing? I'm not sure I can be specific... but it was that elusive quality that turns a book from "just a book" into "something you actually want to read", or at least "something you actually want to write".<br />
<br />
Energy - maybe that's the word? Crimble's "first person" voice has a definite energy to it. She has verve. Panache. Snark. And all of that had been stripped out when I rewrote her in third person.<br />
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It took me quite a few weeks before I had the heart to attempt another rewrite. Actually, it may have been months. I seem to have lost quite a large chunk of this year - quite possibly to moping around after realising my rewrite hadn't worked!<br />
<br />
Anyway... I started rewriting everything in "first person Crimble" voice again. I knew that at the very least, I wanted a few chapters to be told in Crimble's voice. She's sassy and she's sarcastic and I have had GREAT feedback on her voice. (Adults have told me they love Crimble... but, more importantly, KIDS have said so too! And kids are the best critics in the world because if they don't like something they'll quite happily tell you, regardless of how it crushes your soul!)<br />
<br />
Crimble's voice HAS to be part of my novel. This is one thing of which I'm certain.<br />
<br />
So I rewrote Chapter 1. It went well, and Crimble was her usually sassy self as she chatted to the reader about a dragon called Puggle running in to wake her up. (Yes, I know what you're thinking... I do indeed start my novel with a character waking up... and I like it, so it's staying... for now!)<br />
<br />
Then I started rewriting Chapter 2 (the first chapter focuses purely on Calvin). And something magical happened. It felt as if the back of my brain had been working on a new solution, without me being aware of it doing so, and suddenly it presented a new solution... I'd rewritten Chapter 1 (in which Crimble is woken up by Puggle) and then, suddenly, I wrote a line at the start of Chapter 2 (in which Calvin is digging his own grave) that opened up a whole new possibility...<br />
<br />
<i>Earlier that day, a few hours before Puggle had woken me, a boy called Calvin was digging his own grave.</i><br />
<br />
Okay, I'm not saying this is a great line. For all I know, this line will be <i>cut</i> from the final draft. HOWEVER... this line has done something wonderful for my novel. It's allowed me to travel in time and space!<br />
<br />
That might sound a bit far-fetched... but it's true! The first part of the line (<i>Earlier that day, a few hours before Puggle had woken me</i>) reminds the reader of the events of Chapter 1, and then ALSO manages to catapult them a few hours back in time. And it's done with such a tiny amount of effort that I can hardly believe it's so easy. Even better, there's NO JOLT! The whole of Chapter 1 is in Crimble's voice... and this new line is too... so the reader is simply <i>continuing to listen to Crimble</i>... it just so happens that Crimble is now talking about an event she wasn't involved in.<br />
<br />
The second part of the line (<i>a Mudville boy called Calvin was digging a grave</i>) anchors the reader in the scene at the beginning of Chapter 2, and allows me to immediately start telling Calvin's story.<br />
<br />
Even better, this line means that Crimble is my narrator. SHE is the one who will be telling Calvin's story. Rather than her narrating <i>only </i>her own chapters, she's now narrating <i>everything</i>. And you know what that means...<br />
<br />
Unreliable narrator!<br />
<br />
I love, love, love unreliable narrators. I love them because they're so true to life. EVERYONE you know is an unreliable narrator - you, me, everyone! Think of every time you've heard someone tell you a story... Did they stumble over their own words? Did they contradict themselves? If you pointed out inconsistencies within their story, did they just laugh them off? Did they get distracted while talking and go off on a tangent, talking about something else?<br />
<br />
I'm guessing they probably did all those things. Because this is exactly how we tell stories every day. We get things wrong. We make up details that we can't quite remember. We go off on tangents. We contradict ourselves. We forget what we're talking about halfway through the tale.<br />
<br />
Crimble won't be a <i>totally </i>unreliable narrator. She'll get things wrong, but for the most part she'll tell the story "as it happened". However, it'll be very much <i>her</i> version of events. Her own version of the truth. And Crimble has already proved to me that she enjoys talking herself up, so she's bound to show off throughout the whole story. I have a feeling this is going to be fun.<br />
<br />
Ultimately what I'm saying is that Crimble can finally do what she's been wanting to do for YEARS. She can take control of the novel! She's been dying to tell Calvin's story ever since I first created her, and I'm finally ready to hand her the pen.<br />
<br />
So that's my new plan. I'm going to allow Crimble to write every chapter - even the ones that she isn't present for. It's the best possible solution I've come up with so far.<br />
<br />
There's a tiny niggle/worry because I know people will tell me "if Crimble's alive to write the story then there'll never be a sense of danger, because we know she survives" but I reckon that argument was thrown out of the window the moment everyone was comfortable with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Beauty_(1999_film)">American Beauty</a> being narrated by a ghost and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Beauty">Black Beauty</a> being narrated by a horse. Narrators can be anyone and anything - dead people, animals, or even a brain in a jar. Critics might not like it but readers don't mind... and it's only the readers who matter.<br />
<br />
Admittedly I'm kind of annoyed I had to REWRITE THE ENTIRE NOVEL in order to reach this happy discovery. All that work just to write this one magic "<i>Earlier that day</i>" segue line! But writing is a journey, and it's a hard journey at that. Sometimes the only way to reach an epiphany is just to put your head down and power through. And that's what I did this year. It was horrible at the time but I kept going and I'm glad I did. Although I don't yet have a completed novel, I still feel like I'm hell of a lot closer to achieving that magic finished manuscript.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately, what with the general shenanigans of life getting in the way, I've had to stop editing my fantasy novel at the moment... but as soon as I get back to it, CRIMBLE IS IN CHARGE!<br />
<br />
Fingers crossed that this time I've finally found the perfect way to tell the tale.<br />
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2w-SQFzyppQTRDgOXMLNKdF2EbJEpgVNJWt_evfpeQECKd9FnlgI9VGerQg8_UDb4eS9BUKeaICBLLMv_sG-fIpwvJJhNNJYs3gCaG34GNZYWzTV1vou72Jqqb7MKNWHhUP-W2v5B-7w/s1600/Unreliable-Narrators-in-First-Person.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="375" data-original-width="797" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2w-SQFzyppQTRDgOXMLNKdF2EbJEpgVNJWt_evfpeQECKd9FnlgI9VGerQg8_UDb4eS9BUKeaICBLLMv_sG-fIpwvJJhNNJYs3gCaG34GNZYWzTV1vou72Jqqb7MKNWHhUP-W2v5B-7w/s320/Unreliable-Narrators-in-First-Person.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A great summary of unreliable narrators by <a href="https://thejohnfox.com/2016/06/writing-in-first-person/">John Fox</a></td></tr>
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<br />Mumbletoeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02054628232035000733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2177724085978456073.post-17158874795733416242017-01-15T20:14:00.000+00:002017-03-01T20:50:18.284+00:002017 is the year of 'The Edit' !<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Not sure everyone would agree with this, but I think creative writing breaks down into two very distinct stages:<br />
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<ol>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_writing">Free-writing</a> (manically splurge the words and ideas from your brain to the page)</li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Editing">Editing</a> (turn the free-write splurge into something a human being might actually want to read)</li>
</ol>
<div>
Last year, I was definitely buried neck-deep in the first stage. The whole year was one long manic frenzy of typing. Somehow or other, I managed to produce <a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.com/2016/01/a-million-words-in-2016.html">a million words of free-writing</a>. And before that, through a mixture of <a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.com/2015/06/how-to-organise-your-fantasy-novel.html">writing and plotting my fantasy series</a>, I'd produced at least another million words.</div>
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What I'm trying to say is: I seem to have written a lot of words.</div>
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This year, 2017, I'm going to lock myself away from the world - as much as feasibly possible - and start on stage two: <i>The Edit</i>. I'm planning to dive headfirst into all those words, grab a handful or two, and then somehow shape those words into something readable. And then I'll do that again. And again... until I either:</div>
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<ol>
<li>Turn into a gibbering puddle of Mark </li>
<li>Die in the attempt</li>
<li>Produce a novel</li>
<li>Produce several novels</li>
<li>All of the above</li>
</ol>
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So... please send love, luck, and cookies. Definitely the cookies. </div>
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Mumbletoeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02054628232035000733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2177724085978456073.post-88540700995267039562016-12-01T17:18:00.000+00:002017-11-16T00:02:19.287+00:00A million words in 2016 (December)<div style="text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHEWE4YAOsU9NIBwA0VYa_aEp0emN5W1a9uZ4zv-OYQ0ly4IpAumaXwGWyQVZUG_fIh9Z5K-6QFMtDDkmgKoNcUZQjQnHSUPA_ZcEQPgNJeC_hmsC_1Tadk4iUjS3aedidXjizOr8O4t8/s1600/highres_207184912.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHEWE4YAOsU9NIBwA0VYa_aEp0emN5W1a9uZ4zv-OYQ0ly4IpAumaXwGWyQVZUG_fIh9Z5K-6QFMtDDkmgKoNcUZQjQnHSUPA_ZcEQPgNJeC_hmsC_1Tadk4iUjS3aedidXjizOr8O4t8/s320/highres_207184912.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>
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I'm writing a million words in 2016!<br />
<br />
Below is the progress diary for
December
(I'll be updating it as the month goes on). If you're interested, <a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/a-million-words-in-2016.html">here's the intro</a>, and here are the diaries for
<a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/the-million-word-diary-january.html">January</a>,
<a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/a-million-words-in-2016-february.html">February</a>,
<a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/a-million-words-in-2016-march.html">March</a>,
<a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/a-million-words-in-2016-april.html">April</a>,
<a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/a-million-words-in-2016-may.html">May</a>,
<a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/a-million-words-in-2016-june.html">June</a>,
<a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/a-million-words-in-2016-july.html">July</a>,
<a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/a-million-words-in-2016-august.html">August</a>,
<a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/a-million-words-in-2016-september.html">September</a>,
<a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/a-million-words-in-2016-october.html">October</a> and
<a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/a-million-words-in-2016-november-is.html">November</a>.
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The red number in the right-hand column is the total <a href="http://www.wikiwrimo.org/wiki/Milwordy">Milwordy</a> word count. Please wish me luck in watching that number tick up to 1,000,000 over the rest of the year!<br />
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<h2>
The Million-Word Diary:
December
</h2>
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<table border="0" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="3" style="background-color: whitesmoke;">
<tbody>
<tr><td><span style="color: #990000;">
1st Dec</span></td><td style="text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: #990000;">993,187</span></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"><span style="color: #0b5394;">Last year, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Novel_Writing_Month">NaNoWriMo</a> worked really well for me, which is actually why I started this "million words in 2016" project. But this year, unfortunately, I didn't quite get into the NaNo mindset. The start was a big messy rush (thanks to me being dumb enough to take part in a race to 50k) and then I hardly wrote a thing until there was another rush at the end. That's a real shame because one of the best things, I reckon, that NaNo does for a writer, is to enforce a regular writing habit.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">This little graph-gadget thing shows just how many writing days I missed during November: </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9MNCN8sZFnlQJhqBle_ElZTMZ7F1NGc7Jv4sJ-Kygf4pZ8Atxhxc2DQdZ0qEqhwNNMybfQ0UAmSFa3UxUoMeCXd3WfR76H5pCG6G6rsk4p9GKfdYK-QBEPqKpYclBjkrPfRapWkceoVk/s1600/df.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9MNCN8sZFnlQJhqBle_ElZTMZ7F1NGc7Jv4sJ-Kygf4pZ8Atxhxc2DQdZ0qEqhwNNMybfQ0UAmSFa3UxUoMeCXd3WfR76H5pCG6G6rsk4p9GKfdYK-QBEPqKpYclBjkrPfRapWkceoVk/s1600/df.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">NaNoWriMo progress-tracking-gadget-thing-whatsit</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">The green squares show the days when I hit the NaNoWriMo target of 1,667 words per day. The orange and yellow represent the days where I wrote a bit but not quite enough. And the reds... well... they mean I did absolutely nothing.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">There's a lot of red :-(</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Even though I managed 103k for NaNoWriMo this year, I only managed to write a <i>decent</i> amount on just ten of the thirty days. Ten out of thirty. That's a pretty terrible record!</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">I checked the NaNo forums and apparently it's quite common for people to attempt to be cocky by rushing to 50k. Many of them - me included - then find they lose motivation! Thing is, as you write your novel in November, you update your word count on the NaNoWriMo site, and the progress bar turns green when you hit 50k. That results in something the <a href="http://www.wikiwrimo.org/wiki/Overachiever">overachievers</a> call the "green bar blues". When the bar turns green, it gives a real sense of accomplishment... and that means a little switch in the brain flicks over to "I have finished and therefore can STOP!"</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Motivation was low anyway, but it took a nosedive after I hit 50k and the feeling of apathy still hasn't quite gone! </span><span style="color: #0b5394;">Ah well, I guess the only thing I can do is try to learn from this for next year. I'll probably still try to race to 50k (mainly just to annoy the competitive people!) but perhaps this time I'll be more prepared for the green bar blues.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">No words today (I think I deserve a bit of a break after yesterday's 22k!) so the total's still 993,187.</span><br />
<br /></td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #990000;">
2nd Dec</span></td><td style="text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: #990000;">993,346</span></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"><span style="color: #0b5394;">The plot of my children's novel is getting darker!</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKdxg-2KplkCxaQTs1Zlu6IJD-Gbsm7xA2Ci0tvnEaHw7XRe2YDmO9WMKV45IGsi8r8uA8Pz8LcC5ofMAHvZhJ06iU_mL6ot4TdhGeTLUEI4woD-aqOTt1Lp2SHT7k5H2CnBrGcKl-uUg/s1600/CysHx0KW8AASdSF.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKdxg-2KplkCxaQTs1Zlu6IJD-Gbsm7xA2Ci0tvnEaHw7XRe2YDmO9WMKV45IGsi8r8uA8Pz8LcC5ofMAHvZhJ06iU_mL6ot4TdhGeTLUEI4woD-aqOTt1Lp2SHT7k5H2CnBrGcKl-uUg/s320/CysHx0KW8AASdSF.jpg" width="308" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">In my current draft, when Crimble (a dragon) meets Calvin, she finds that the poor kid has a nasty magical injury that's threatening to turn his body to stone. No one is particularly sympathetic to Calvin and, because the injury is seen as impossible to cure, they're basically all just waiting for him to die. And this is why I'm saying the plot's getting darker: I've just realised that in the scene before Crimble meets him, Calvin is digging his own grave. </span><span style="color: #0b5394;">His teacher doesn't want to move Calvin's body when he finally turns to stone, so has asked him to dig the grave and use it as a bed in case he dies in his sleep. How's that for dark? :-) </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">I really love it when a story reaches the point where it kinda tells itself. I'm not shoehorning this "digging his own grave" thing in - it's just a natural consequence of the current plot that naturally arises from Calvin's predicament and the relationship between him and his teacher.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">One weird little flash fiction today (about a spaniel who likes eating frogs) gave me a tiny word count of 159 words, so the total's now 993,346.</span><br />
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<tr><td><span style="color: #990000;">28th Dec</span></td><td style="text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: #990000;">996,899</span></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"><span style="color: #0b5394;">The problem with being close to the end is that it's very easy to feel like you've actually finished. I can't believe I've left it this long to start on those last 7k words. Ah well, I'm back in the game now. Today I began a short story based on this writing prompt:</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><i>Write a scene that involves a safety pin. Use the word "delegate".</i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">It's not the greatest prompt ever, but it resulted in a fun little tale about a guy who's told to move a giant safety pin that's bigger than a building. The whole thing got very complicated and resulted in all manner of random shenanigans. Luckily the shenanigans are fun (fun shenanigans are the best shenanigans) and so I'm quite enjoying the story so far. As usual I'm just throwing a few characters together and giving them a problem to solve, and thankfully a good ending has already arrived in my brain. Hopefully it'll be enough to see me through the last few thousand words. Can't wait to get finished so I can start editing and submitting again!</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Today's word count was </span><span style="color: #0b5394;">3,553 which means the "million word" total is now 996,899. Nearly there!</span><br />
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<tr><td><span style="color: #990000;">29th Dec</span></td><td style="text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: #990000;">1,000,680</span></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"><span style="color: #0b5394;">This safety pin story is wonderfully silly. God knows who will want to publish it, but I'm sure it'll find a home somewhere eventually. I'm about halfway through it, I reckon, and today it helped me push through another </span><span style="color: #0b5394;">3,781 words. The million word target has been reached at last! Total word count is now </span><span style="color: #0b5394;">1,000,680 with a couple of days to spare!</span><br />
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<tr><td><span style="color: #990000;">31st Dec</span></td><td style="text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: #990000;">1,002,141</span></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"><span style="color: #0b5394;">It seemed appropriate to add a few more words on the final day of this crazy year of writing. I have to admit, it was a bit of a halfhearted effort! I'm quite drained by the whole project, however I'm definitely looking forward to getting stuck into a bit of editing. Next year I'm planning to start submitting for publication again - poems, flash fictions, short stories, anything really. Maybe even the novel, providing I can work out Crimble's life story properly. And if I force myself to keep submitting, then that means I'll have <i>no choice</i> but to keep pushing through the edit process (after all, I can't submit unless I've given the text a good workout). Here's to 2017 and, hopefully, a bit of success at getting a few more publications out into the world!</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Today's word count was </span><span style="color: #0b5394;">1,461, so the final grand #<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/milwordy?src=hash">milwordy</a> total is </span><span style="color: #0b5394;"><b>1,002,141</b>. And, just for the sheer geeky joy of it, here's the final graph from my magic word-count-spreadsheet :-)</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk3lSaZD661FcoWwaiBmcI8nRtnrmYmrpJ245YqcehMFZWPq87J7oP67z4YlHWxY4RDSqwwB6ozaXpVhMoKvL1WqE6DTlmoGvVvYNJe1xJeUX_wP8v1dZHeajPXECinAvYikH2NPWSuw4/s1600/final_million_word_graph.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="127" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk3lSaZD661FcoWwaiBmcI8nRtnrmYmrpJ245YqcehMFZWPq87J7oP67z4YlHWxY4RDSqwwB6ozaXpVhMoKvL1WqE6DTlmoGvVvYNJe1xJeUX_wP8v1dZHeajPXECinAvYikH2NPWSuw4/s320/final_million_word_graph.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">366 days. 1,002,141 words!</td></tr>
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Mumbletoeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02054628232035000733noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2177724085978456073.post-7887297007563744942016-11-26T23:51:00.000+00:002016-11-26T23:52:55.361+00:00Local fame! Hooray!Turns out that if you get placed in the Bridport competition, they do an article in the local paper. Page 25 of the Swindon Advertiser, no less! Haha, this obviously means I'm now incredibly famous and rich :-)<br />
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The facebook post got lots of likes. Over 200! That counts as viral, right? No? Oh... :-(<br />
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<iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="587" scrolling="no" src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fmarkjfarley%2Fposts%2F10157826096015711%3A0&width=500" style="border: none; overflow: hidden;" width="500"></iframe>
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And here's the picture in case the facebook-post-embed thing isn't working:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqisL8-GnFjmNVP-VQDTNusztyDDEqpVxmWc92FHQeSqEu4cQHtU16dide_dZmY-WWIl2CVb5fxlGpKVzZLHYtRzhESyC0WWQvvw35hMjtTjjFjBXL9EJ-VXMb4MEy1II_iBxQRzo4MV4/s1600/15085656_10157826096015711_5909965600144188963_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqisL8-GnFjmNVP-VQDTNusztyDDEqpVxmWc92FHQeSqEu4cQHtU16dide_dZmY-WWIl2CVb5fxlGpKVzZLHYtRzhESyC0WWQvvw35hMjtTjjFjBXL9EJ-VXMb4MEy1II_iBxQRzo4MV4/s320/15085656_10157826096015711_5909965600144188963_n.jpg" width="309" /></a></div>
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Okay, I know it doesn't mean much in the grand scheme of things, but it's nice to get a bit of an ego-boost occasionally! :-)<br />
<br />Mumbletoeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02054628232035000733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2177724085978456073.post-89471986007330281692016-11-01T17:16:00.000+00:002016-12-05T02:30:02.668+00:00A million words in 2016 (November is NaNoWriMo month!)<div style="text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWdhaGZOK9K3J2sD2e8GMqIvtxsUqBsK5svVNNNZExRGdE6GGzvuqMWTntIQjpqu3ZrZh426dtn_y7RGJOdz175yM4VKTwaYqS0G0nFH_2T6w-4UKQVGnWG02p1uswaktKUHZ9zrVHrt8/s1600/1-i-gyR9cSnaob4Lfqs77ZXQ.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWdhaGZOK9K3J2sD2e8GMqIvtxsUqBsK5svVNNNZExRGdE6GGzvuqMWTntIQjpqu3ZrZh426dtn_y7RGJOdz175yM4VKTwaYqS0G0nFH_2T6w-4UKQVGnWG02p1uswaktKUHZ9zrVHrt8/s320/1-i-gyR9cSnaob4Lfqs77ZXQ.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>
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I'm writing a million words in 2016!<br />
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Below is the progress diary for
November
(I'll be updating it as the month goes on). If you're interested, <a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/a-million-words-in-2016.html">here's the intro</a>, and here are the diaries for
<a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/the-million-word-diary-january.html">January</a>,
<a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/a-million-words-in-2016-february.html">February</a>,
<a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/a-million-words-in-2016-march.html">March</a>,
<a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/a-million-words-in-2016-april.html">April</a>,
<a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/a-million-words-in-2016-may.html">May</a>,
<a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/a-million-words-in-2016-june.html">June</a>,
<a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/a-million-words-in-2016-july.html">July</a>,
<a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/a-million-words-in-2016-august.html">August</a>,
<a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/a-million-words-in-2016-september.html">September</a> and
<a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/a-million-words-in-2016-october.html">October</a>.
