If you go down in the woods today…
I was going to write ‘It’s Monday.’ Then I realised that it’s Tuesday. The Bank Holiday has thrown me off a little, the week already starting without me realising.
It’s only a few days till I head to my virtual cabin for Camp NaNoWriMo. We have a full cabin, twelve writers in all, and our cabin name is The Wordcount Slayers. Some of the writers I already know, the rest I’m sure I’ll get to know over the next month of writing and commiserating as we slog towards our word count targets.
Camp NaNoWriMo is slightly different to November NaNoWriMo in that you can set your own word count target. Mine is 30,000 words and I’m planning on seeing how far I can get with Silver and Black, my vampire story that’s been arriving in bits and pieces. I have a bit of an outline now and I can feel the characters gearing up, ready to tell their tale. Kyle in particular has been pacing around, impatient to be unleashed upon the page.
Now that may sound quite odd, but I’ve had a few comment conversations recently about the fact that I am a Pantser. Stories come to me with characters, I’m given a few key events and then away we go, the characters pulling me along with them as a sort of scribe, or perhaps a director in that I give them some ideas of what I want from the scene, then they go with it. Or not, as is often the case. I feel quite strongly about my characters as well, wanting to tell their stories as best I’m able, that their voices be heard. After all, they decided to come to me, so it’s only fair I do my best to accommodate them.
So, April will be a month of vampires for me although, and I don’t think I’m giving too much away, these vampires are perhaps a little different than the accepted mythology. At least, I think they are. And my blogging schedule may suffer a little, depending on how the word count and school holidays pan out, so please do bear with me. Scheduled programming will resume, as they say, in May.
See you on the other side!
Helen Glynn Jones 
Good luck with camp! I have a good cabin group this year so I think we’ll all be able to make it through together. 🙂
Yay! fingers crossed, and good luck to you too 🙂
Good luck! I’m sure you’ll reach your target and I hope you have an enjoyable time getting there. x
Thanks Louise! Not sure why I do these things to myself 😀 Though I am keen to get on with this story, that’s for sure.
Good luck with it! I hope you meet your target and have a great tale to show for it at the end. 🙂
Thank you 🙂 I have fingers crossed, but I won’t beat myself up if I don’t reach the target. But I can feel the story waiting to come out, so I really hope it does.
Good luck! 😀
Good luck with it, Helen. I look forward to meeting Kyle.
Thanks Hugh. I’m rather looking forward to writing him, too 😉
can’t bloody wait to see the outcome of this 😀
Thanks, Sacha – it’s slowly starting to take shape. About three thousand words in so far…
Cracking news – is it coming to you easily?
Not so fast as A Thousand Rooms did, but I can see it moving forward, the threads stretching out so I just have to catch them. Haven’t got all the story kinks worked out yet, though 🙂
Reminds me of ol’ Liz Gilbert that whole catching the threads thing. Weird isn’t it – being a writer. Really all we have to do is listen carefully to what were being told. Like me – today – being told to write a love scene!
Yes, when I read Big Magic I was just nodding my head the whole way through, like yes, yes, this is just what writing feels like! And I’ve used the thread and weaving analogy for years – it’s just how it feels to me 🙂
And ooh, a love scene? Is this for your current WIP or a new story?
WIP – the one I’m editing – characters are jumping ahead of themselves though they want me to edit stuff about three quarters in and I’m only 23K into the edit – sigh.
I have big magic on my kindle only read a few pages it’s on my list though!
Oh, it’s so good – I reckon you’ll really enjoy it.
And,maybe you need to listen to your characters. Maybe there’s something going on three quarters of the way in that you need to look at now, as it refers back to the bit you’re editing. Just throwin’ it out there 😉
Ooh didn’t think of that… *scratches head* hmm….