Tuesday 23 November 2010

Really Random Tuesday


Really Random Tuesday is a meme created by Suko at Suko's Notebook which is a way to post odds and ends--announcements, musings, quotes, photos--any blogging and book-related things you can think of.

First things first. Drum rolls please......
 I completed NaNoWriMO.
 Yay me.

 I would like to thank my fellow writers, Amanda, Laurel, J.Kaye, Molly, Jen and Blodeuedd for supporting me on my journey. Without you guys I wonder if I would have completed it as quickly as I did, but there was nothing like watching your word counts go up to spur me on. At one point Laurel and I were neck and neck and I do think it kept us going to the end. For those of you still to finish, keep going you can do it. There really is nothing that can describe that moment of completion. Also thank you to all you lovely bloggers who kept popping by to see how I was getting on. I really appreciated your support, especially as I seemed to neglect my blog a little during the last month.

So now I have two first drafts finished (remember I had a trial run in October) as well as a final first chapter and a synopsis written for my NaNoWriMo attempt, which I produced this month for a local writing competition. To be honest, I do feel that both of my first drafts are pants, but I am OK with that.  After reading an article on local author Julia Crouch, I have decided to follow her words of wisdom. She sold her NaNoWriMo novel, so there is hope that I can turn the first draft into a final publishable novel.

So in the words of Julia Crouch:

be open and free for the first draft, be ruthless with the structure for the second, and fanatical about the words for the third—examine every sentence.

I never realised how tiring it would be, but I am really exhausted now. I have decided to put both drafts away for a little while and concentrate on organising Christmas. So I may go back to my drafts to begin rewrites before Christmas, but if I don't then I will definitely start in January.

On to bookish news; I presently have five books waiting to be reviewed, so now that NaNoWriMo is finished, my blog may become a little review heavy for a few days.

The books to be reviewed are:

1) Henrietta's War by Joyce Dennys
2) Finding Sky by Joss Stirling
3) Three Men In a Boat by Jerome K.Jerome
4) The Haunting by Margaret Mahy
5) Dear Daddy Long Legs by Jean Webster.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, our book club came together last week to review Her Fearful Symmetry, which I reviewed yesterday. Most of my group were in agreement about the book, but a couple actually hated it and have stated they will not read another Audrey Niffenegger.

We decided to choose our next book from a selection of Young Adult books. The chosen book was City of Bones by Cassandra Clare. Now you may have remembered that I have already read this book, but that is OK, because I have been meaning to read the other two books in the trilogy but I felt I couldn't read them without recapping on the first book, so I am pleased to be reading it again.

I had three urgent review books land in my lap this week and they couldn't have come at a worse time. The thought  of fitting in reading with NaNo was a little daunting, but I did manage to finish one book. Now I have no writing commitments over the next week, I shall read and read and read!

As you can from the picture above, they are not slim books to be read. I have just started I Am Number Four and Bright Youngs Things, so hopefully they will be finished in a week.

What have you been up to this week?

14 comments:

  1. CONGRATS!!!! You go girl :)

    My journey, eek, yes I am so far behind now that I kind of have given up. My shoulder would kill me, it hates my table, buhu

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  2. great to catch up on all your latest news like this. Congratulations, I'm so pleased for you. What's next on the writing front?

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  3. YAY!!!!!! Congrats Vivienne! And to hit 50k two months in a row - you are awesome! Take your well-deserved break and don't worry about revisions until you're ready. I probably won't start mine until January either. :)

    I can't wait to hear your thougths about #3 and #5!!

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  4. Congratulations Vivienne :D So glad you did it and so fast too!

    This week I finished up my Trekkies book and am madlt trying to get Christmas pressies made in between nursing sick kiddiewinks.

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  5. Congratulations! That is completely amazing!

    I am behind on review books too. I think it's inevitable this time of year.

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  6. Vivienne, I am behind in my reviewing, too; it's difficult now because the kids are on Thanksgiving break.

    Congrats on completing your NaNoWriMO! Yay! That is awesome! I enjoyed the quote about the drafts-- great advice to keep in mind for writing projects. :)

    Thanks for doing this meme again!!

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  7. Two first drafts? Wow, you did great! Congrats!

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  8. Congrats Viv - glad you completed NaNoWriMO! Good for you!

    City of Bones is a great pick. I finished it a bit ago. I'll have my review up tomorrow. I'm moving on to the next one - it's a great series.

    I can't wait to see what you think of the new Godbersen book. I've seen it out there but don't know if it sounds as good to me as her other series.

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  9. YAY! That's awesome. I am always envious of everyone who participates in Nano. I find that I'm inconsistent and bail after the first couple of days!

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  10. Congratulations on the completion NaNoWriMo! You go, Viv!

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  11. Congrats again on completing NaNo! I still can't believe you wrote two books in two months :) Well done to you! Also, I read I Am Number Four in two days, it's quite a quick read - can't wait to see what you think of Bright Young Things though!

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