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The red number in the right-hand column is the total word count. Please wish me luck in watching that number tick up to 1,000,000 over the rest of the year!<br />
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<h2>
The Million-Word Diary:
November (NaNoWriMo month!)</h2>
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<table border="0" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="3" style="background-color: whitesmoke;">
<tbody>
<tr><td><span style="color: #990000;">
1st Nov</span></td><td style="text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: #990000;">900,770</span></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"><span style="color: #0b5394;">I played a tactical game yesterday (31st Oct) by forcing myself not to work in the hope I'd have energy and enthusiasm for starting <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Novel_Writing_Month">NaNoWriMo</a> dead on midnight as the clock ticked over into November.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">The plan didn't work very well. The words wouldn't come (mainly because I'm in a horribly turgid part of the plot where everything needs to be explained to <a href="https://www.facebook.com/crimalian/">Crimble</a> before she can start joining in with the other characters).<br /><br />But it's okay... the pressure of NaNo forced me to push through the explanation stuff, and I tried to find ways to intersperse a little action here and there. When I go back over it, I can break up the conversation with a bit more action. I think it'll work out okay.<br /><br />The most important thing is I did actually manage to get words done today! NaNoWriMo has officially begun! As I say, I started just after midnight and managed to get 7,765 words done. Then I grabbed two hours kip (!) and headed off to a NaNo support class run by the awesome <a href="http://www.amaryllispoetry.co.uk/2015/10/a-poem-by-jill-sharp.html">Jill Sharp</a>. It's a friendly group in a lovely location (the <a href="http://richardjefferiesmuseum.blogspot.co.uk/">Richard Jefferies Museum</a>) and everyone's very supportive. Plus I ended up with a nice flash fiction about a guy trying to eat an apple tree. I must admit though, it was a bit frustrating to be at a class when I felt like I should really be typing! Anyway, I came home and grabbed a bit more sleep, then headed back to the writing shed to hammer out a few more words.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Final tally today was </span><span style="color: #0b5394;">10,791</span><span style="color: #0b5394;"> which is also my NaNo total (seeing as it's only day one). However it's day 306 of my "million words in 2016" project, so the total for that is now </span><span style="color: #0b5394;">900,770</span><span style="color: #0b5394;">. Woohoo - I'm on my last 100,000!</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">If NaNo works well for me then hopefully I'll be done with this project before December even starts! And that'll mean I don't have to write any more. Ever. Okay, I'm kidding... but it'll be nice to have a break from freewriting! I think my poor brain is a bit fed up with trying to give me ideas. It's about time I buckled down to a bit of editing!</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Favourite line from today: </span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><i>It looked like it was wearing a coat made entirely of squirrel fingers.</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;">As you can tell, I'm producing some quality literature here!</span><br />
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<tr><td><span style="color: #990000;">
2nd Nov</span></td><td style="text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: #990000;">912,743</span></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"><span style="color: #0b5394;">The pressure of NaNoWriMo got to me today! It's hard to bash out a ton of words when you're also trying to craft a plot at the same time. I ended up having to abandon Crimble for a while and start another novel instead.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">I chose to write another trashy horror novel. The concept of <a href="http://www.wikiwrimo.org/wiki/Pantsing">pantsing</a> works very well with this genre, I find! Also, I had a title already prepared. It's probably the best title ever created for a trashy horror novel ever ever ever. Are you ready for this? The title is:</span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><i>These things will EAT YOUR FACE
</i></span></div>
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Admit it, that title is awesome. Especially because half of it is in capitals. If you were drunk enough, and in the mood for a bit of trashy horror, you would totally buy this book :-)</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">There's extra pressure this year because we have a bit of a competition going. One of our <a href="http://nanowrimo.org/local-volunteers">MLs</a> types incredibly fast so we're all trying to beat her to 50k this year. Unfortunately there are a few of us who are massively competitive and it's all got a bit stressful! </span><span style="color: #0b5394;">Not sure this link will work but if it does it'll show you </span><a href="http://nanowrimo.org/participants/mumbletoes/buddies?buddy_sort=word-count-desc">my Swindon NaNo buddies sorted by word count</a><span style="color: #0b5394;">. God knows why I'm including that link because it'll be out of date about ten minutes after I publish this post, but at the moment we have one person on 25k, another on 23k, and me on 22k. And it's only day two! </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">I've never considered myself competitive before (even as a kid I would slow down to let other people win races simply because I could see they needed to win more than I did) but this time I'm joining in with this competition because the extra bit of pressure is helping me smash out the words. In fact I've just had two days in a row of over 10k! Million words, here I come!</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Word count today was 11,973 so <a href="http://nanowrimo.org/participants/mumbletoes">my NaNo total</a> is 22,764 and my <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/milwordy?f=tweets&vertical=default">#milwordy</a> total is now 912,743.</span><br />
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<tr><td><span style="color: #990000;">4th Nov</span></td><td style="text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: #990000;">940,257</span></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"><span style="color: #0b5394;">Wrote nothing at all yesterday (very sleepy all day!) until about 8pm when I suddenly found some energy and powered through. Managed to get over 11k in the end! </span><span style="color: #0b5394;">I used midnight as the cut-off point, then carried on typing until about 4:30am which gave me another 8k.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">So I went to sleep with a NaNo total of 41k, then later managed to push on through and get to the 50k. So that's a NaNoWriMo win in only 4 days. Not bad! Kinda exhausted now though! Here's a screenshot from the NaNoWriMo website as proof! :-)</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOsig_lIsYQ4uBfVnLf2xYoaT4L3vqpw9zfwIXkN33ZgFARIVUWnZEvXfu_IJcPKmkZChFFyTuykb55xMe4jnCKcttTG7NKB75TngojSprw7jPdjiKA9KY5JU4LsxjDc91xCVeWpmyIRw/s1600/adadfadfs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="69" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOsig_lIsYQ4uBfVnLf2xYoaT4L3vqpw9zfwIXkN33ZgFARIVUWnZEvXfu_IJcPKmkZChFFyTuykb55xMe4jnCKcttTG7NKB75TngojSprw7jPdjiKA9KY5JU4LsxjDc91xCVeWpmyIRw/s320/adadfadfs.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">NaNoWriMo complete!</td></tr>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">My spreadsheet graph's looking a lot healthier since NaNo started. Four days in a row of over 10k! I love how after all those weeks of doing nothing, the end of the graph is suddenly reaching for the sky :-)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzosoNHcIJadGE5ezCjWzBJOJDC7bqzbQ890PMRNu5PoziIQaM41Z0uTFLXeHjW8zXW8TgP71YU1rLj7NRlIBPKfxi6fXkunNfNCXBzNRMx1ZrB0HpXgiY44faEhT3oRMr8xkP383zyH8/s1600/asfas.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="119" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzosoNHcIJadGE5ezCjWzBJOJDC7bqzbQ890PMRNu5PoziIQaM41Z0uTFLXeHjW8zXW8TgP71YU1rLj7NRlIBPKfxi6fXkunNfNCXBzNRMx1ZrB0HpXgiY44faEhT3oRMr8xkP383zyH8/s320/asfas.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nearly there!</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Word counts for 3rd and 4th Nov were </span><span style="color: #0b5394;">11,794 and </span><span style="color: #0b5394;">15,720. </span><span style="color: #0b5394;">That means my NaNoWriMo total is 50,278 and the "million word" total is now 940,257.</span></div>
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<tr><td><span style="color: #990000;">
12th Nov</span></td><td style="text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: #990000;">941,469</span></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"><span style="color: #0b5394;">So much for the graph reaching for the sky! There's a progress bar on the NaNoWriMo site and, when it turned green (which it does when you hit 50k), my brain immediately said, "cool, I'm finished!" and I've hardly written a thing since. Oops.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Today was a "write-in" day with the rest of the NaNoWriMo-ers, and I think being around the other writers was enough to get me going again. It was hard work though. After 3 hours of sitting around chatting, I'd managed to hack together the beginning of a new flash fiction. It wasn't anything to do with Crimble though, which is a horrid shame because that's the project I really want to get done! However, words are words - and the main thing is to keep writing, even if you hate what you're producing.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">The flash fic today was produced via this writing prompt:</span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><i>"The sheep are lying!"</i></span></div>
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Thank you to <a href="http://nanowrimo.org/participants/bevania">Kat</a> for the prompt! :-) It gave me a new story for kids, in which the Big Bad Wolf realises he's been framed for stealing a farmer's flock. All the sheep in a field have vanished... apart from two who live on their own in a shed and, rather disturbingly, have been seen shopping for mint sauce.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">In other news, I was invited today to give a little interview about writing on local radio! Thankfully it wasn't live (too scary!). I had a nice chat with <a href="https://twitter.com/mbvloveless">Sam Loveless</a>, the presenter of <a href="http://www.swindon1055.com/profile/index.php?p=rhyme">Rhythm and Rhyme</a> at <a href="http://www.swindon1055.com/">Swindon 105.5</a>, and he's promised to edit out all my stuttering and stumbling! :-)</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
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<iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="586" scrolling="no" src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fphoto.php%3Ffbid%3D10157783117240711%26set%3Da.10157372359920711.1073741831.561210710%26type%3D3&width=500" style="border: none; overflow: hidden;" width="500"></iframe>
</div>
<br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Today gave me </span><span style="color: #0b5394;">1,073 words so the NaNoWriMo total is 51,490 and the "million word" total is </span><span style="color: #0b5394;">941,469.</span><br />
<br /></td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #990000;">
16th Nov</span></td><td style="text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: #990000;">943,250</span></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"><span style="color: #0b5394;">Urgh. </span><span style="color: #0b5394;">I really am staggering to the finish line. Can hardly find any motivation at all! Don't do the million word project. Repeat: do NOT do the million-words-in-a-year project!</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Today gave me 1,781 words, most of which was a daft flash fiction about <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fingerling_potato">fingerling potatoes</a> (which apparently are a thing). The NaNoWriMo total is now 53,271 and the million-word total is </span><span style="color: #0b5394;">943,250. Less than 60k to go! So close. So far.</span><br />
<br /></td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #990000;">24th Nov</span></td><td style="text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: #990000;">950,378</span></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"><span style="color: #0b5394;">Forced myself to stay up late and blast out some words. Brain is not working too well at the moment so I'm finding it hard to focus on anything for too long, let alone writing. To combat this, I have several projects on the go at once. As soon as I get bored with one story, I leap to another. This technique results in a ton of unfinished stories but at least it keeps me typing.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Most of today's words came from using the lines from this article: <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/world-poetry-day-28-of-poetrys-most-powerful-lines-ever-written-a6944301.html">28 of poetry's most powerful lines ever written</a>. I pluck out a certain idea from each of the poetic lines and use it as a prompt. For example, the line "</span><span style="color: #0b5394;">Because I could not stop for Death, / </span><span style="color: #0b5394;">He kindly stopped for me" gave me a fun little story about Death moving into the spare bedroom and sitting up all night drinking wine and playing cards with the ghost of my mother. Slightly surreal, but that's exactly what I like about flash fiction :-) </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Another bit of news... this Bridport thing is a gift that seems to keep on giving! They asked me to let them know a contact email address for the local paper, and that resulted in this <a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/local-fame-hooray.html">lovely article</a>! Okay, it's no big deal in the grand scheme of things, but it's nice to get an ego-boost occasionally! :-)</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Word counts for yesterday and today were 5,008 and </span><span style="color: #0b5394;">2,120, which means the NaNoWriMo total's now 60,399 and the "million word" total is </span><span style="color: #0b5394;">950,378. Woohoo, less than 50k to go!</span><br />
<div>
<br /></div>
</td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #990000;">25th Nov</span></td><td style="text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: #990000;">953,194</span></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"><span style="color: #0b5394;">Am still pushing myself to sprint to the end of NaNo, so managed 2,816 words today. It was mostly just rushed freewrites based on random prompts, but I think it'll all come in useful eventually. I also added a little bit more to "Hands" (a freaky piece about a guy who fills his bath with pieces of dolls). I've never liked the ending of it so hopefully today's freewrite will have given me some new ideas. Anyway, the NaNo total is now 63,215 and the <a href="https://twitter.com/search?f=tweets&q=%23milwordy">#milwordy</a> total is 953,194.</span><span style="color: #0b5394;"> </span><br />
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<tr><td><span style="color: #990000;">27th Nov</span></td><td style="text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: #990000;">969,030</span></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"><span style="color: #0b5394;">Yesterday was a zero word day (ouch) so I was especially mean to myself today and just kept pushing. Brain desperately tried to resist but was pummelled into submission with insane amounts of sugar, alcohol, and coffee. All horribly unhealthy habits, but they definitely seem to help the word count. Managed 15,836 words and every single one of them was blood-from-a-stone difficult! Not a fun day. But it's a great total and has put me a bit closer to my ideal target of 100k for NaNo.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Motivation is very low but we're nearly there now. The NaNoWriMo total's now 79,051 and the "million word" total is 969,030.</span><span style="color: #0b5394;"> </span><br />
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<tr><td><span style="color: #990000;">30th Nov</span></td><td style="text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: #990000;">993,187</span></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"><span style="color: #0b5394;">Yikes, the end of NaNoWriMo was quite a rush!</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">I'd been promising myself all month long that I'd finish the million words during November. It didn't work out quite that well, but I was close!</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">On the 29th, just before midnight, I tried one last attempt to find some motivation by putting this message up on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/markjfarley/posts/10157865796115711?pnref=story">facebook</a>:</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_Nlq37ZesChGXMIrO6BT4VLu7cvubGtRFiGOLni05bgmA7KszQYqZz7xPcSDQrDGs-SZyz9pgnUbob4igOPT3ROT3tMjwGh1usMsbUbyBGM9Ez4WVo7CBZGUI7MvvxWaRmxPU8FGiGW0/s1600/me.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="189" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_Nlq37ZesChGXMIrO6BT4VLu7cvubGtRFiGOLni05bgmA7KszQYqZz7xPcSDQrDGs-SZyz9pgnUbob4igOPT3ROT3tMjwGh1usMsbUbyBGM9Ez4WVo7CBZGUI7MvvxWaRmxPU8FGiGW0/s320/me.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An attempt at accountability!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: #0b5394;">As expected, the "<a href="http://writetodone.com/how-to-hold-yourself-accountable-as-a-writer/">accountability</a>" aspect didn't work for me at all. I think it works best for people who are competitive, and thankfully I've never suffered from that addiction! However I do want to finish the million, and I did want to hit 100k, so I managed to push through. Yesterday earned me 1,604 words (not bad for the last half hour of the day - I didn't start until after I'd stuck that Facebook post up!) and today's result was 22,553.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">The writing today surprised me today... it actually came quite easily! Luckily I'd managed to find a story I could stick with, and after that the only problem was forcing myself not to get distracted. In all honesty, I think I could have hit 30k if my concentration wasn't so awful right now... but that would definitely have been overkill. Next year, maybe?!</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Here's </span><a href="http://nanowrimo.org/participants/mumbletoes/novels/crimble-s-autobiography/stats">the graph from the NaNoWriMo website</a><span style="color: #0b5394;">. I did lots of words at the beginning of November, then nothing for ages (aargh!), then lots! I'm sure life would be a lot less stressful if I could just learn to write a solid 1,667 words per day, like the NaNo guys advise! </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5BfYrib5LsQ5IhKIJrS2hOCqc0r1wLvHMYf5t_puJR7kB-XpzIvMQvcSakn9ZF0zkWH4CCTUp756_DCo5O74aA0sr-42UMkXjN91-e25tOjgcXXd8BnzMObzCSHNAsBSUNNXdKqj6gus/s1600/15272246_10157870207925711_946320104244282369_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="152" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5BfYrib5LsQ5IhKIJrS2hOCqc0r1wLvHMYf5t_puJR7kB-XpzIvMQvcSakn9ZF0zkWH4CCTUp756_DCo5O74aA0sr-42UMkXjN91-e25tOjgcXXd8BnzMObzCSHNAsBSUNNXdKqj6gus/s320/15272246_10157870207925711_946320104244282369_o.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The oh-so-fascinating stats (to me, anyway!) and a graph from the NaNoWriMo site</td></tr>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Final word count for NaNoWriMo was 103,208 which means the "million word" total is 993,187. Only 7k to go! Phew... please remind me never to do this again?</span></div>
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Mumbletoeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02054628232035000733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2177724085978456073.post-23900719900695317682016-10-25T01:55:00.000+01:002016-10-28T22:37:38.146+01:00Brain-Stanleys<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsZhyphenhyphen2TPHaOTKdo2RP2fLuLDQjr_DaDIdxcDaNBut8ldQ5bizvFK9RiyyEkGdCNKK74R9GGLc36gGYG-z2CB4zMz9SZcHhoj_ElWK9DqvfLBnRkurF16liOprIEgRWU0Lf9Ts7JPwCR3g/s1600/6347d1c88cf0c48405dacbdff1c449b9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="284" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsZhyphenhyphen2TPHaOTKdo2RP2fLuLDQjr_DaDIdxcDaNBut8ldQ5bizvFK9RiyyEkGdCNKK74R9GGLc36gGYG-z2CB4zMz9SZcHhoj_ElWK9DqvfLBnRkurF16liOprIEgRWU0Lf9Ts7JPwCR3g/s320/6347d1c88cf0c48405dacbdff1c449b9.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">No one knows what a Brain-Stanley looks like,<br />
but this is probably pretty close</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
When freewriting, it's important to ignore the internal editor. However, the enforced word count on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Novel_Writing_Month">NaNoWriMo</a> results in the writer-brain making some truly dumb decisions, all in the name of trying to squeeze a few more words into what you've actually written.<br />
<br />
Some of the more obvious examples of this are things like always writing "Mr Ian Woon" instead of just "Ian", or not using contractions (e.g. always putting "I am" instead of "I'm"). Helpful for the initial word count, I guess, but really kinda useless in the long run.<br />
<br />
But the writer-brain finds far dumber things to do - things that actually get in the way of freewriting. Take this for example:<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>She nodded for me to continue.</i></div>
<br />
That's the line I was going to write. It's not amazing prose but it's perfectly acceptable, especially in a first draft. Anyway, it popped into my brain and my fingers obediently hammered at the keyboard. But as I typed the last word, a little piece of my brain woke up. For the sake of this explanation, let's call him Stanley. And remember, Brain-Stanley is a baddie in this story.<br />
<br />
Stanley said, "Hey, if you type 'go on' instead of 'continue' then you get ONE EXTRA WORD."<br />
<br />
The rest of my brain replied, "Oh come on, Stanley. Don't be a tit. What's the point of one extra word? Why can't I just put 'continue'?"<br />
<br />
Stanley didn't care that the rest of the brain had just called him a tit. He stood there, with his tiny brain-hands on his tiny brain-hips, and said, "Because it's NaNoWriMo, you daft sod. We need all the words we can get."<br />
<br />
There was a little bit of shouting, but Stanley won in the end. The line became:<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>She nodded for me to go on.</i></div>
<br />
.... and I gained that one extra word.<br />
<br />
So now I was a step closer to the end of my <a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/a-million-words-in-2016.html">million words project</a>. Hooray and hurrah?<br />
<br />
No.<br />
<br />
This is a worrying trend. If my internal-editor-dialogue ("ooh, we shouldn't write it THAT way; we should write it THIS way") is too loud, then creativity stops dead. The moment my various Brain-Stanleys wake up and start shouting editing suggestions, that's the moment I start struggling to freewrite. And all this 'second guessing myself' is what slows things down. It's hard enough to produce 2,000 words per day, let alone with a bunch of Brain-Stanleys shouting at me.<br />
<br />
Dear Brain-Stanleys, I appreciate the occasional extra words, but they're really not worth the internal dialogue distraction. Shush for a few weeks, okay? Please? Pretty please with chocolate cherries?<br />
<br />Mumbletoeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02054628232035000733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2177724085978456073.post-15996159104985424492016-10-20T12:46:00.000+01:002016-10-25T02:47:23.890+01:00Name your characters well! And quickly!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFFgzzhkm8zU88cSIUL-0xPQvNIQiQbtgLnkPk__Qfu89SDE3lIeRvwqNOL9iYAku5DCJiLtRLLNcPvQovhdVVKlf00A-FR9RKf1SCE5sB4MJaXImS0LShEwrhUklcbwN97M2T7joMcW8/s1600/9566459ef7bbe499aa9b10135ebb7e3a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFFgzzhkm8zU88cSIUL-0xPQvNIQiQbtgLnkPk__Qfu89SDE3lIeRvwqNOL9iYAku5DCJiLtRLLNcPvQovhdVVKlf00A-FR9RKf1SCE5sB4MJaXImS0LShEwrhUklcbwN97M2T7joMcW8/s320/9566459ef7bbe499aa9b10135ebb7e3a.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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I tend to give a character a random name and then change it later.<br />
<br />
Initially, this seemed like a good plan... because a quick, "oh, sod it, he's called Fred" meant that I could carry on writing and not start wasting my writing time by googling <a href="http://nameberry.com/lists">lists of names</a> or rushing to a <a href="http://www.behindthename.com/random/">name generator</a>.<br />
<br />
However, this is turning out to be a terrible idea!<br />
<br />
Thing is, every writer has their natural rhythm. Lines tend to dance out of the brain in accordance with a certain internal flow or pace or beat, and woe betide the poor writer who starts screwing around with that rhythm in the editing stage (I find it gets lost very easily when editing, and then the whole text starts to sound stilted and unpolished).<br />
<br />
Another problem is that the character starts to become "whole" in your head once you name him. I have a character called Calvin and he will never, ever, be anything else to me. If an agent or publisher (assuming I ever reach that stage of the novel-writing process!) tells me to change his name, I'm going to have a lot of trouble adjusting. And if they want me to change <a href="https://www.facebook.com/crimalian/">Crimble</a>'s name then I'll probably cry!<br />
<br />
I'd always thought I could do a quick "find and replace" once I'd decided on a better name, but I realise now that's not an option. Here's one of the reasons: internal rhyme. Changing a name can cause lines to start rhyming, and that'll completely change the feel of the whole story. Imagine having a character called Bob and then you change him to "Fred" at the last minute. Suddenly you have a ton of lines ending with "said Fred" or "Fred said", and that weird little rhyme is going chime in the reader's head (just like "rhyme" and "chime" just did in this sentence!) and quite possibly get annoying over the course of an entire novel.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisFGF5w7zFCvLH82nsllX2cIZAY5gKPsipjLWXuk8QjDzZkJC4Kl5mUaPx0WNaT2ul6J4464wEPLJw8qKQShyphenhyphengE29JYx9pa_Jd-MxqnQ7ItdubPZbyRvl4G_lUOgQHIhYokDu348n_53w/s1600/The_Half-Blood_Prince.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="196" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisFGF5w7zFCvLH82nsllX2cIZAY5gKPsipjLWXuk8QjDzZkJC4Kl5mUaPx0WNaT2ul6J4464wEPLJw8qKQShyphenhyphengE29JYx9pa_Jd-MxqnQ7ItdubPZbyRvl4G_lUOgQHIhYokDu348n_53w/s320/The_Half-Blood_Prince.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Turn to blog post number 394</td></tr>
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Here's a similar example: What if the goddess of writing, J.K. Rowling, had called the character something other than "Snape" in her first draft? For the sake of argument, let's say she called him Maurice. When the slimy potions teacher is being grumpy, JKR could easily have written first draft dialogue in this form:<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>"Turn to page 394," Maurice snapped.</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
And the thing is, once you've associated a character with a dialogue attribution/description like "snapped", it's easy to do that over and over again. That word "snapped" becomes part of the definition of your character. "Snapping" their dialogue becomes one of their natural characteristics. We know what it sounds like when someone snaps - it's spoken quickly and the words are almost bitten off like someone biting off a head. That gives us a strong sense of character.<br />
<br />
Then, later in this completely fictitious example, let's say JKR was editing and finally decided on the name "Snape". One global-replace later, she'd have a ton of lines saying "Snape snapped". Ugh. That just sounds daft. Suddenly the manuscript is chock-full with dumb-sounding dialogue attributes, and this would only happen if the right name wasn't chosen early.<br />
<br />
Okay, you can argue that "snapped" is a bad word to use because all the writing books tell us to stick to "said". Fair enough, but that's not really the point of the example. Pick your character names early, and pick them well. Getting the name right will change how they feel to you, and that'll come out in your writing.<br />
Mumbletoeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02054628232035000733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2177724085978456073.post-19353031409734557122016-10-17T15:11:00.000+01:002016-11-16T17:06:23.815+00:00Bridport Prize - Flash Fiction 2016In January 2015, I enrolled on a writing class with the awesome <a href="https://proletarianpoetry.com/2016/09/26/the-speaker-by-hilda-sheehan/">Hilda</a> <a href="http://www.culturedllama.co.uk/the-seal-a-poem-from-hilda-sheehans-forthcoming-collection-the-night-my-sister-went-to-hollywood-28112012">Sheehan</a>. She spotted I was someone who lacked confidence and so she encouraged me (okay, pretty much <i>ordered</i> me) to start sending off pieces for publication. She was so right. Sending stuff to publishers changes everything about being a writer. It's exposing, it's terrifying, it's exhilarating... and then you realise it's not as scary as you were expecting.<br />
<br />
And on those rare days when someone says, "yes" to a piece, it's the biggest boost of confidence in the world.<br />
<br />
So here's one of the "yeses"! Sorry if it's crass to toot my own trumpet but here goes anyway :-)<br />
<br />
A flash fiction piece of mine was lucky enough to be commended in this year's Bridport Prize. Woohoo! The piece was originally called <i>The Angel in the Bathroom</i> but it had a redraft before submitting and is now called <i>Cure</i>. Big thanks to the Bridport Prize, and the flash fiction judge, <a href="http://www.timjstevenson.com/">Tim Stevenson</a>!<br />
<br />
The lovely thing about this is that <a href="https://www.bridportprize.org.uk/content/2016-winners#Farley">they put me on the Bridport website</a>! Hopefully this is something I can wave in front of agents when trying to get <a href="https://www.facebook.com/crimalian/">Crimble</a>'s autobiography published.<br />
<br />
My friend <a href="https://stephenkirkdaniels.com/">Stephen</a> was kind enough to keep me company on the day and help me feel a little less nervous around all the proper writers! He took most of the pics as well! Here's a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10153886641042371&set=a.345357132370.158818.713032370&type=3&theater">facebook post</a> he put up. I love how much support everyone showed. I'm all smiles :-)<br />
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And here's a big pile of pictures from the prize-giving event:<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv8M4QJBIFgs7-5ac35j_SS6oVF9IAUYDWBlZOkl3RHRHu9mdRr7-np8McZwQONHoxzW280H0sgsJh_uTbLEhwF0Gket2TQIortcKUDvhqOe-ORsZPe0ZrWi12tvfKjxksQLpyyYLm3TQ/s1600/020.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv8M4QJBIFgs7-5ac35j_SS6oVF9IAUYDWBlZOkl3RHRHu9mdRr7-np8McZwQONHoxzW280H0sgsJh_uTbLEhwF0Gket2TQIortcKUDvhqOe-ORsZPe0ZrWi12tvfKjxksQLpyyYLm3TQ/s320/020.jpg" width="225" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The book! I'm in it! Page 148! :-)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMfE8hOqM4Xb0uDfxgfda0gF5SlL6vmKg9kx-1HIb7XSyXwHCFzfLvPxhttqQnArE2QJQ9snBt824sGLLJLzz4TmNVgB17vyGgXWQSTE9kwo10w17YwhqLMTJkmQFZLEc16U4AxR66P2M/s1600/025.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMfE8hOqM4Xb0uDfxgfda0gF5SlL6vmKg9kx-1HIb7XSyXwHCFzfLvPxhttqQnArE2QJQ9snBt824sGLLJLzz4TmNVgB17vyGgXWQSTE9kwo10w17YwhqLMTJkmQFZLEc16U4AxR66P2M/s320/025.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Arrived at the Arts Centre to find my name and pic on <br />
the wall. Exciting! :-)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpTNmu2Ivv7ln2OShvwIcwhcOnE5crceTEHXpT9hTiuAQ_uGmDfIvQfkCTDHP7CJQliIWcMjOxFwlMalb0ZcLamwgdUAFXhq0nP70mHh5A8qQEqWHwtxg5uLXAFNyeJGNAtXkhIhVOAfg/s1600/20161015_121548.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpTNmu2Ivv7ln2OShvwIcwhcOnE5crceTEHXpT9hTiuAQ_uGmDfIvQfkCTDHP7CJQliIWcMjOxFwlMalb0ZcLamwgdUAFXhq0nP70mHh5A8qQEqWHwtxg5uLXAFNyeJGNAtXkhIhVOAfg/s320/20161015_121548.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Welcome drinks upstairs in the gallery </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-UZJgWmhUwwmybb9vYyD5aFypSWsFB_NR5NSVDjMyCtVU81U-5FlCBN_qhKEeAnE8TpLZz48RDMWwJdEiehvu4HcKlpvi1AfCC8AqSgTi2J86RrAsuSU47a6CeoabS3GykizHaPW926w/s1600/20161015_121550.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-UZJgWmhUwwmybb9vYyD5aFypSWsFB_NR5NSVDjMyCtVU81U-5FlCBN_qhKEeAnE8TpLZz48RDMWwJdEiehvu4HcKlpvi1AfCC8AqSgTi2J86RrAsuSU47a6CeoabS3GykizHaPW926w/s320/20161015_121550.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Stephen looks out over the writers, trying to spot the poets</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCkU_rw2mLRPiWR81pR_zSgg5BdtwKkizRhLn3IzzPLDlM5nvlUZlVT_xZVwSNNB-3SbFnLaN_bb9-7tdFO9VdMVlkGVzLTMxHhW-nJCxAWVTZAXGoiDZCnWTAWpZsnWMvuxMtgbowzvA/s1600/20161015_131052.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCkU_rw2mLRPiWR81pR_zSgg5BdtwKkizRhLn3IzzPLDlM5nvlUZlVT_xZVwSNNB-3SbFnLaN_bb9-7tdFO9VdMVlkGVzLTMxHhW-nJCxAWVTZAXGoiDZCnWTAWpZsnWMvuxMtgbowzvA/s320/20161015_131052.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The prize ceremony. I think the people on the stage are the brave <br />
souls who deal with the enormous bags of post</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxH4LcOHBU9NyixXSt3FreQsiHsZszcFFFGkda_Dx-YcTX9G-GYJ8rXd09OFIBAQxVhx0OAEOkxxVSM5wwHTSnJm27LdHmQKjLM3W64vOP_eBNgNYWPQVPaqKHWR4532rXNGvo3z1Kw7A/s1600/20161015_131157.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxH4LcOHBU9NyixXSt3FreQsiHsZszcFFFGkda_Dx-YcTX9G-GYJ8rXd09OFIBAQxVhx0OAEOkxxVSM5wwHTSnJm27LdHmQKjLM3W64vOP_eBNgNYWPQVPaqKHWR4532rXNGvo3z1Kw7A/s320/20161015_131157.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sneaky pic of some of our table-mates. I was worried we'd not <br />
have much to talk about but of course we had plenty in <br />
common - we're all daft enough to spend our free time <br />
frantically scribbling!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiffsprx7C48TlZYfkskeco4AyUIjY4QbCItrSuGs-tKlyUXi9D9L7Zs_uWj_d8Mw7ckGjlMCfaohD7ysBBqSnQLmMY2QeO8hAsTZ2ApDlUXmuhA2mDTEh1FanNBlAywW6VC-FeOqut2Do/s1600/20161015_141539.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiffsprx7C48TlZYfkskeco4AyUIjY4QbCItrSuGs-tKlyUXi9D9L7Zs_uWj_d8Mw7ckGjlMCfaohD7ysBBqSnQLmMY2QeO8hAsTZ2ApDlUXmuhA2mDTEh1FanNBlAywW6VC-FeOqut2Do/s320/20161015_141539.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The ceremony begins</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqoDOhSMtLtmp0NyHSJufQr0nztvCPJysdIjQA916GbWUDfbASJkTB5YMBolvq9IvaxqfiV4TTovKaDIislSK60ZWvAFHDh-pVYHYUBv6H13mSRJXJri-mSUnrHLiMSGEkyT8xIyzu9lk/s1600/20161015_141939.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqoDOhSMtLtmp0NyHSJufQr0nztvCPJysdIjQA916GbWUDfbASJkTB5YMBolvq9IvaxqfiV4TTovKaDIislSK60ZWvAFHDh-pVYHYUBv6H13mSRJXJri-mSUnrHLiMSGEkyT8xIyzu9lk/s320/20161015_141939.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Poetry judge, <a href="https://patienceagbabi.wordpress.com/">Patience Agbabi</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8FmUmOcTADYYvw2I2Fnk_pgbAnFfmqWvBA6VKYajgc8QzDqhZ4K_C6GcpmGhniRwst9gsqKeuX1zMu0qJ7hFGwQOPmQABk3Xh5wouTCKKa9HRMnA7_dFSV1ef3Uu4rosw6xpn6hoMRvs/s1600/20161015_143724.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8FmUmOcTADYYvw2I2Fnk_pgbAnFfmqWvBA6VKYajgc8QzDqhZ4K_C6GcpmGhniRwst9gsqKeuX1zMu0qJ7hFGwQOPmQABk3Xh5wouTCKKa9HRMnA7_dFSV1ef3Uu4rosw6xpn6hoMRvs/s320/20161015_143724.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Short story judge, <a href="http://www.unitedagents.co.uk/tessa-hadley">Tessa Hadley</a> </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipIIYR_3yMlkNqId0iO6A6SNj8EldzBuZOB9LrZq3w9rSVCdpyXzB-AdC0RDkm7yBm3xo7LPiNea-qfhLio7GcH1udcwW3sM0edSxVB3w-QF7fmHA8WbSXpa8uiL9epTnfADg9PZjF3x4/s1600/20161015_145533.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipIIYR_3yMlkNqId0iO6A6SNj8EldzBuZOB9LrZq3w9rSVCdpyXzB-AdC0RDkm7yBm3xo7LPiNea-qfhLio7GcH1udcwW3sM0edSxVB3w-QF7fmHA8WbSXpa8uiL9epTnfADg9PZjF3x4/s320/20161015_145533.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Flash Fiction judge, <a href="http://www.timjstevenson.com/">Tim Stevenson</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYMkaQjDaxW_TP-YQgntzdri9vGGuDPpb9nZp-Emh_RMl7YkPvUXXcpxXhAh5TZdAVv5hRkDVapKe3MrtKf874sz6oRYuHK-koS0msiWnMSAdm7NDAcEDQGwAaki8JFExF7uTNsSUUjEc/s1600/100.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYMkaQjDaxW_TP-YQgntzdri9vGGuDPpb9nZp-Emh_RMl7YkPvUXXcpxXhAh5TZdAVv5hRkDVapKe3MrtKf874sz6oRYuHK-koS0msiWnMSAdm7NDAcEDQGwAaki8JFExF7uTNsSUUjEc/s320/100.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Trying to find my way through the tables!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrlhjYRtmxNOBejfy2EtmrnEAXpp2KsSBxprmUwQR7OxvhL70thzp71oPM1F7HxXryKf6s2V36qfxZAq9C97zro3SkXMxpfQFrejC0vh8dMym4FaiMSOOSsVZucZxlr8eqr-yU3LdBH-0/s1600/110.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrlhjYRtmxNOBejfy2EtmrnEAXpp2KsSBxprmUwQR7OxvhL70thzp71oPM1F7HxXryKf6s2V36qfxZAq9C97zro3SkXMxpfQFrejC0vh8dMym4FaiMSOOSsVZucZxlr8eqr-yU3LdBH-0/s320/110.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Going up on stage. In front of people! Scary!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjejsJYpo0bd3kWgVIKOcbekEybYKbt2ohYXCdKoPHqPz688PgnDlBhWlE7tWEmkuISEiQ-c4l9-dZubXnP_75GXvKoDYeQDq38XYYXJfpz9yUYqxaT_NHDVZ7BtMIGnyUus7z-w67w4l4/s1600/120.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjejsJYpo0bd3kWgVIKOcbekEybYKbt2ohYXCdKoPHqPz688PgnDlBhWlE7tWEmkuISEiQ-c4l9-dZubXnP_75GXvKoDYeQDq38XYYXJfpz9yUYqxaT_NHDVZ7BtMIGnyUus7z-w67w4l4/s320/120.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Getting a prize. Yay! :-)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4gxOBIE6hGwpW4av9GmMRnU_zKEpVIRHHgz4t4gfnGK4emalhZG9_qxbVLY8f31EXFX4PVCeY0VmdSo_ETCCitIqVLMceYKwqtvz9SSlCekauR0wdESoBXW0n1gthSZw8Ws1DEv1eJ5w/s1600/130.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4gxOBIE6hGwpW4av9GmMRnU_zKEpVIRHHgz4t4gfnGK4emalhZG9_qxbVLY8f31EXFX4PVCeY0VmdSo_ETCCitIqVLMceYKwqtvz9SSlCekauR0wdESoBXW0n1gthSZw8Ws1DEv1eJ5w/s320/130.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lots of goodies!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
EDIT: And just to top everything off wonderfully, I was complimented not <a href="https://twitter.com/KitdeWaal/status/797777046734827520?lang=en">once</a> but <a href="https://twitter.com/KitdeWaal/status/797902336228093952?lang=en">twice</a> by the queen of Bridport flash fiction, <a href="http://www.kitdewaal.com/">Kit de Waal</a>! :-) *dramatic fan-boy swoon*<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
Astounded at The Cure, flash fiction in The Bridport Anthology. So very very good. Congratulations <a href="https://twitter.com/mumbletoes">@mumbletoes</a></div>
— Kit de Waal (@KitdeWaal) <a href="https://twitter.com/KitdeWaal/status/797777046734827520">November 13, 2016</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
Really, very very good. Left me speechless. Jealous, impressed, fascinated at the angle it came from. Great stuff :) <a href="https://t.co/6UUcUuwXWY">https://t.co/6UUcUuwXWY</a></div>
— Kit de Waal (@KitdeWaal) <a href="https://twitter.com/KitdeWaal/status/797902336228093952">November 13, 2016</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
</div>
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<br />Mumbletoeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02054628232035000733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2177724085978456073.post-49044657384156033402016-10-01T17:12:00.000+01:002016-11-03T01:37:46.850+00:00A million words in 2016 (October)<div style="text-align: center;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWdhaGZOK9K3J2sD2e8GMqIvtxsUqBsK5svVNNNZExRGdE6GGzvuqMWTntIQjpqu3ZrZh426dtn_y7RGJOdz175yM4VKTwaYqS0G0nFH_2T6w-4UKQVGnWG02p1uswaktKUHZ9zrVHrt8/s1600/1-i-gyR9cSnaob4Lfqs77ZXQ.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWdhaGZOK9K3J2sD2e8GMqIvtxsUqBsK5svVNNNZExRGdE6GGzvuqMWTntIQjpqu3ZrZh426dtn_y7RGJOdz175yM4VKTwaYqS0G0nFH_2T6w-4UKQVGnWG02p1uswaktKUHZ9zrVHrt8/s320/1-i-gyR9cSnaob4Lfqs77ZXQ.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br /></div>
I'm writing a million words in 2016!<br />
<br />
Below is the progress diary for
October
(I'll be updating it as the month goes on). If you're interested, <a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/a-million-words-in-2016.html">here's the intro</a>, and here are the diaries for
<a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/the-million-word-diary-january.html">January</a>,
<a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/a-million-words-in-2016-february.html">February</a>,
<a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/a-million-words-in-2016-march.html">March</a>,
<a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/a-million-words-in-2016-april.html">April</a>,
<a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/a-million-words-in-2016-may.html">May</a>,
<a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/a-million-words-in-2016-june.html">June</a>,
<a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/a-million-words-in-2016-july.html">July</a>,
<a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/a-million-words-in-2016-august.html">August</a> and
<a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/a-million-words-in-2016-september.html">September</a>.
<br />
<br />
The red number in the right-hand column is the total word count. Please wish me luck in watching that number tick up to 1,000,000 over the rest of the year!<br />
<br />
<h2>
The Million-Word Diary:
October
</h2>
<br />
<table border="0" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="3" style="background-color: whitesmoke;">
<tbody>
<tr><td><span style="color: #990000;">
1st Oct</span></td><td style="text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: #990000;">869,827</span></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"><span style="color: #0b5394;">The Poetry Swindon festival is in full swing and so that's my official excuse for not writing! Well, I am actually writing, but all the words I'm producing are being scribbled in notebooks during workshops, and that means they're pretty much uncountable.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Okay, I <i>could</i> count them... but then I'd be spending valuable festival-attending time counting words instead of, well, attending the festival. Plus, most of the writing I'm doing is poetry attempts, which means the word count is pretty low.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Never mind. I'll get back to writing once the festival is done. In the meantime, here are a few festival pics!</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic3WLtNqzlPgLmpUbvoDDutiWx5nL0aa7NVUT1lNB1OULnXWLH484HpN2s4qFgG-KOia_GmyOWWhg9XQauzgk3FDuzpNRsPobnujN_rGS9PEae42KMIUplYL_PL3FVaBbug-xzQK92zOI/s1600/20160929_095539.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic3WLtNqzlPgLmpUbvoDDutiWx5nL0aa7NVUT1lNB1OULnXWLH484HpN2s4qFgG-KOia_GmyOWWhg9XQauzgk3FDuzpNRsPobnujN_rGS9PEae42KMIUplYL_PL3FVaBbug-xzQK92zOI/s320/20160929_095539.jpg" width="180" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://tearsinthefence.com/2014/11/05/frances-and-martine-by-hilda-sheehan-dancing-girl-press-2014/">Hilda</a> starts the festival!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSwNCV0bV4Kykm8EjzD5Th9Cd9K7RPkuPoV-SljvJz0me1pmIatrXhP5DY6EUEJ5GIY1pOhFN-UJIGEOl-qYaFKQmPBDCy5vE4hoNnla0eE76IX_p7trJspGlAVgyL_mOH59Z7Lm4lscM/s1600/20160930_135440.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSwNCV0bV4Kykm8EjzD5Th9Cd9K7RPkuPoV-SljvJz0me1pmIatrXhP5DY6EUEJ5GIY1pOhFN-UJIGEOl-qYaFKQmPBDCy5vE4hoNnla0eE76IX_p7trJspGlAVgyL_mOH59Z7Lm4lscM/s320/20160930_135440.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Workshop with <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Maggie-Harris/e/B006MNG5ZS">Maggie Harris</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp1Y4oevuz1cEpW2Wntmva_UHz6xkDjN2MdkqCZ_8wGUWN2H9Az1zIbbshCF_4hEWs59qG5M4MPHChcXBGFhk00n5FNm7r5WoB8DXzcngqzg4nXmlgyLvfrbIrMO_4xYW9TYmZVMkLgpU/s1600/20160930_203817.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp1Y4oevuz1cEpW2Wntmva_UHz6xkDjN2MdkqCZ_8wGUWN2H9Az1zIbbshCF_4hEWs59qG5M4MPHChcXBGFhk00n5FNm7r5WoB8DXzcngqzg4nXmlgyLvfrbIrMO_4xYW9TYmZVMkLgpU/s320/20160930_203817.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Giggling festival helpers guarding <a href="http://www.poetryswindon.org/dog-s-blog/tag/poetry">Poetry Swindon's Dog</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifdxLI4xl3tziXv2GNlF2CXI94mC3sFvS4s8TgA4Or3_S8GdatgCyyjtbjmsKD-xIJ_XUqqoW_0xg7mVSEN9w7M-WtBjTqtdOmsrEW-HOmulW1_v89uL3it4D_YuPJjKr_cEpM6kH6L_c/s1600/20161001_122341.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifdxLI4xl3tziXv2GNlF2CXI94mC3sFvS4s8TgA4Or3_S8GdatgCyyjtbjmsKD-xIJ_XUqqoW_0xg7mVSEN9w7M-WtBjTqtdOmsrEW-HOmulW1_v89uL3it4D_YuPJjKr_cEpM6kH6L_c/s320/20161001_122341.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Workshop with <a href="http://susanutting.com/">Susan Utting</a> in the <a href="http://swindonmuseumandartgallery.org.uk/">Swindon Museum and Art Gallery</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2xj47wFRr3xh4eURzSlKKsNlimdByA74k8kVq8Ch6_3g3q3pxHi5m4nygTfC9FUOMoYSdZQgOVbhZlaCdaqg-yxc67XJHruAiqBZohW31tvDTlLapqXWahDzIljtC_3p9Xbg1qhRks4o/s1600/20161001_142118.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2xj47wFRr3xh4eURzSlKKsNlimdByA74k8kVq8Ch6_3g3q3pxHi5m4nygTfC9FUOMoYSdZQgOVbhZlaCdaqg-yxc67XJHruAiqBZohW31tvDTlLapqXWahDzIljtC_3p9Xbg1qhRks4o/s320/20161001_142118.jpg" width="180" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hilda as the <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=Dada+tinman&tbm=isch">Dada tin man</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTHTZkFQdQ3rZOpRnunLAiwjrVQ18j6UkG9PwW2442AIdpUzRfD8s4QJKgMsmW5IGYei_Lc-ixeKZ-f-4yJqqV2XiQxLLfOiuwDvPi4_S8EcFaK_UqeeazzOzrqmzgPrQKXzE4pko3Bk0/s1600/20161001_143624.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTHTZkFQdQ3rZOpRnunLAiwjrVQ18j6UkG9PwW2442AIdpUzRfD8s4QJKgMsmW5IGYei_Lc-ixeKZ-f-4yJqqV2XiQxLLfOiuwDvPi4_S8EcFaK_UqeeazzOzrqmzgPrQKXzE4pko3Bk0/s320/20161001_143624.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dada">Dada</a> madness!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
</td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #990000;">10th Oct</span></td><td style="text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: #990000;">869,827</span></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"><span style="color: #0b5394;">The festival is over and I'm broken! Workshops, readings, classes and a ton of socials and late nights. </span><span style="color: #0b5394;">Such an intense 11 days! I'll have to do a proper write-up sometime (if I can find the energy) but for now here's a few snaps. And <a href="https://www.facebook.com/markjfarley/media_set?set=a.10157557172215711.1073741834.561210710&type=3">here's the link to the full facebook album</a> (560 pics!)</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdyo-llHdpegMODNDxkKkJCh16b5A90RD6Gr9e7eZcdrxB-_LjefHPmD89IWKiaTZhFJlwy1StkbybbBsBxPyBMPvvtA0r_aBVnu_f-65HUTlyV2RoQea5VuMPwROmoSV964o29erxP7w/s1600/20161005_230908.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdyo-llHdpegMODNDxkKkJCh16b5A90RD6Gr9e7eZcdrxB-_LjefHPmD89IWKiaTZhFJlwy1StkbybbBsBxPyBMPvvtA0r_aBVnu_f-65HUTlyV2RoQea5VuMPwROmoSV964o29erxP7w/s320/20161005_230908.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The awesome Tent-Palace of the Delicious Air</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgML4Dok3R-OtfC5Uz8d5haAhoxmwp4YdPPK36ynxzT5Q5D6BOEr6355GgzsHPKVLkRSQAPqnfkkYlAmxgXcS_J5-MnAtB6MzH4-8uwZFhuTp7qbcwe8awSh9T2jBYSCB7qyvR3chXMeU0/s1600/20161007_005605.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgML4Dok3R-OtfC5Uz8d5haAhoxmwp4YdPPK36ynxzT5Q5D6BOEr6355GgzsHPKVLkRSQAPqnfkkYlAmxgXcS_J5-MnAtB6MzH4-8uwZFhuTp7qbcwe8awSh9T2jBYSCB7qyvR3chXMeU0/s320/20161007_005605.jpg" width="180" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Poetry Dog looking wonderfully spooky at 1 A.M.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis6ohM1jdhkPu3mm4kfuX0l1cSQOveuccPE7wB6AaFdpd8kujXk7cSpPHxKLxW8wlFtujfVfnd4lbinWyKxjQJi9UVcjijNbOQE81-0evbEkUX8sE_vOySpVtuo8DvNl0bnlKrxOcZcvI/s1600/20161007_214342.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis6ohM1jdhkPu3mm4kfuX0l1cSQOveuccPE7wB6AaFdpd8kujXk7cSpPHxKLxW8wlFtujfVfnd4lbinWyKxjQJi9UVcjijNbOQE81-0evbEkUX8sE_vOySpVtuo8DvNl0bnlKrxOcZcvI/s320/20161007_214342.jpg" width="180" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Unexpected blackouts make for awesome pics!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8NzlBi5pEU_ztmTPYh-swQ8YtlBPK4ZcCy7xMlGF2DUFDtC57GZRZAXxFBjaTyBdr6uxGwlJ2T9987BORR8_tdNs2P7z4JwVzwB1KQdJAjl4a5Zgruy_LOiG1OOZBRKZKxulVnO4tdGo/s1600/20161011_105433.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8NzlBi5pEU_ztmTPYh-swQ8YtlBPK4ZcCy7xMlGF2DUFDtC57GZRZAXxFBjaTyBdr6uxGwlJ2T9987BORR8_tdNs2P7z4JwVzwB1KQdJAjl4a5Zgruy_LOiG1OOZBRKZKxulVnO4tdGo/s320/20161011_105433.jpg" width="180" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Poetry Dog mug helps me recover from the festival lurgy</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<tr><td><span style="color: #990000;">15th Oct</span></td><td style="text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: #990000;">870,492</span></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"><span style="color: #0b5394;">Lovely day today! I attended the Bridport prize-giving! My "angel in the bathroom" finally found her home. She's on page 148 of the 2016 anthology. Full write-up <a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/bridport-prize-flash-fiction-2016.html">here</a>! :-)</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9QVjBmiWGgRyCFsSontRe_gGUgjpgaMoJHacBObiK9bSs9u7LzqMuV36tma5kIwkqCpMdDnzMSJAYT-5li03N3Ce2hyphenhyphenqPn3APD02thV_Ji4Jk9EeUUbaEmKjXDyB_ghLEzprusLG2Rn4/s1600/IMAG0289.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9QVjBmiWGgRyCFsSontRe_gGUgjpgaMoJHacBObiK9bSs9u7LzqMuV36tma5kIwkqCpMdDnzMSJAYT-5li03N3Ce2hyphenhyphenqPn3APD02thV_Ji4Jk9EeUUbaEmKjXDyB_ghLEzprusLG2Rn4/s320/IMAG0289.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Meeting flash fiction judge, <a href="http://www.timjstevenson.com/">Tim Stevenson</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: center;">
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<tr><td><span style="color: #990000;">23rd Oct</span></td><td style="text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: #990000;">870,492</span></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"><span style="color: #0b5394;">Okay, I'm finally recovered! Wow, I had a bit of a energy crash to be honest. Coming home from Greece was exhausting, and then there was immediately 2 days of rushing around (sorting out loads of stuff that I'd been ignoring for 6 months), followed by the festival, followed by driving to Bridport and back... it all kinda caught up with me. But I'm awake again now!</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">And that means it's time to start worrying about my word count again :-(</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span><span style="color: #0b5394;">So... I have about 130k left to achieve my a million words. That's do-able, right? Surely it is. I just have to <i>get started</i> again!</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">But I think I broke my brain. I kept the word count going for so long that I don't think there's anything new in my head. And even on the days when I get some writing done, I keep getting confused which words are new and which were written ages ago - so I end up discounting all of them.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">And I haven't counted all the new words I scribbled during the poetry festival. That's pretty awful for my word count. Y'see, I'm still merging several different versions of the same story... and that means I'm still failing miserably at managing to count all the new words I write. However the year is ticking on so I <i>have</i> to get better at counting.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Managed to count a few words today, so I can proudly announce I have 665 new words! Not sure if they're destined for book 1 or book 2, though. Probably book 2... which means Calvin's story (the story I'd originally thought was "book 1") is now either book 3 or 4. Maybe even 5. Christ, this is why I've been having trouble writing Calvin's story - it doesn't actually start for several books yet! No wonder I've been stuck for so long!</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Okay, so today I wrote some words and did a ton of work towards preparing for NaNoWriMo. I'm counting today as a success! There's a week left of October, and I plan to write something every single day from now until the end of November. Do you hear me, Brain? EVERY SINGLE DAY.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">My graph was looking so good! Now, however, the writing's been neglected so long that the "par" line (the red one) has nearly caught me up! I'm only 20 days ahead at the moment :-(</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKD_Kz16pHdOJESXD5cblj9E9BPC79MVjmfHfNdmgQHi_hGRdNrWyXSUx-z3OPKYtzDyFP6YUW7kU3BSHOcOVyRCgvQw3h09cOu_m2G4bkC1qS3tkG-rwYzT4JL90M-qanixf5iag79aM/s1600/graph.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="118" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKD_Kz16pHdOJESXD5cblj9E9BPC79MVjmfHfNdmgQHi_hGRdNrWyXSUx-z3OPKYtzDyFP6YUW7kU3BSHOcOVyRCgvQw3h09cOu_m2G4bkC1qS3tkG-rwYzT4JL90M-qanixf5iag79aM/s320/graph.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My once-awesome, now awful graph :-(</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Current word count is 870,492. That means I have 129,508 words left to complete this insane task. There are 69 days left in 2016, so t</span><span style="color: #0b5394;">o hit the million word target </span><span style="color: #0b5394;">I need to write 1,877 words per day. </span><span style="color: #0b5394;">Difficult... but hopefully achievable.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Come on then, NaNoWriMo. I've ready for ya!</span><br />
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<tr><td><span style="color: #990000;">
24th Oct</span></td><td style="text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: #990000;">875,572</span></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"><span style="color: #0b5394;">Success! Today I typed words! Lots of words!</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">I needed 1,877 words and I typed more words than I needed!</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">SUCCESS! </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Okay Brain, now just do that another 68 times and everything will be fine.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">It was mostly all work towards Crimble's autobiography, which means I'll hopefully have the tricky "set up" bit finished before <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Novel_Writing_Month">NaNoWriMo</a> officially begins. </span><span style="color: #0b5394;">Happy face, happy smiles, happy dance :-)</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">I also wrote a few blog posts. Not this one... ignore this one... this is just a diary... but I scribbled a few opinions/articles about writing (<a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/brain-stanleys.html">Brain-Stanleys</a> and <a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/name-your-characters-well-and-quickly.html">Naming Characters</a>, plus another that I'll save for publishing later) and I think it's okay to count those words. After all, when I'm a massively successful author (if only!), I can use those blog posts as part of my book, "How to write an awesome novel". </span><span style="color: #0b5394;">I will also write a book called, "How to procrastinate by imaging that one day you might be a massively successful author".</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Not entirely happy today though. Had a bit of bad news this morning, unfortunately. A rejection. Okay, not quite a rejection - but there's a site I submit to every so often where they award prizes for the best story. I wrote a story that I was soooooo sure was the best thing I'd ever sent them and, although it got published, it didn't get picked as the best :-( That kinda hit me hard - mainly because I really wanted it! Normal rejections are no big deal - but this one was quite painful. I guess this is the problem with submitting stories designed to appeal to a specific publication or editor - if you don't achieve the notice/accolade you're hoping for, and have really <i>really</i> tried for it, then failure hurts far more than just a plain old "no, thanks" type rejection.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Ah well. Nothing for it but to pick myself up and try again. Come on Brain - keep writing.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">In other news: The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Novel_Writing_Month">NaNoWriMo</a> daftness has begun! My internal editor is allowing me to freewrite, but is starting to suggest ways to increase my word count. Not good.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">I should probably explain. But it's a daft explanation so I'll do it in a separate post, here: <a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/brain-stanleys.html">Brain-Stanleys</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Had a comical typo today. Someone nibbled on the end of a pork shop (instead of a pork chop). Well, it amused me anyway :-)</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">So... today was mostly a success. In summary: Brain-Stanleys are bad, and I got lots of work done on Crimble's autobiography. I have 5,080 new words and that means the total's now 875,572.</span><br />
<br /></td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #990000;">25th Oct</span></td><td style="text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: #990000;">
877,990</span></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"><span style="color: #0b5394;">Bit demoralised today! Had plenty of time to write but somehow didn't manage to get started until 8pm. Didn't get much sleep last night so the words wouldn't flow today. It was a real <a href="http://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/get-blood-out-of-from-a-stone">blood out of a stone</a> type of slog.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">I seemed to be doing okay with Crimble's autobiography yesterday but today it just wouldn't flow. I think the problem is that I've hit an awkward part of the story. Crimble walks into a huge cave full of people (and dragons!) and they ask her to join them. Quite naturally, she asks what they're doing... and so I'm faced with trying to write a chunk of dialogue that basically sets up the rest of the book. And it's exposition type dialogue. You know - the sort that tells you a ton of background information that you need to know but is dull to read. Unfortunately, I can't think of another way to do this right now. Crimble needs to know a few things at this point of the story, and so does the reader. I've decided to just splurge out the "this is what's going on" dialogue, and then I'll have to break it up later in the edit.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">God, it's dull though!</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">And that's the problem... I'm bored writing it, so the writing is difficult, and I know full well that if it's boring to write then it's boring to read. Obviously everything is fixable, but at the moment I'm struggling to get the words down.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Had to give up in the end and go write a few flash fiction pieces, just to get the word count up to the correct level. That part of tonight's writing went very well - I started two new pieces and they're wonderfully mad. One of them involves the characters stealing a necklace from the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Woolf">Virginia Woolf</a> Museum while trying to hunt up ingredients for a spell, and the whole thing is going to go a bit <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Monkey%27s_Paw">monkey's paw</a> on them. Looking forward to carrying on with that one... it might even turn into a short story rather than a flash fic!</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Today saw 2,418 words and that means the total's now 877,990.</span><br />
<br /></td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #990000;">27th Oct</span></td><td style="text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: #990000;">881,110</span></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"><span style="color: #0b5394;">Yesterday was a zero-word day. Annoying, especially when I'd resolved to write every single day from now on. I spent the day mostly doing things to help other people. Note to self: be more selfish! :-)<br /><br />Crimble's autobiography is at a tricky stage so today - purely to make sure I managed a decent word count - I started a new story. It's a ghost story and I wrote it in a shed at the bottom of the garden. The story freaked me out so much that I was a bit nervous walking back to the house in the dark. I'm hoping that's a sign that the story is good, and not just me being a scaredy-cat.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">The words are still fighting back, so writing was only achieved via ridiculous amounts of:</span><br />
<ol>
<li>cheap sherry,</li>
<li>coffee,</li>
<li>noisy techno music,</li>
<li>toast.</li>
</ol>
<br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Tomorrow I will probably spend the day moaning about the insomnia induced by:</span><br />
<ol>
<li>cheap sherry,</li>
<li>coffee,</li>
<li>noisy techno music,</li>
<li>toast.</li>
</ol>
<br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Hopefully I will also write some more words.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malapropism">Malapropisms</a> are especially amusing when you're hyped up on cheap sherry, coffee, noisy techno music and toast. Here's a silly one for you: Cheap sherry, Sheep cherry. </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Today's bonus: <a href="https://thethoughtwalker.wordpress.com/author/zperrenoud/">Zoé</a> was kind enough to read out some of my 50-word stories on the radio. <a href="https://thethoughtwalker.wordpress.com/author/zperrenoud/">Zoé</a> rocks. Thank you, <a href="https://thethoughtwalker.wordpress.com/author/zperrenoud/">Zoé</a>!</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">So I pronounce today a double win :-)</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Word count today was 3,120 so the new total is 881,110.</span><br />
<br /></td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #990000;">28th Oct</span></td><td style="text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: #990000;">884,238</span></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"><span style="color: #0b5394;">Happy surprise today - I managed to write over 3,000</span><span style="color: #0b5394;"> words with hardly any trouble at all!</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">T</span><span style="color: #0b5394;">oday I had three tasks/meetings scheduled, all of which could have stopped me writing. Thankfully the second of the three was a NaNoWriMo plotting session. NaNoWriMo events are probably the only environment where it's socially acceptable to semi-ignore everyone while manically typing, and it really worked for me today. I managed to achieve that weird state of mind where it's possible to hold a conversation (ish) while also writing. The session lasted for about three hours and towards the end of it I discovered I'd been counting my words wrongly and had actually done a thousand more than I'd realised. Nice discovery, but it meant I'd achieved today's minimum, so immediately stopped!</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">One of the local NaNoWriMo organisers has challenged us all to a race. She's a speedy typist and is planning to knock out around 3k-5k words per day, which means she's likely to win NaNo in less than a fortnight. Apparently if we beat her to 50k then we get a prize, which may or may not involve having one of our sillier lines worked into a cross-stitch pattern. I can probably survive without the cross-stitch, but I'm definitely taking this challenge on because it's yet another bit of motivation to push my typing speed :-)</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Today's bonus was attending a pub quiz with my parents and WE ONLY WENT AND FLIPPIN' WON! :-) Yay us! :-) And the prize was a bottle of wine which will surely be set to good use (probably helping to fuel tomorrow's writing session).</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Second bonus was discovering that other <strike>idiots</strike> oops, I mean <i>keen writers</i> are also doing this "million words in a year" project. There's even a hashtag (<a href="https://twitter.com/search?f=tweets&vertical=default&q=%23Milwordy&src=typd">#milwordy</a>).</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Today gave me 3,128 words (weirdly similar to yesterday's count) so the </span><span style="color: #0b5394;">total's now 884,238. Getting close to 90k now. Can't wait!</span><br />
<br /></td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #990000;">
29th Oct</span></td><td style="text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: #990000;">887,007</span></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"><span style="color: #0b5394;">Today I had no commitments whatsoever, so naturally left the writing until the last minute. I spent a while kicking myself because I really I should've used the day to get lots done, but luckily I managed to get going eventually and a reasonable amount of words appeared. Tried something new today. A friend suggested I try freewriting while listening to a bunch of <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07xhfd7">radio plays by Samuel Beckett</a>. It's a great idea to ensure you never stop writing (every time you go dry, just listen to the current line and use it as a prompt to continue) but it takes the story in some truly crazy directions... and so I now have seven new flash fictions that are all probably too mad to send off. I'll probably send them off anyway :-)</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">I aimed for only the bare minimum (2,733 words) today so the count was 2,769 and the new total's 887,007.</span><span style="color: #0b5394;"> </span><br />
<br /></td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #990000;">
30th Oct</span></td><td style="text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: #990000;">889,979</span></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"><span style="color: #0b5394;">Splendid day at the library today at the NaNoWriMo Launch meeting with our Swindon MLs! (MLs are <a href="http://nanowrimo.org/local-volunteers">Municipal Liaisons</a> which is the obfuscated-business-speak terms for "NaNoWriMo organisers"). They are absolutely awesome and gave us lots of pressies! Look at this!</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyD66qm1K2gdFU-CNMaYrBEilLatgefDq8ZjIFnv3cCfuyhr05IwOYEHOWlgh1ua5iWBV8SFXqY_iR0PWp44_noqhH4EH20aaIgLZP2SMOSUGj9zTphDodozMZWjY9ogXnPX8xLHw4xjo/s1600/CwBLM_fWEAE7R.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyD66qm1K2gdFU-CNMaYrBEilLatgefDq8ZjIFnv3cCfuyhr05IwOYEHOWlgh1ua5iWBV8SFXqY_iR0PWp44_noqhH4EH20aaIgLZP2SMOSUGj9zTphDodozMZWjY9ogXnPX8xLHw4xjo/s320/CwBLM_fWEAE7R.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">NaNoWriMo pressies!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">How great is this? Plot bunnies! An actual real plot bunny, complete with writing-prompt-collar. And a random inspiration quote from Roald Dahl! Plot ideas! Writing prompts! And a side characters to randomly throw in when things get confusing or slow or stuck!<br /><br />We also did a fun exercise where we wrote an <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elevator_pitch">elevator pitch</a> for our novel, then had to try and describe the novel out loud. As writers, we tend to be good at articulating our thoughts on paper but then bluster and blumble when trying to describe something out loud. It was good practice for when we reach the stage of trying to get someone to believe in our novels, and I now have a good elevator pitch sentence for my novel which is a pretty damn useful thing to have.<br /><br />I'd planned to write lots in the Launch meeting but things went a bit wrong. Laptops are pretty damn useful when you take them to NaNoWriMo sessions but they're pretty damn useless when you forget the power lead. Oops! However a friend set me a writing exercise that resulted in a flash fiction called, "How to spoon a donkey". You'll be glad to know that it's not as weird as it sounds because, thankfully, it's narrated by the protagonist who happens to be... a donkey. Phew.<br /><br />Word count today was 2,972 so the total's now 889,979.</span><br />
<br /></td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #990000;">
31st Oct</span></td><td style="text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: #990000;">889,979</span></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"><span style="color: #0b5394;">Gave myself a day off today. Brain was trying to push me into writing but I figured I'd have a snoozy afternoon and then attack the manuscript first thing after midnight (i.e. the start of November, when NaNoWriMo officially begins). This is a tactical play and may well fail terribly but fingers crossed! Happy Halloween, all! Spooky hugs to the lot of ya! :-)</span><br />
<br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Mumbletoeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02054628232035000733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2177724085978456073.post-88967934999432484092016-09-19T18:09:00.000+01:002016-09-22T20:38:46.057+01:00The NYC Midnight Flash Fiction Challenge (part 2)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTHCe6d-zyxH1sAbxvMNbZSRbuvpcqDPvOK24gYcndqhp1hd9bTjLE22MP4Hftd0_YqYGbasSm0nYs7f-VQ_F-WV8vu3s2QCA6AzehK0vodQpjlQZ3x1VqXJBMmwWdzP1D7NepStcsCqU/s1600/StandAloneFist100h01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTHCe6d-zyxH1sAbxvMNbZSRbuvpcqDPvOK24gYcndqhp1hd9bTjLE22MP4Hftd0_YqYGbasSm0nYs7f-VQ_F-WV8vu3s2QCA6AzehK0vodQpjlQZ3x1VqXJBMmwWdzP1D7NepStcsCqU/s1600/StandAloneFist100h01.jpg" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
I'm signed up on the <a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.com/2016/07/the-nyc-midnight-flash-fiction.html">NYC Midnight Flash Fiction Challenge</a> this year. It's a nightmare! They give you just 48 hours to write a 1,000 word story... and that's far less time than my brain needs to polish something to perfection! People who can write that fast, I salute you!<br />
<br />
The results for last time came out and I didn't do too badly. My story was given 9 points out of 15, which means I ranked 7th in my group of 35. That sounds okay, but only the top 5 go through to the next round... so it was far from good enough!<br />
<br />
One of the best parts of this competition is that it provides feedback! From the comments I received, it seems the judges liked my writing but I lost points because I didn't root my story properly in time. Historical Fiction was the genre - and I suppose I should have realised that my story needed to mention a date, at the very least, if not a country as well!<br />
<br />
Ah well, we live and learn!<br />
<br />
Almost as soon as the feedback arrived, we were all allocated a new genre, location and object. This time my group was given:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Genre: <i>Thriller</i></li>
<li>Location: <i>A wildlife refuge</i></li>
<li>Object: <i>A silver spoon</i></li>
</ul>
<br />
Last time, I wrote myself <a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.gr/2016/07/the-nyc-midnight-flash-fiction.html#flashficmethod">a method of how to tackle this competition</a>. Because there's only one weekend to write the story, one of the main things I noted was that it was <i>essential</i> to come up with a good idea on the Saturday... because that means you can have a sleep before the editing and polishing. (I find that a break is really important between the first draft and the edit.)<br />
<br />
Anyway, things went a bit wrong this time around. I couldn't come up with a good idea on Saturday, and so I panicked and just rushed out an action scene between a few characters. It was pretty bad, if I'm honest. I went to bed on Saturday with a wonderful case of the grumpy writer blues.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaDO_p4YIzbA1F8XsdwMogwVYZhPfoNntB3Ftzqc_Ako1utfV2VsrrHew6Od21zlpd0wIH-A35B_rQteYDdrr0tfZOk3kXlrTgYHnDuukixGBrjvAslRrooYvcvo178F98WNo-OXluxjo/s1600/writing-and-depression.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaDO_p4YIzbA1F8XsdwMogwVYZhPfoNntB3Ftzqc_Ako1utfV2VsrrHew6Od21zlpd0wIH-A35B_rQteYDdrr0tfZOk3kXlrTgYHnDuukixGBrjvAslRrooYvcvo178F98WNo-OXluxjo/s320/writing-and-depression.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Humph :-(</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br />
On Sunday I decided to try a different story altogether. I managed to write a couple more stories but then I had three different stories and only a few hours left to choose which one to edit into something worth reading. </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
I'd completely run out of time but I polished one of the stories as best I could, then sent it off with only minutes to spare. The next day, I read the story and hated it! But I guess that's just part of the job of being a creative writer. Sometimes you produce rubbish, and sometimes you produce a story that you love.<br />
<br />
Never mind - at least now I won't have high expectations when the results come out in November! :-)</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<br />Mumbletoeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02054628232035000733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2177724085978456073.post-35633539445950459122016-09-04T15:08:00.000+01:002016-09-22T18:38:09.128+01:00Five minutes until 'I do'<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTdxGRBVU3S47ts7zdf8xgCgCDoZXqkn0ABGoCHcj2qpddYPuBPsa0RlnTsHA104kZVuY0-dstFJQJLMDlyU720gzWhmnBj0gA7SXtBX-vkXqF0hOk9AIYa4g57POmx8nFOkjFlEHigk0/s1600/grooms-speech.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTdxGRBVU3S47ts7zdf8xgCgCDoZXqkn0ABGoCHcj2qpddYPuBPsa0RlnTsHA104kZVuY0-dstFJQJLMDlyU720gzWhmnBj0gA7SXtBX-vkXqF0hOk9AIYa4g57POmx8nFOkjFlEHigk0/s320/grooms-speech.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
I'm a big fan of the <a href="http://fiftywordstories.com/">50-Word Stories</a> site. Trying to squeeze a good tale into just 50 words is one hell of a challenge!<br />
<br />
My latest story is <a href="http://fiftywordstories.com/2016/08/15/mark-farley-five-minutes-until-i-do/">Five minutes until 'I do'</a>. I had some great news today... it's been named <a href="http://fiftywordstories.com/2016/09/04/story-of-the-month-august-2016/">Story of the Month</a> :-)<br />
<br />
This is especially lovely because this is a prize I've been trying for all year long! The last time I managed this was "<a href="http://fiftywordstories.com/2015/07/03/story-of-the-month-june-2015/">Head Case</a>" in June last year!<br />
<br />
Now the story will go forward (along with all the other <a href="http://fiftywordstories.com/?s=story+of+the+month+2016">2016 "Story of the Month" winners</a>) to compete for Story of the Year. And the winner of that is given a place in the <a href="http://fiftywordstories.com/hall-of-fame/">Hall of Fame</a>. Exciting! :-)<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
Mumbletoeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02054628232035000733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2177724085978456073.post-13023295031248275472016-09-01T17:10:00.000+01:002016-10-24T00:19:38.565+01:00A million words in 2016 (September)<div style="text-align: center;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWdhaGZOK9K3J2sD2e8GMqIvtxsUqBsK5svVNNNZExRGdE6GGzvuqMWTntIQjpqu3ZrZh426dtn_y7RGJOdz175yM4VKTwaYqS0G0nFH_2T6w-4UKQVGnWG02p1uswaktKUHZ9zrVHrt8/s1600/1-i-gyR9cSnaob4Lfqs77ZXQ.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWdhaGZOK9K3J2sD2e8GMqIvtxsUqBsK5svVNNNZExRGdE6GGzvuqMWTntIQjpqu3ZrZh426dtn_y7RGJOdz175yM4VKTwaYqS0G0nFH_2T6w-4UKQVGnWG02p1uswaktKUHZ9zrVHrt8/s320/1-i-gyR9cSnaob4Lfqs77ZXQ.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br /></div>
I'm writing a million words in 2016!<br />
<br />
Below is the progress diary for
September
(I'll be updating it as the month goes on). If you're interested, <a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/a-million-words-in-2016.html">here's the intro</a>, and here are the diaries for
<a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/the-million-word-diary-january.html">January</a>,
<a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/a-million-words-in-2016-february.html">February</a>,
<a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/a-million-words-in-2016-march.html">March</a>,
<a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/a-million-words-in-2016-april.html">April</a>,
<a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/a-million-words-in-2016-may.html">May</a>,
<a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/a-million-words-in-2016-june.html">June</a>,
<a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/a-million-words-in-2016-july.html">July</a> and
<a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/a-million-words-in-2016-august.html">August</a>.
<br />
<br />
The red number in the right-hand column is the total word count. Please wish me luck in watching that number tick up to 1,000,000 over the rest of the year!<br />
<br />
<h2>
The Million-Word Diary:
September
</h2>
<br />
<table border="0" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="3" style="background-color: whitesmoke;">
<tbody>
<tr><td><span style="color: #990000;">
1st Sept</span></td><td style="text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: #990000;">861,132</span></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"><span style="color: #0b5394;">Okay, I'm finally going to say it. Trying to write a million words in a year is a <i>terrible</i> idea.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">I'm serious.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span><span style="color: #0b5394;">I admit the project has produced me a ton of first drafts. And some of them, I actually like!</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">But OH MY GOD there's been no editing done at all. None!</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">So all I have is messy novels that <i>desperately </i>need some attention! Back in <a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.gr/2016/05/a-million-words-in-2016-may.html">May</a>, I was really enjoying this project, but since then it's become horribly frustrating because I really do feel I've nothing to show for all this effort.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Admittedly I am planning to dedicate next year to editing all these novels into something that other human beings can read, but for the moment all I'm left with is a ton of messy words, with no tangible/demonstrable result that I could ever show anyone. And that's pretty damn demoralising.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">In particular, the project that started the whole "millions words" thing off (namely, last year's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Novel_Writing_Month">NaNoWriMo</a> novel) is <i>still</i> sitting around waiting to be edited. And it's nearly November again! So after all that hard work (and it <i>was</i> hard - I wrote nearly <a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/nanowrimo-complete.html">170,000 words in 6 weeks</a>!), I've not edited my NaNo effort into a proper novel. A whole year and it's STILL NOT DONE! So there's a very real danger that I'll never ever edit it... and that, I think it's fair to say, is a colossal waste of time (and not something that makes me try NaNoWriMo again this year!)</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Shall I stop grumbling now? :-)</span><br />
<br /></td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #990000;">4th Sept</span></td><td style="text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: #990000;">861,132</span></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"><span style="color: #0b5394;">S</span><span style="color: #0b5394;">ome fantastic news today - <a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.com/2016/09/five-minutes-until-i-do.html">my latest 50-word story was named "Story of the month"</a>! :-) Click the link for the full story. I'm so happy - I've been trying for this all year long! :-)</span><br />
<br /></td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #990000;">15th Sept</span></td><td style="text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: #990000;">861,132</span></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"><span style="color: #0b5394;">Right, so here's the current situation. I have tried time and time (and time and time) again to write the first book of my fantasy series. Each time I have failed because there are two (yes, two) protagonists. All the writing books in the world give DIRE warnings about a beginner novelist trying to write in two unique character voices, and I think they're probably right.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">I had always planned to make Calvin the main character. </span><span style="color: #0b5394;">He's the typical Luke-Skywalker-Harry-Potter-orphan-boy-makes-good type of guy. However, </span><span style="color: #0b5394;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/crimalian/">Crimble</a> (the cute little dragon who becomes Calvin's guide) is soooooo much more fun to write! And she's also very arrogant, which kinda makes her hilarious. I'm basically writing her as if she was a cat (i.e. she's cute, but she's also a cold-blooded killer who couldn't care less if her owner gets run over by a combine harvester).</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">So yes, it's probably time to give up on Calvin. That's a shame because there's something adorable about the (probably cliched) dumb farm boy character discovering he's destined for something huge. Maybe I'll manage to write a novel from his point of view one day but, for the time being, I'm concentrating on Crimble.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Here's the second problem. My world building is out of control! Two of my characters are gods and that means I've had to plan the timeline of my world since it was created. That's hell of a lot of world building! Most of it is done now, but there are still a few massive problems to sort out.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">What with work and god knows what else, I've somehow allowed this crazy project to take control of my life for the last decade or two. I admit it's been good fun - planning this thing - but it's also exhausting and I <i>have</i> to rein it in at some point or I'm never going to get this flipping series written.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">So I've now created "Book Zero". The book before what I thought was going to be "Book One".</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Book One was meant to be Calvin's tale, but it's soooooooo much work to try and explain everything without resorting to agonisingly dull exposition. So my solution is to *show* the world building through Crimble's eyes. And I mean literally show it - because Crimble is quite an old dragon (no offence, Crimble) and therefore she's around to see most of it happening.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">I'm not going all the way back to the creation of the world, but allowing to Crimble write her autobiography is helping me in two ways. First of all, s</span><span style="color: #0b5394;">he can tell the reader what's happening as she watches the world changing around her. That cuts out a lot of exposition. Secondly, the book will all be in Crimble's </span><span style="color: #0b5394;">character voice - and I've had a lot of good feedback about that!</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Crimble seems sure people will want to read her book. I wish I had her arrogance/confidence - I really do! Anyway, she's telling her story and that's great because it means I'm writing again.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">A few years back, I wrote a draft of this story and so that's what I'm now working with at the moment. Just to confuse matters, I discovered I actually have two drafts of the same story. I don't remember writing it twice, but the documents are sitting there on my hard drive, and it's definitely my writing, so now I'm deep in the middle of trying to amalgamate the two drafts (they both have good bits that I want to keep!)</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Joining the two drafts is hard work, especially when I'm also having to write little bits to keep everything seamless. And it's essentially "editing" - which I swore I wouldn't do this year. Thing is, editing is hard work and it's also massively time consuming. (I'm sure anyone who's tried writing for a living will agree!) ... And the really awful thing about editing is that it does NOT work when you're trying to write a million words in one year! It's literally impossible to keep an accurate count of all the new words you write while piecing things together. Well, it's impossible for me, anyway. So here I am, manically writing like crazy, joining two messy first drafts into one so I have a decent foundation to my new draft... and I have no idea how many words I'm writing. And that means I can't count them - and that means they don't count to my million words.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Aargh!</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Next year I refuse to do the million words project again! I might do a few NaNoWriMo attempts spread throughout 2017, but denying myself editing sessions is just too darn frustrating. </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">I'll try to stop moaning now :-)</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
</td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #990000;">
22nd Sept</span></td><td style="text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: #990000;">866,411</span></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"><span style="color: #0b5394;">The lovely thing about having stories out there in the world is that occasionally someone adds a comment or leaves a review - and you see it and *bang* you're suddenly full of smiles. For example, a comment has been recently added to <a href="http://fiftywordstories.com/2015/06/01/mark-farley-head-case/">Head Case</a>, and it's made me a very happy bunny indeed :-) Here's a screenshot, just in case for some reason it ever vanishes! </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguyayfwhy9at0W1BBLYUXGZqpco0TRWdwPB20yExKg1VlyWrPQJhDCH2C8QJINNgiMB_ZdoRNOpjPGFgjf1XJA_LFsRrIGMnNH9O9PbysnFmlJ533eosFA2ZeiyO2qRRWNY_0izJVFhzE/s1600/Mita+Andson_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="78" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguyayfwhy9at0W1BBLYUXGZqpco0TRWdwPB20yExKg1VlyWrPQJhDCH2C8QJINNgiMB_ZdoRNOpjPGFgjf1XJA_LFsRrIGMnNH9O9PbysnFmlJ533eosFA2ZeiyO2qRRWNY_0izJVFhzE/s320/Mita+Andson_.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Thank you, Mita! It's comments like these which keep us daft writers going! :-)</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">(I say "daft" because, let's face it, writing is probably the maddest career choice ever. No money, long hours, and oodles upon oodles of crippling self doubt!)</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Mita spurred me on to check if there are any new reviews for <a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.com/2015/10/grans-ammo.html">Grans & Ammo</a> (a fun little novella I wrote a while ago about grannies fighting zombies). Happy to say I now have <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Grans-Ammo-Mr-Mark-Farley/product-reviews/1517681952/ref=cm_cr_dp_d_show_all_top?ie=UTF8">two reviews on amazon.com</a> and <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/product-reviews/B016F3C55S/ref=cm_cr_dp_see_all_summary?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1&sortBy=helpful">four reviews on amazon.co.uk</a>. Okay, that might be small beans to some, but it makes me happy :-)</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;">In other news, I'm writing again at last! Crimble's autobiography has been set aside for the moment, and I'm trying a few new things (including the next part of the NYC Midnight Flash Fiction Challenge). The word counts aren't great but at least there's something new being typed at long last! The words on 17th and 18th Sept were for the second part of the </span><span style="color: #0b5394;">The NYC Midnight Flash Fiction Challenge </span><span style="color: #0b5394;">- read about that on my other post <a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.com/2016/09/the-nyc-midnight-flash-fiction.html">here</a>!</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Counts for 17-21 Sept were </span><span style="color: #0b5394;">1,435, </span><span style="color: #0b5394;">2,245, </span><span style="color: #0b5394;">875, </span><span style="color: #0b5394;">320 and </span><span style="color: #0b5394;">404. That means my total has finally gone up! I'm now on </span><span style="color: #0b5394;">866,411</span><span style="color: #0b5394;">. Unfortunately I'm about to move home in four days time, so all the kerfuffle will probably stop me writing again. Hopefully I'll keep it going somehow.</span><br />
<div>
<br /></div>
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<tr><td><span style="color: #990000;">30th Sept</span></td><td style="text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: #990000;">869,827</span></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"><span style="color: #0b5394;">The last week was a bit of a whirl. I never expected my time in Greece to go so fast, but here I am, back in England already. The <a href="http://www.poetryswindon.org/">Swindon Poetry Festival</a> has started and will be continuing all next week. I've already got about a thousands pages of notes from it! Oh no... that means I have to type them up, doesn't it? Aargh! :-)<br /><br />I got a few words done in the last week. Not sure how I managed this, but I did! Word counts for 22-24 Sept were 794, 415 and 1,594. There was a bit of a break and then I managed 613 on the 28th. That means the total's now 869,827.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">It's been a busy time what with packing, travelling and "festivaling", so I guess I have a legitimate excuse for not writing loads of words. I'm hoping to get back into it once the festival is over. See you in October!</span><br />
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Mumbletoeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02054628232035000733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2177724085978456073.post-40267150868351515122016-08-25T16:13:00.000+01:002016-09-22T19:23:11.747+01:00One line Wednesday - a weekly twitter event (#1lineWed)Writers! Poets! Are you tweeting?<br />
<br />
First of all, if you're on twitter, please follow <a href="https://twitter.com/mumbletoes">@mumbletoes</a>! I tweet stuff about writing, mostly, along with the occasional joke that I think looks good for a writing prompt. Come say hi! :-)<br />
<br />
If anyone's looking to build up their twitter account then I'd really recommend getting involved with the <a href="https://twitter.com/search?f=tweets&vertical=default&q=%231lineWed&src=typd">#1lineWed</a> hashtag (details <a href="https://emlita.wordpress.com/2015/07/30/so-what-is-1linewed-for-writers/">here</a>). Maybe I've not noticed it building up and up, but I swear it's suddenly got <i>very</i> popular. I threw a few tweets out into the ether yesterday and when I checked today ... *boom* (have a look at the badge number on the twitter icon!) :-)<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqvxBP_ZI0TgiqlQGzv9Fb9aNTDdAJDU0YPkIk-wSmCVaEvOyuR3i9N_SU335ZnM0xIrmjolkf7rm5PQMljewJWmY9UltQNCNpjKh9n8G-PqQaSfrBydfETI2aekq_6s2ZyBDHsp1n5Xs/s1600/14040086_10157372364045711_6978995803437176237_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqvxBP_ZI0TgiqlQGzv9Fb9aNTDdAJDU0YPkIk-wSmCVaEvOyuR3i9N_SU335ZnM0xIrmjolkf7rm5PQMljewJWmY9UltQNCNpjKh9n8G-PqQaSfrBydfETI2aekq_6s2ZyBDHsp1n5Xs/s320/14040086_10157372364045711_6978995803437176237_n.jpg" width="180" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">206 itty bitty blobs of internet lurrrve!</td></tr>
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<br />
I now feel vaguely popular in a "fake internet points" kinda way :-) All right, I don't really, but it's interesting (maybe just to me) to have so much interaction with writers across the world - and all from such little effort. Plus, there's a sense of community out there... and that's great because, let's face it, writing encouragement is hard to come by in real life!<br />
<br />
Okay, maybe all this is small beans to the twitter gurus (and yes, perhaps I'd have been better off spending the time writing) but I've heard agents/publishers like to see a writer has made a bit of effort with social media. They do, don't they? Please say yes.<br />
<br />
And this was also kind of a shock... five of my own tweets plus a sprinkling of likes, retweets and replies on other people's stuff resulted in all of this interaction. There were lots of likes, lots of retweets, and people were replying with encouragement or even making suggestions for improvements/sequels. And, believe it or not, some of those people hitting the "like" button are agents and publishers. It's not going to get me a contract but surely it's helpful to get your name out there...? :-)<br />
<br />
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<br />Mumbletoeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02054628232035000733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2177724085978456073.post-40937207631249333322016-08-01T17:07:00.000+01:002016-09-22T19:40:50.569+01:00A million words in 2016 (August)<div style="text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM9dk9v66gdZhV1gb0jE78W-QJ9a8c41rvnIQMk5ds8Kh8QcAdex1g4l1Tn9AaAVL0HE9l_hhh9a0DtX5lJSqdCwyosVj4CcrdNc3bWhi44Edg9geXAUoV3GNZoeQuvEq7jEwOSOThgFk/s1600/Screen-Shot-2015-07-31-at-19.18.41.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="184" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM9dk9v66gdZhV1gb0jE78W-QJ9a8c41rvnIQMk5ds8Kh8QcAdex1g4l1Tn9AaAVL0HE9l_hhh9a0DtX5lJSqdCwyosVj4CcrdNc3bWhi44Edg9geXAUoV3GNZoeQuvEq7jEwOSOThgFk/s320/Screen-Shot-2015-07-31-at-19.18.41.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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I'm writing a million words in 2016!<br />
<br />
Below is the progress diary for
August
(I'll be updating it as the month goes on). If you're interested, <a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/a-million-words-in-2016.html">here's the intro</a>, and here are the diaries for
<a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/the-million-word-diary-january.html">January</a>,
<a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/a-million-words-in-2016-february.html">February</a>,
<a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/a-million-words-in-2016-march.html">March</a>,
<a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/a-million-words-in-2016-april.html">April</a>,
<a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/a-million-words-in-2016-may.html">May</a>,
<a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/a-million-words-in-2016-june.html">June</a> and
<a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/a-million-words-in-2016-july.html">July</a>.
<br />
<br />
The red number in the right-hand column is the total word count. Please wish me luck in watching that number tick up to 1,000,000 over the rest of the year!<br />
<br />
<h2>
The Million-Word Diary:
August
</h2>
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<table border="0" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="3" style="background-color: whitesmoke;">
<tbody>
<tr><td><span style="color: #990000;">
1st Aug</span></td><td style="text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: #990000;">861,132</span></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"><span style="color: #0b5394;">Yikes, this is a bad way to start the month. No words! </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Still can't get the brain working! <a href="http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=blah">Blah</a>. <a href="http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=ARGH">Argh</a>. <a href="http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Meh">Meh</a>. </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">I'm getting very close to the million word target and for some reason: </span><br />
<ol>
<li><span style="color: #0b5394;">my brain has gone to sleep, </span></li>
<li><span style="color: #0b5394;">my motivation has packed up and gone on holiday to Malta, </span></li>
<li><span style="color: #0b5394;">and my </span><a href="http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/get-up-and-go">get up and go</a><span style="color: #0b5394;"> has politely stifled a yawn and curled up somewhere under an olive tree. </span></li>
</ol>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Zero word count today, so the total's still 861,132. Come on, Brain. Wake up! :-)</span><br />
<br /></td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #990000;">
17th Aug</span></td><td style="text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: #990000;">861,132</span></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"><span style="color: #0b5394;">I had a little taste of editing today! Okay, it wasn't really editing... it was more like "fighting Word's dodgy formatting". The unfortunate thing about Word is that it's often configured to retain the formatting when pasting from other documents. You <i>think</i> you're just getting the text when you cut-and-paste but, depending on how your version of Word is set up, you can end up with all manner of weird stuff coming along too, such as random paragraph indents or irritating spacing of lines and/or paragraphs.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Anyway, a friend is currently editing a book of poetry and flash fiction (one of the flash fics is by me - hooray!) and I was able to help out. I didn't enjoy my IT career, but I have to admit it's been useful in helping me know all the weird things computers love to do to screw us over.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">It all got sorted and apparently I now get a credit in the book notes! And, as an extra bonus, I even was allowed to throw in a couple of sneaky edits to my flash fic piece. Maybe this editing lark isn't so bad after all :-)</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Still no words done, though! The brain really has died this month. I could try and blame the heat, I guess. It's well over 30 degrees each day and so I spend my time asleep more often than not, but I can't use that excuse forever. Anyway, I'm still ahead - I guess that's all that matters. I wrote loads at the start of the year and gave myself a bit of breathing space... so that's what I'm using now. Here's hoping I manage to get back into it soon!</span><br />
<br /></td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #990000;">
25th Aug</span></td><td style="text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: #990000;">861,132</span></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"><span style="color: #0b5394;">After about a month of major writer's block, I'm finally writing again! I can't tell you what <a href="http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/a+load+off+mind">a load off</a> this is. In the end it took 6 cups of coffee and 3 huge glasses of wine, but I finally broke the back of <a href="https://www.facebook.com/crimalian/">Crimble</a>'s autobiography. I'm 6,000 words in and am fairly sure I know what happens next, so am confident enough to jinx it with this diary entry! Can't believe I finally got there. I'd cry with relief if I had the energy.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span><span style="color: #0b5394;">Crimble's autobiography. Sigh. I've been putting this task off for ages but that's crazy because this is the story I want to work on - the one I've been planning for a decade and now, finally, have time to complete.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">The hilarious/depressing thing is that I'm not managing to count any new words! Thing is, </span><span style="color: #0b5394;">I have two drafts of the same story. Both are similar (in that the events are the same) but the characters have all changed quite radically, so I'm trying to grab the best bits from both drafts, while rewriting to ensure the character voices are consistent throughout. The word count is impossible to calculate because there's so much chopping/hacking going on... I grab a few paragraphs from each of the two drafts, smash them around for a while, throw in a few new words here and there so everything makes sense, and then rewrite the results to make it cohesive. If I were to attempt counting the new words as I went along, the work would be impossible.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">I guess I always knew this would happen at some point in the "million words" project. There are some jobs in writing that you simply can't calculate in terms of word count. You can't even calculate them in terms of time because sometimes you'll be hacking one paragraph around for an hour, and then the next couple of paragraphs come up perfect straight away. </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">So, ultimately, I have no new words. Not anything I can count towards the "million words" project anyway. Joining two rough drafts (and cleaning them both up into a decent second draft) isn't something that's going to result in an impressive word count. Not when you're only counting new words, anyway.</span><br />
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<tr><td><span style="color: #990000;">
31st Aug</span></td><td style="text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: #990000;">861,132</span></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"><span style="color: #0b5394;">A whole month of zero words. Yikes. I'm doing okay with Crimble's autobiography, but in terms of new words that I count towards the "million words" project, I've done nothing. </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Zero words is not a new thing. There have been plenty of months full of zero words in my life so far. But when I'm meant to be writing at least 2,000 words a day, this is really not good :-( </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Come on, Brain. Enthusiasm, please! </span><br />
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Mumbletoeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02054628232035000733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2177724085978456073.post-475668286850475762016-07-27T17:42:00.000+01:002016-09-22T19:36:08.579+01:00The NYC Midnight Flash Fiction Challenge (part 1)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I've signed up to the <a href="http://www.nycmidnight.com/Competitions/FFC/Challenge.htm">NYC Midnight Flash Fiction Challenge</a>. It's a writing competition that runs all the way until December (well, it does if you're lucky enough to get through all the rounds to the final!)<br />
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There are so many people doing this competition! I'm in <a href="http://www.nycmidnight.com/Competitions/FFC/1st%20Round/48.htm">group number 48</a>. The group contains 35 writers, and there are 60 groups, so that's 2100 writers altogether! Yikes. Scary odds. But hey, even if I don't get anywhere, it'll be nice to get a few stories out of it.<br />
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How does it work? Well, you get assigned a <i>genre</i>, a <i>location</i>, and an <i>object</i>... then have to produce up to 1,000 words of quality flash fic in just one weekend. The story has to be written according to the given genre, and must take place at the given location. The object, luckily, only needs to be mentioned in the story rather than play an important part... which is good because some of the objects are kinda random! (Imagine trying to write a 1,000-word story set in a casino that somehow features a toothbrush.)<br />
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So you only get 48 hours to write a story! The problem with such a short deadline is that you pretty much have to write and shape the story on Saturday, in order to leave time to sleep on it before some hard-core editing and polishing on the Sunday.<br />
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Assignment examples:<br />
<ul>
<li>Genre: <i>Thriller</i>, Location: <i>A blood bank</i>, Object: <i>A poker chip</i>.</li>
<li>Genre: <i>Romantic Comedy</i>, Location: <i>A jewellery shop</i>, Object: <i>A slice of lemon</i>.</li>
<li>Genre: <i>Historical Fiction</i>, Location: <i>A castle</i>, Object: <i>A thimble</i>.</li>
</ul>
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That third example above is actually the assignment I was given. So I had to write a historical fiction story set in a castle, and I needed to mention a thimble at some point. My mind immediately went blank. Thanks, Brain.<br />
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It took me ages to come up with an idea - nearly the whole of the Saturday! - but I got there in the end by finding what I think is a method that will work for next time. Here's what I did:<br />
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<b><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="flashficmethod">Mark's dodgy method for writing fast flash fiction for the NYC competition:</a></b><br />
<ol>
<li><i>Eliminate the object</i>. The object only needs to be <i>mentioned</i>, so forget about it for now (especially if your object is something like a thimble, which sounds incredibly dull and makes my mind go completely blank!)</li>
<li><i>Read about your genre</i>. They have a page of <a href="http://www.nycmidnight.com/genres.htm">genre definitions</a> on their site which is pretty darn useful because it basically tells you exactly how to write your story.</li>
<li><i>Brainstorm the genre and the location to find the story</i>. In a way, I think I was lucky here. If you write an oldie-worldy sort of story set in a castle then it should sound at least vaguely historical. (And, seeing as there are only 48 hours of playtime, you <i>have</i> to look for shortcuts!)</li>
<li><i>Write the story</i>. Here's where you do the usual thing for first drafts. Freewrite the tale as fast as possible! Splurge, splurge, splurge! Don't let that pen (or those typing fingers) stop moving! Aim for more than 1,000 words, so you have plenty to trim and tighten.</li>
<li><i>Add the object</i>. If you haven't managed to mention the object in your story then find a place to cram it in. Although when you were splurging, the object was in the back of your mind so maybe you'll be lucky and find your brain's magically found a place for it already.</li>
<li><i>Check the genre and location</i>. The idea here is to double check that the story you've just splurged into the page hasn't gone off in a weird direction. Does it actually match the brief? For example, here I'm writing historical fiction and therefore a dragon is probably not a good character (because the judges would say, "No, that's fantasy - disqualified!") </li>
<li><i>Research</i>. (This is an extra step just for historical fiction.) Check all your details! Yes, I know, normally for historical fiction you'd do all the research first but there's simply no time for such shenanigans if you only have 48 hours. Writers love to procrastinate, and research is the perfect procrastination tool (because it feels like you're doing something constructive right up until 5 minutes before the deadline, whereupon you suddenly panic because you've not even written the title yet). So write the story first - get the essence of it down - and <i>then </i>fix the inaccuracies.</li>
<li><i>Polish</i>. Trim, trim, trim! Make those words pop!</li>
<li><i>Submit</i>. Don't leave it until the last minute because, well... come here... bit closer... *whispers* don't tell my laptop I said this, but computers love to try and screw you over when you're pushed for time.</li>
</ol>
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So I have a method, but the big problem, as always, is finding a good story. The tight deadline results in a massive amount of pressure. Each passing hour really does count! And it's scary to settle on an idea because of course you never really find out if a story is good or not until you finish the thing and read it after a break.<br />
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I had an idea but Brain was silent and refused to help. I gave up and went out to have a swim, feeling that I'd failed already! Luckily, Brain was kind enough to write the first and last lines for me while I was in the water... and after that I just needed to splurge out the middle bit!<br />
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So the story's submitted and apparently the judges will provide feedback. And, hopefully, some points! The <a href="http://www.nycmidnight.com/Competitions/FFC/FAQ.htm#HowitWorks">scoring system</a> is a bit complicated but basically you write two stories in Round 1. And the total score for BOTH stories needs to be ranked in the top 5 (out of the 35 in your group) for you to progress to Round 2.<br />
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The next bit of the competition happens in September. The July story and the September story are counted together as the entry for Round 1. If those two stories <i>together </i>get me ranked in the top 5 (of the 35 in my group) then I go on to Round 2 in November.<br />
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I think the timing is the scariest bit of this competition... it's spread throughout the year and, on the competition weekends, I have to be completely sure of a good internet connection and lots of peace and quiet to think. I'm currently moving around a lot so 2016 may not have been the best year to participate! :-/<br />
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Mumbletoeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02054628232035000733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2177724085978456073.post-86622938651195755992016-07-23T00:20:00.001+01:002016-09-22T19:37:14.651+01:00Said the doctor...<i>Spilling Cocoa Over Martin Amis</i> have accepted <a href="http://www.spillingcocoa.com/said-the-doctor-by-mark-farley/">Said the Doctor</a>!
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It's a silly/surreal poem that's vaguely in the style of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_Are_Old,_Father_William">Lewis Carroll's "You Are Old, Father William"</a> :-)<br />
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Mumbletoeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02054628232035000733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2177724085978456073.post-64252893116451322242016-07-01T17:03:00.000+01:002016-09-22T18:11:38.924+01:00A million words in 2016 (July)<div style="text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWdhaGZOK9K3J2sD2e8GMqIvtxsUqBsK5svVNNNZExRGdE6GGzvuqMWTntIQjpqu3ZrZh426dtn_y7RGJOdz175yM4VKTwaYqS0G0nFH_2T6w-4UKQVGnWG02p1uswaktKUHZ9zrVHrt8/s1600/1-i-gyR9cSnaob4Lfqs77ZXQ.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWdhaGZOK9K3J2sD2e8GMqIvtxsUqBsK5svVNNNZExRGdE6GGzvuqMWTntIQjpqu3ZrZh426dtn_y7RGJOdz175yM4VKTwaYqS0G0nFH_2T6w-4UKQVGnWG02p1uswaktKUHZ9zrVHrt8/s320/1-i-gyR9cSnaob4Lfqs77ZXQ.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>
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I'm writing a million words in 2016!<br />
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Below is the progress diary for
July
(I'll be updating it as the month goes on). If you're interested, <a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/a-million-words-in-2016.html">here's the intro</a>, and here are the diaries for
<a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/the-million-word-diary-january.html">January</a>,
<a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/a-million-words-in-2016-february.html">February</a>,
<a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/a-million-words-in-2016-march.html">March</a>,
<a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/a-million-words-in-2016-april.html">April</a>,
<a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/a-million-words-in-2016-may.html">May</a> and <a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/a-million-words-in-2016-june.html">June</a>.
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The red number in the right-hand column is the total word count. Please wish me luck in watching that number tick up to 1,000,000 over the rest of the year!<br />
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<h2>
The Million-Word Diary:
July
</h2>
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<table border="0" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="3" style="background-color: whitesmoke;">
<tbody>
<tr><td><span style="color: #990000;">
1st July</span></td><td style="text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: #990000;">839,330</span></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"><span style="color: #0b5394;">The "million words" project is stalled at the moment because my poor old faithful laptop died a horrible death. It's okay though - I've buried it in a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pet_Sematary">Pet Sematary</a> so it's sure to be resurrected. In the meantime, I've ordered a new one! Come on, New Laptop, hurry up and get here! </span><br />
<br /></td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #990000;">5th July</span></td><td style="text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: #990000;">839,330</span></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"><span style="color: #0b5394;">Still no laptop but I'm writing a few bits and pieces occasionally. After all that typing-up-of-notebooks, however, I'm really not keen to write longhand ever again! </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">There was a nice moment today. I had a piece published called <a href="http://fiftywordstories.com/2016/07/05/mark-farley-hybrid-herd/">Hybrid Herd</a>. It's only 50 words long, but that 50 words has taken me to a new milestone... </span><span style="color: #0b5394;">I</span><span style="color: #0b5394;"> now have over 25,000 words in print! :-) </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span><span style="color: #0b5394;">Well... it's 25,041 to be precise! Yes, I do keep a record of what's been published... is that a bad thing? :-)</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">In other news: According to the postal tracking info, New Laptop is having quite an adventurous journey! A week ago it left from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edinburgh">Edinburgh</a>, then passed through <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preston,_Lancashire">Preston</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamworth,_Staffordshire">Tamworth</a>, and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barking">Barking</a>. On it bounced to Germany, and is now apparently somewhere in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milan">Milan</a>. Come on, little laptop. Hurry up and get here! Come help me get back to failing to write a novel :-)</span><br />
<br /></td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #990000;">
17th July</span></td><td style="text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: #990000;">839,330</span></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"><span style="color: #0b5394;">It's here! New Laptop is here! </span><span style="color: #0b5394;">God, I never realised just how much I rely on having a laptop these days! How did anyone manage to write books in the days before computers? It can't have been possible, can it?! They must have all travelled into the future, typed everything on a handy keyboard, then travelled back with a completed manuscript. That's the only possible explanation.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">I spent far more on this machine than I should have, but there's </span><span style="color: #0b5394;">another year before my credit card starts charging interest so for now I'm just going to forget how much I spent and worry about it later. *gulp*</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Slight teething trouble, though. I made the mistake of installing Windows updates. Ouch. Nothing worked and, then I had a big fight with the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Screen_of_Death">blue screen of death</a> (which, these days, is a much more <a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ab/BSOD_Windows_8.png">pleasing shade of blue</a>). Finally, I had to reset the whole thing. And this happened after a day - yes, a FULL DAY - of sitting at an Internet Cafe, installing all the software gubbins that I need. So I had to start all over again. </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Sigh... I'm starting to get the feeling that God does not want me to write my novel. That's probably because he's already read the ending and knows it doesn't end happily! :-)</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Word count is still stuck at 839k because I'm still setting things up. Did you know you have to subscribe to MS Office these days? They want $10 a month, the gits! If they get that much from everyone who uses it then they'll be rolling in gold. Haven't they screwed us over enough?</span><br />
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<tr><td><span style="color: #990000;">20th July</span></td><td style="text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: #990000;">840,452</span></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"><span style="color: #0b5394;">Am attempting to get my head back into "writing mode" by typing up a few of the flash fictions I wrote longhand while waiting for the new laptop to arrive. Sadly there's not much... after all that typing-up I did last month, I just don't have the heart to write longhand any more! </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">For the record, here's my progress graph since the start of the year. That long horizontal bit is very disheartening!</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUO2egNcaWsevE3zX8HvasELegqhErfLt4pckxIWjkmtT9BqDFGvgY-2Ex6XzfhxXYu0smFMVqhojv49pw5igWFmMpoMjunMQ-Uy1jvMd2K0qPz7gUh9xb3qHcXXep4b9oDvy_WeNFjVU/s1600/graph.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="130" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUO2egNcaWsevE3zX8HvasELegqhErfLt4pckxIWjkmtT9BqDFGvgY-2Ex6XzfhxXYu0smFMVqhojv49pw5igWFmMpoMjunMQ-Uy1jvMd2K0qPz7gUh9xb3qHcXXep4b9oDvy_WeNFjVU/s320/graph.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A long straight bit at the end... noooooo!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">In other news, I'm a technical genius. Okay, I'm not... but I used the new laptop to fix the old laptop, which was kinda clever as the old one was <i>very</i> broken. And now I have two laptops, which obviously means I can write twice as much :-)</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Typing up the flash fics gave me 1,122 words, so my total's now 840,452.</span><br />
<br /></td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #990000;">22nd July</span></td><td style="text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: #990000;">848,042</span></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"><span style="color: #0b5394;">I was determined to get straight back into writing yesterday, but then slept instead. Oops. Ended up feeling horribly guilty, which must have helped motivation because today turned out a lot better! I started a new novel and am 7,590 words in after just one day. Yay! :-) It's not the most amazing of plots (it's a bit grim actually!) but I think it <a href="http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/have-legs">has legs</a>. Eight legs, in fact, seeing as a huge spider is part of the plot. Total word count is now 848,042.</span><br />
<br /></td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #990000;">27th July</span></td><td style="text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: #990000;">849,380</span></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"><span style="color: #0b5394;">The past few days have been a mixture of good and bad. The "good" is I wrote a story. The "bad" is that I was so pleased with my story that I haven't written anything since! </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">The story came about because I've signed up to the <a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.com/2016/07/the-nyc-midnight-flash-fiction.html">NYC Midnight Flash Fiction Challenge</a>. It's a writing competition that runs all the way until December. You get told what to include in your story, and then have just 48 hours to smash out something amazing. It was hard work but I was really happy with the final result. </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">As I said above, I've had a few "write nothing" days. Sad face. Word count for 23 July was </span><span style="color: #0b5394;">1,338, and then it was nothing at all (unless you count blog posts, which I don't!) </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Oh well, hopefully I'll get back into writing soon. Total is now 849,380.</span><br />
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<tr><td><span style="color: #990000;">31st July</span></td><td style="text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: #990000;">861,132</span></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"><span style="color: #0b5394;">A few "blood out of a stone" </span><span style="color: #0b5394;">days of writing and then had a proper glitch today - nothing done at all! After a month-ish without a laptop, my enthusiasm for writing seems to have died. </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Sad face. </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Sad face with extra tears. </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Just can't seem to get back into it... which feels horrible because it was all going so well. Admittedly the heat is pretty intense at the moment (my wimpy Englishness can't cope with the <a href="http://www.holiday-weather.com/leros/averages/july/">toasty Greek weather</a>) but that's not really an excuse. Oh, and I'm trying to get used to a laptop with an American layout. Urgh. They tell you it's not that different but it is. It really is. I suppose in the grand scheme of things, a keyboard layout change is not a big deal... but when you're trying to smash out several thousands words a day, it's quite a big deal. Okay, to *me* it's a big deal, even though of course it's very much a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_World_problem">first world problem</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Sigh... oh well, at least I've now passed the "150k to go" barrier. Word counts for 28-31 July were 3,653, 2,436, 5,663 and 0. Total is now 861,132.</span><br />
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Mumbletoeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02054628232035000733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2177724085978456073.post-73863425098363944162016-06-06T18:04:00.000+01:002016-06-08T19:50:24.268+01:00The Daily Check on His Enchanted GirlfriendVery excited today! My latest 50-word story ("<a href="http://fiftywordstories.com/2016/06/02/mark-farley-the-daily-check-on-his-enchanted-girlfriend/">The Daily Check on His Enchanted Girlfriend</a>") was awarded "<a href="http://fiftywordstories.com/2016/06/05/story-of-the-week-june-5/">story of the week</a>" on the 50-word stories site! And the piece has been ranked alongside the awesome <a href="http://fiftywordstories.com/tag/bob-thurber/">Bob Thurber</a> (read his stuff - it's brilliant!), so I'm feeling kinda good about myself right now :-)<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRRI0ckj_A2QhWOQhQgXwQB5sGKlqHJiBe_OPyR0fazlY3gkU2LdYT608fgJBQOJLcyvXsRtK7bpNd3I4cESpghiV1CdBWTXiyUiMnzPVcFjpZfrEg_wGLsLg1xn16spYR7cLgJQ2GOvg/s1600/50WS+-+04+-+Story+of+the+week.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRRI0ckj_A2QhWOQhQgXwQB5sGKlqHJiBe_OPyR0fazlY3gkU2LdYT608fgJBQOJLcyvXsRtK7bpNd3I4cESpghiV1CdBWTXiyUiMnzPVcFjpZfrEg_wGLsLg1xn16spYR7cLgJQ2GOvg/s320/50WS+-+04+-+Story+of+the+week.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
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<br />Mumbletoeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02054628232035000733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2177724085978456073.post-21210856557183817222016-06-01T16:56:00.000+01:002016-07-18T20:34:17.130+01:00A million words in 2016 (June)<div style="text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiliopqN_DtWnFQUMxfeEDNO2BFMaIumpQN6SExBCw9IGwlInBaFZV7mznbs_BdNLMGc3NRpQAl922X7LbWumzOyk405LrU_ofI2H9pDSldSZPOyuaJf-PuFx1DyQHO37yKS2fMhAOupok/s1600/Steck_2806686b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="199" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiliopqN_DtWnFQUMxfeEDNO2BFMaIumpQN6SExBCw9IGwlInBaFZV7mznbs_BdNLMGc3NRpQAl922X7LbWumzOyk405LrU_ofI2H9pDSldSZPOyuaJf-PuFx1DyQHO37yKS2fMhAOupok/s320/Steck_2806686b.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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I'm writing a million words in 2016!<br />
<br />
Below is the progress diary for
June
(I'll be updating it as the month goes on). If you're interested, <a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/a-million-words-in-2016.html">here's the intro</a>, and here are the diaries for
<a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/the-million-word-diary-january.html">January</a>,
<a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/a-million-words-in-2016-february.html">February</a>,
<a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/a-million-words-in-2016-march.html">March</a>,
<a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/a-million-words-in-2016-april.html">April</a> and
<a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/a-million-words-in-2016-may.html">May</a>.
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The red number in the right-hand column is the total word count. Please wish me luck in watching that number tick up to 1,000,000 over the rest of the year!<br />
<br />
<h2>
The Million-Word Diary:
June
</h2>
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<table border="0" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="3" style="background-color: whitesmoke;">
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<tr><td><span style="color: #990000;">
1st June</span></td><td style="text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: #990000;">764,786</span></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"><span style="color: #0b5394;">It's time for another spreadsheet. Yep, another! Sometimes I feel like I spend more time playing around with writing-related spreadsheets than I do actually getting the writing done. Actually, no, I don't feel like that at all. The spreadsheet is a motivator to help me get all this crazy typing finished so I can use it in some projects! </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">The typing is a separate task to the million words project, and it's kinda killing me. </span><span style="color: #0b5394;">The notebooks I'm typing-up all came from 2015 and 2016, during which I attended a thousand (slight exaggeration, but probably not by too much) writing courses, classes, workshops and groups. As a results, I have literally hundreds of scribbled hand-written pages of ideas, notes, first-drafts of scenes, and god knows what else. All of it has to be typed so I can start hacking it about and making it into something useful.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">The typing is taking ages, so that's why I'm spreadsheeting. This task is horribly dull so - for the sake of my sanity - I need to be able to say "I typed 44 pages today" and have <i>something</i> reply with "that means you'll be finished in 50 days". My lovely spreadsheet is doing that for me. Thank you, spreadsheet. (<i>No problem</i>, replies the spreadsheet, <i>would you like a cup of tea?</i>)</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Along with the typing-up task, I'm also managing to keep the word count going. Feeling a little more enthusiastic about it now - I hope that feeling lasts! Today saw another 4,735 words so the total's now 7</span><span style="color: #0b5394;">64,786.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #990000;">
4th June</span></td><td style="text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: #990000;">778,633</span></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"><span style="color: #0b5394;">The awesome <a href="http://blackheartmagazine.com/2014/01/08/unclean-by-sophie-boyce/">Sophie</a> wrote today to tell me off because I haven't yet <a href="http://www.domesticcherry.co.uk/submit.html">submitted</a> anything to <a href="https://web.facebook.com/domesticcherry5/">Domestic Cherry 5</a>. To be honest, I'm not sure I'm quite up to their standard, but I haven't written any flash fiction in <i>ages</i> so sat down to scribble. And - oh my god - it worked! I lost myself in the scribbles and ended up with eight flash fics. </span><span style="color: #0b5394;">Eight! </span><span style="color: #0b5394;">Okay, I don't know if anyone else will like them but I fired three of them off anyway. Fingers crossed!</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">The word counts for 2-4 June were 1,446, 5,890, 6,511, so my total's now 7</span><span style="color: #0b5394;">78,633. The "typing-up of notebooks" task is going well too - the file's now 100k words long! That's 100k of notes and scribbles and free-writes and, well, stuff. And I think <i>most</i> of it's actually useful!</span><br />
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<tr><td><span style="color: #990000;">6th June</span></td><td style="text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: #990000;">786,733</span></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"><span style="color: #0b5394;">Last year I worked out how to submit work for publication, and *wow* what a rush! If you've never sent anything off, I really do recommend it. Yes, rejections sometimes hurt a bit, but it happens to everyone and there's nothing - nothing! - quite like that first buzz of seeing your work in a proper publication, whether it be hard-copy or online. I was bitten by the bug and started submitting like mad. And I got acceptances! People actually published my work! Wow, validation at last. Okay, I'm not going to pretend I produced any works of genius, but it was nice to discover that some of my stuff was deemed worthy. And there was an unsuspected bonus... my brain reacted to the validation and suddenly it was much easier to write. Publication is amazing for confidence levels!</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Unfortunately, submitting takes ages. Producing the work is fine, but writing a decent cover letter (and spending ages scouring through badly designed websites to find the name of the editor) is slow slow slow, and excruciatingly dull. So this year I've hardly been submitting at all. <br /><br />That said, there's still the occasional <a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.gr/2016/06/the-daily-check-on-his-enchanted.html">bit of validation</a>. And each time it happens, something seems to "unblock" in my brain, and out come ideas. I just wish that feeling lasted.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Word counts for 5-6 June were 3,457 and 4,643. The total is now 786,733.</span><br />
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<tr><td><span style="color: #990000;">10th June</span></td><td style="text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: #990000;">800,235</span></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"><span style="color: #0b5394;">Nothing much new to say apart from I'm still manically typing up my old notebooks, and I'm still manically trying to write a million words this year! I'm bored, bored, bored with it all but am managing to keep going so that's what matters, right? :-)</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Word counts for 7-10 June were 4,451, 4,911, 793 (awful day!) and 3,347 and so the total is now 800,235. I've passed the 800k barrier, woohoo!</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
</td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #990000;">16th June</span></td><td style="text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: #990000;">826,431</span></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"><span style="color: #0b5394;">Typing, typing, typing! It feels like I've hardly been doing anything but typing up notebooks these past few weeks. I had a year's worth of notes and scribblings to type, and I may never stop moaning about it. Moan moan moan. Anyway, I finally finished at about 4 AM this morning. Here's the final pile of now-typed-up junk!</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFqwKehoHrYZ0E-Rsw2StzAg2TeO_IKeHNtJ_b3SY-j-qL5yQ-a08fIzQ7g6i1lUVK3e4Z7_xVGGc9t0_jV0zg5fleqA_Qs-n6_8NvSXmIvrJcbtrnrFpBA0CPSdQ-1oDSvSTM6dpAzBo/s1600/13423749_10157070408530711_3530902852599776076_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFqwKehoHrYZ0E-Rsw2StzAg2TeO_IKeHNtJ_b3SY-j-qL5yQ-a08fIzQ7g6i1lUVK3e4Z7_xVGGc9t0_jV0zg5fleqA_Qs-n6_8NvSXmIvrJcbtrnrFpBA0CPSdQ-1oDSvSTM6dpAzBo/s320/13423749_10157070408530711_3530902852599776076_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">It's all typed up at last!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Too many notebooks! Too many scribbled-on bits of paper full of suggestions from writing classes! I'm never writing longhand again! There was tons of useful stuff... but as a big pile of paper it was completely useless, so the typing <i>had </i>to be done. And I'm going to keep telling myself that because it is actually true, no matter how often I thought it'd be easier just to burn it all! </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Anyway, it's all complete now and I can sort all the typing out into projects... and then finally start working on turning it all into something worth reading! I may collapse in exhaustion for a while first though, if that's okay?</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Final total for the typing-up came to more than 183,000 words. Some of that probably should count towards my "million words in 2016" project but it's too much hassle to work out what was written this year and what wasn't. So I'm ignoring it all! The million words project is continuing though. Word counts for 11-16 June were </span><span style="color: #0b5394;">5,380, 5,493, 4,240, 4,199, 3,285 and 3,599, and that means my total's now 826,431.</span><br />
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<tr><td><span style="color: #990000;">22nd June</span></td><td style="text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: #990000;">839,330</span></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"><span style="color: #0b5394;">Disaster! All that typing was too much for my laptop - it died! Luckily I had everything backed up, but now I find myself de-computered right at the stage where I desperately needed a fast machine to work on. Aargh! *bangs head on wall in frustration*</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">I've ordered a new laptop but I'm currently living in the middle of nowhere and god knows how long it'll take to arrive. Ah well, at least I was organised enough to bring a spare one! It'll keep me going while I wait for the new laptop, but sadly it's the oldest machine in the world. Windows 10 has hobbled it so severely that it takes at least 17 extra hamsters to get it started. I probably sound like I'm exaggerating but imagine typing a whole sentence and then stopping to watch the screen as Windows thinks about what you just did, and then, finally, the sentence appears. Ouch. Yes, I know this is a first world problem - but the delay is <i>death</i> to the creative flow... and that's kinda painful when you've taken a huge chunk of time off to be creative!</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">I'm writing a few little bits and pieces longhand but am ignoring them for the moment because, well, counting words by hand doesn't sound much fun. So 20th June is officially my stopping point for now. Word counts for 17-20 June were 5,105, 4,125, 2,167 and 1,502. </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">The total's now 839,330. And I guess it'll be staying that way until I get my new laptop... Sad face :-(</span><br />
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<tr><td><span style="color: #990000;">30th June</span></td><td style="text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: #990000;">839,330</span></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"><span style="color: #0b5394;">End of the month and still no new laptop. It's all a bit painful and frustrating, but at least it gives me an excuse to fall asleep in the sun every so often. Talking of the sun - ouch - it's a bit warm here in Greece! My wimpy English skin is in shock at the heat, and it's not even July yet! </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
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Mumbletoeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02054628232035000733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2177724085978456073.post-15936899028775939782016-05-14T17:23:00.000+01:002016-05-16T20:34:00.286+01:00ManuManu is out! It's a short film by <a href="https://web.facebook.com/deepajacobphotography/">Deepa Jacob</a>, inspired by one of my stories! (I won't say which story because that'd spoil the ending of the film!)<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/MrZOhdVEsiA" width="560"></iframe>
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The YouTube player should appear above, but if it doesn't then <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrZOhdVEsiA">click here to see the film</a> (it's about 14 minutes long).<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheFo8MCTGlB8ggIz4cMo9YsxiXlWIyGt8C0zui5EV6WPzWD_TkAvgCcqUNiO1f6eymT5aBK5Dh-IUlb5f_eQcGMYaT4bcEa3LhUntprMwUM7PPLA_5eRT-ATKIUmoHXQtGEEDmIYSYU_8/s1600/Manu+-+based+on+One+In+One+Out.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheFo8MCTGlB8ggIz4cMo9YsxiXlWIyGt8C0zui5EV6WPzWD_TkAvgCcqUNiO1f6eymT5aBK5Dh-IUlb5f_eQcGMYaT4bcEa3LhUntprMwUM7PPLA_5eRT-ATKIUmoHXQtGEEDmIYSYU_8/s320/Manu+-+based+on+One+In+One+Out.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My name on a film poster - how exciting is that?! :-) </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSVyFT19B5zdibmtyVlZzVeif4uuLjKBORRDQIPqMxqUoiMGCtWRzpVFqse-D0UhEPMHXIDUyc-91omzIhu1LJl7BPoDgvp2tsJmlXfLZIuNIeIwJnYwdeXvVoiX4gS4L91QqFsSo_sqQ/s1600/1501444_1262090980471979_2296622445896641741_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSVyFT19B5zdibmtyVlZzVeif4uuLjKBORRDQIPqMxqUoiMGCtWRzpVFqse-D0UhEPMHXIDUyc-91omzIhu1LJl7BPoDgvp2tsJmlXfLZIuNIeIwJnYwdeXvVoiX4gS4L91QqFsSo_sqQ/s320/1501444_1262090980471979_2296622445896641741_o.jpg" width="208" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A second film poster - yay! :-)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br />Mumbletoeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02054628232035000733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2177724085978456073.post-51652492490321318042016-05-01T16:51:00.000+01:002016-10-15T23:42:15.444+01:00A million words in 2016 (May)<div style="text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGV64YzQiKx6wsVS9xktMOs2teCNcLKocudLWYi9syZbL9UD4vaL8T6M9xzHp4m9JcYZ3M57TGF_osplAW8qlKDTe1oSMC3qAXnZ0yC0jV7FOOyuvfJbFu1Fd44-T5ZyU9BZ5L4ztucf0/s1600/shutterstock_69342169.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGV64YzQiKx6wsVS9xktMOs2teCNcLKocudLWYi9syZbL9UD4vaL8T6M9xzHp4m9JcYZ3M57TGF_osplAW8qlKDTe1oSMC3qAXnZ0yC0jV7FOOyuvfJbFu1Fd44-T5ZyU9BZ5L4ztucf0/s320/shutterstock_69342169.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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I'm writing a million words in 2016!<br />
<br />
Below is the progress diary for
May
(I'll be updating it as the month goes on). If you're interested, <a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/a-million-words-in-2016.html">here's the intro</a>, and here are the diaries for
<a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/the-million-word-diary-january.html">January</a>,
<a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/a-million-words-in-2016-february.html">February</a>,
<a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/a-million-words-in-2016-march.html">March</a> and
<a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/a-million-words-in-2016-april.html">April</a>.
<br />
<br />
The red number in the right-hand column is the total word count. Please wish me luck in watching that number tick up to 1,000,000 over the rest of the year!<br />
<br />
<h2>
The Million-Word Diary:
May
</h2>
<br />
<br />
<table border="0" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="3" style="background-color: whitesmoke;">
<tbody>
<tr><td><span style="color: #990000;">
1st May</span></td><td style="text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: #990000;">632,089</span></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKKWtSuEzzqGtD-XLFQK9B895-biitFzG2BsguRr_zlOtapuNbd2UaaWkw46JbDOi4cPqb-rji4Y_it7HCsK3ZBPbpOQ8gKlaVhFwgqd_DOsXyGRtsvhyGLgk069kDwliF7iDDp1GmpLo/s1600/graph.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="130" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKKWtSuEzzqGtD-XLFQK9B895-biitFzG2BsguRr_zlOtapuNbd2UaaWkw46JbDOi4cPqb-rji4Y_it7HCsK3ZBPbpOQ8gKlaVhFwgqd_DOsXyGRtsvhyGLgk069kDwliF7iDDp1GmpLo/s320/graph.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is the only thing keeping me motivated!</td></tr>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">The year ticks on and somehow I'm still managing to get words done. I'm not saying they're good words, but they are words, which means I'm writing! I've skipped a few days here and there, but I'm on track to finish before the end of the year. In fact I'm ahead at the moment, which is quite a relief!</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">That graph above is from my spreadsheet. Yes, I know, graphs are dull, dull, dull... but if I didn't have this graph then I'd probably have quit by now.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">The red line shows my "par" (i.e. where I'd be if I was writing the 2,733 words a day, that I need to reach a million by the end of the year). The blue line shows my current tally.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Did I mention that I'm ahead? I'M AHEAD! Yay! :-)</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">The spreadsheet also gives me a few useful stats. Sure, that probably sounds dull, but it honestly is helping my motivation! Okay, here come the stats... brace yourselves.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGcY94b1ssSAW0lO79I1koOCimPczp-sWr0K0Ph2iDHF8NWMQRsLCtHjfrWbXtN2yfyLDlE9ACHargNtB1qSuPIIvzeBo6_XLYv_ixdJnCwT9rQ2NTjKgyTCQXdqG2OhxAuSJP6s3Ju9Q/s1600/stats.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="98" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGcY94b1ssSAW0lO79I1koOCimPczp-sWr0K0Ph2iDHF8NWMQRsLCtHjfrWbXtN2yfyLDlE9ACHargNtB1qSuPIIvzeBo6_XLYv_ixdJnCwT9rQ2NTjKgyTCQXdqG2OhxAuSJP6s3Ju9Q/s320/stats.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Stats, stats, statty-stat-stats...</td></tr>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">At the moment there are 243 days left until the end of 2016 and (because I'm ahead!) I only need to write 1,515 words per day to finish on time. However, my current average words-per-day is 5,139 and if I keep that going then I'll finish the million on 14 Sept.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">This concludes today's broadcast from "stats-that-are-only-interesting-to-Mark-dot-com". </span><span style="color: #0b5394;">Today saw another 3,697 words and so the total's now 632,089.</span><br />
<br /></td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #990000;">8th May</span></td><td style="text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: #990000;">657,151</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRaGG239v6itv48Uz_w5-ti9TFMwf-2q5YpOfAjiIm3Le9PkFUSXpF5tNb3aIgLs8Hbrp-OkBJOP-jnUmoRzj8iM3IdqTvnMyJFn-WkHdHPiDq6kdUJLxW7ASSB1lOUwYn9Xb7IPBLdPg/s1600/20160508_115541.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRaGG239v6itv48Uz_w5-ti9TFMwf-2q5YpOfAjiIm3Le9PkFUSXpF5tNb3aIgLs8Hbrp-OkBJOP-jnUmoRzj8iM3IdqTvnMyJFn-WkHdHPiDq6kdUJLxW7ASSB1lOUwYn9Xb7IPBLdPg/s320/20160508_115541.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">More books/notes typed! 55,000 words so far!</td></tr>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="color: #0b5394;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;">So far, I've typed up roughly 55,000 words, and there's still loads to go! I can't face typing up any more notebooks and so I'm now starting on the scrappy bits of notepaper. </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">That pile of paper in the pic above is mostly printouts covered in scribbles made at <a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.com/2016/02/writing-groups-in-swindon.html">writing workshops</a>. These scribbles take longer to work through than the notebooks!</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">It doesn't look like much, but it's amazing how much motivation is generated by this pile of old notebooks and papers. I was going to throw the papers away but keeping them means I can see them pile up. And the pile looks even better thanks to the very fetching <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpongeBob_SquarePants">SpongeBob</a> bedspread.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Typing is dull, dull, dull but brain is still refusing to give me many ideas so I'm just plodding away for the time being. <i>However</i>, a couple of times I've found the notes have sparked something and I've had one of those wonderful creative explosions of productivity... you know, those fantastic moments when you type like crazy - words spilling from the mind like a glorious desert rain - and then you look up several hours later to realise that your creative side finally woke up. </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Maybe this is why writers are often semi-depressed... it's a career that involves about a thousand hours of miserable typing until *bang* you finally get a creative spark that fizzes out almost immediately but gives you just enough hope to carry on. Remind me why we do this to ourselves? :-)</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Word counts for 2-8 May were 2,305, </span><span style="color: #0b5394;">2,054, </span><span style="color: #0b5394;">1,098, </span><span style="color: #0b5394;">1,728, </span><span style="color: #0b5394;">1,500, </span><span style="color: #0b5394;">7,746 and </span><span style="color: #0b5394;">8,631</span><span style="color: #0b5394;">. Two cracking good days at the end there - go me! :-) The total's now </span><span style="color: #0b5394;">657,151.</span><br />
<br /></td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #990000;">11th May</span></td><td style="text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: #990000;">668,824</span></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"><span style="color: #0b5394;">Guess what? I wrote some short stories! And, if I'm organised, I might even try to sell them. </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">A while back I experimented with throwing a story on the kindle store and it turned out to be several million times easier than expected! To do so, you first have to register with Amazon... and that's when you find that the registration form looks <i>terrifying</i>. It was about a thousand pages long (and billions of people will tell you that I never exaggerate). I started filling in the form ("You are on page 1 of 5,000,012") and was ready to give up when suddenly came the magic question: "Do you live in the USA?" ... I said "no" and *pop* suddenly the form was complete. Magic! Turns out that most of the registration form is for American citizens to fill in their tax details. Us lesser mortals (!) don't have to bother with all that :-) At least, not until we make our first million.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Anyway, that particular short story was duly chucked up on the kindle store, and I did <i>no</i> advertising or marketing whatsoever. The whole thing was just an experiment to see how easy the upload process was. But somehow - despite my lack of effort - people found the story and bought it. To be precise, five Americans and one Japanese dude bought that story. I don't know what they thought of it, but it was kinda cool to have people reading my stuff and <i>actually paying real money</i> to do so. Okay, it wasn't a lot of real money, but it felt like a good start!</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">So now I'm trying to write a series of short stories in the hope of producing a whole collection. </span><span style="color: #0b5394;">I don't know if I have the energy or motivation to do much marketing, but I quite like the idea of throwing a ton of little stories up on Amazon and seeing what happens. </span><span style="color: #0b5394;">Apparently the story word count only needs to be about 3,000 words, which is actually quite easy once you get going. The biggest drain on time is scouring free image sites to create a book cover.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">I'm told that one of the simplest things you can do to build a readership is to put a ton of links on the last page of your book (basically it's "click these links to buy my other stories")... so that's all the marketing I'll bother to do for the time being. (I'd much rather be writing than bothering to buy advertising space or doing random stuff like that!) </span><span style="color: #0b5394;">I'm not expecting riches, but it'd be nice to generate a few quid here and there. And I'll get more into the marketing later... maybe.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Ooh, I've just realised the <a href="https://www.bridportprize.org.uk/">Bridport</a> deadline is soon! That means I need to:</span><br />
<ol>
<li><span style="color: #0b5394;">Scour the laptop for something worth sending,</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #0b5394;">Remortgage the house in order to afford the entry fee. </span></li>
</ol>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Word counts for 9-11 May were </span><span style="color: #0b5394;">2,530, 4,880 and 4,263. The total's now 668,824.</span><br />
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<tr><td><span style="color: #990000;">
19th May</span></td><td style="text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: #990000;">685,468</span></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"><span style="color: #0b5394;">The film </span><a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.com/2016/05/manu.html">Manu</a><span style="color: #0b5394;"> came out on the 13th of May! Am I allowed to be excited about this? Because I am! Someone made a film inspired by one of my stories! That's exciting, right?! The story in question is "</span><a href="http://fiftywordstories.com/2015/11/11/mark-farley-one-in-one-out/">One In, One Out</a><span style="color: #0b5394;">" which was published on the 50-word-stories site back in November '15. (Don't read the story if you want to watch the film - you'll spoil the ending!)</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Soooo.... a few exciting things have happened, but otherwise it's just plod, plod, plod as I try to type up all my notes. I've found a few gems but the actual typing task is soooooo dull. And the end is a long way off... (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pgc_hXQF-Vo">Moan, moan, moan!</a>)</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Word count tallies are getting harder to calculate. I wish I'd been counting the stuff I'm typing up, because a lot of it was actually written in 2016 (so it should count towards my million words!) ... However, it's too confusing trying to work out what's been typed already </span><span style="color: #0b5394;">and what needs typing now</span><span style="color: #0b5394;"> (e.g. if I wrote a story and needed it typed immediately then, obviously, I've already done it... but god knows where it ended up). And even dumber than that, something often sparks an idea while I'm typing, and so I sit typing <i>new stuff</i> for ages... and for some reason I'm not counting those words in my tally. Why?! I have no idea. I'm just waffling and confused! But that's okay because no one's actually daft enough to read this blog, are they?! :-)</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Anyway, I think what I'm trying to say is that my total should be higher than it is (</span><span style="color: #0b5394;">I reckon I'm actually past the 700k barrier already</span><span style="color: #0b5394;">), but I'm too confused to work out my exact word counts any more. Bah. Can someone remind me why I'm doing this project?</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">I've had quite a few days of </span><span style="color: #0b5394;">"oh god, I'm in bed already and have only just realised I forgot to write something today!" ... and this results in leaping up, </span><span style="color: #0b5394;">rushing at the last minute to write something. It's not the best way to end a day, but I've read that being sleepy means you're closer to dream state, and therefore it's easier to be creative. Sounds good in theory, right?</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: #0b5394;">Word counts for 12-19 May were 2,161, 944, 1,136, 4,822, 2,020, 2,487, 702 and 2,372. The total is now 685,468.</span><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #990000;">23rd May</span></td><td style="text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: #990000;">702,649</span></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"><span style="color: #0b5394;">Woohoo! I've broken the 700k barrier! </span><span style="color: #0b5394;">Word counts for 20-23 May were 1,329, 3,413, 6,702 and 5,737. </span><span style="color: #0b5394;">The total's now 702,649.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
</td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #990000;">31st May</span></td><td style="text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: #990000;">760,051</span></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"><span style="color: #0b5394;">I've known for ages that it was the <a href="https://www.bridportprize.org.uk/">Bridport</a> deadline today but somehow still managed to get myself into a last minute panic! The problem is that despite producing all these words, I still kinda hate most of what I write! (The editing stage is going to be hellish.) Also, most of what I'm writing is for novels (or series of novels!) so as a result I don't have much flash fiction or poetry.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">However I did have a few flash fictions from last year, and I don't entirely hate them... so off thr ey went! And then I found a few poems so sent them off too. I'm no poet but hey, it was fun to pretend! Spent an obscene amount of money on entry fees but I did manage to get onto the <a href="https://www.bridportprize.org.uk/content/2015-shortlists#Flash">Bridport flash fiction short-list</a> last year (I try not to mention this more than once or twice... a day), so I couldn't help feeling like I had to try again.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">There's a subtle advantage of submitting while on holiday... the time difference! The deadline was midnight but I'm in Greece, so I had until 2 AM to get my submission in :-)</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span><span style="color: #0b5394;">I had a couple of days where I couldn't seem to stop typing. That's great for the word count but, dear god, it's a mess. I think I averaged about two typos per word. It's going to be fun trying to sort that lot out. Anyway, the word counts for 24-31 May were 2,792, 3,779, 5,450, 2,847, 13,209, 3,785, 11,704 and 13,836, so the total is now 760,051.</span><br />
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Mumbletoeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02054628232035000733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2177724085978456073.post-80464894263019151422016-05-01T09:32:00.000+01:002016-05-01T16:28:34.570+01:00Grans & Ammo gets longlisted for an award!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjChG44kIfKteTTpikK4jjiCd4AdMOxohyphenhyphenypFHC9A1yWoA9roAutVOLNOdc5UPYn__kw9myDKmXLdqo6LfaVhT2CqFpbUOYus-RJchLT_lM0C15mRi5qg1AitCvXRvqh6iPX_PbMVRGooE/s1600/Longlisted-in-the-768x384.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjChG44kIfKteTTpikK4jjiCd4AdMOxohyphenhyphenypFHC9A1yWoA9roAutVOLNOdc5UPYn__kw9myDKmXLdqo6LfaVhT2CqFpbUOYus-RJchLT_lM0C15mRi5qg1AitCvXRvqh6iPX_PbMVRGooE/s320/Longlisted-in-the-768x384.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
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Here's a lovely surprise. "<a href="http://mumbletoes.blogspot.com/2015/10/grans-ammo.html">Grans & Ammo</a>" was <a href="http://sabotagereviews.com/2016/05/01/the-shortlist-for-the-saboteur-awards-2016">longlisted for the Saboteur Awards</a> 2016! :-)<br />
<br />
I've no idea how many novellas they reviewed, but it's nice to be in the top 15!<br />
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<br />Mumbletoeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02054628232035000733noreply@blogger.com0