In which events overtake me and writing is abandoned. Temporarily.

My Etsy shop is doing surprisingly well. Which is awesome! My mum and dad came to London today and took me out to dinner. Which is also awesome!

My writing hasn't really progressed today, though, as a result...

I'm up to a whopping 1957 words today, a whole 110 words further than yesterday. This is... not ideal. I will have to do better over the next few days. Wish me luck?

And we're off...

A late plane ride back to London meant that I was, in fact, awake at midnight so could make an early start to my new and shiny story. I managed to get 250 words done before I got home and slept, and am now up to somewhere near 900, handwritten on the train to and from work. Plan for tonight: type up the words done so far, and carry on bravely into the night. My goal is 1700 words a day, though I probably ought to aim for nearer 2000, since chances are that my Saturdays, at least, are going to be non-writing days. We'll see - slow and steady might be the way forward, after all...

I also think I have a working title: The Island. Not very imaginative, but it's a crime novel, not fantasy, it doesn't need so much world building. (I hope. I may yet regret the rash impetuousness of that statement, I realise.)

Other NaNo participants, do feel free to chime in in the comments at any time to let me know how you're doing, or send me a message on Twitter - I'm @nicolehill.

Good luck everyone!

ETA: 1848 words! Stopping for dinner now...

Change of plans...

In best NaNo tradition, I've completely changed my mind about my story. At the last minute. I'm now going to write a murder mystery, set in a small Breton island village of 800 inhabitants, where there has been no murder for 100 years. Until now. The island doesn't even have a policeman full-time - someone comes over during the summer.

Think of the festering resentments that would build up there. And the coverups of murders during the world wars, the Algerian war, the blackmail and bullying that could take place. It's going to be like Midsommer Murders, but French. Awesome. Also, based on a real-life story that this weekend's papers talked about - I can't wait, I can almost smell the mist and rotting fish in the harbour now...

Updates, news and general musings

So, I'm now back in England. It's rainy. I got married 2 weeks ago and am still getting used to having a husband. And being a wife. I relaunched my jewellery website.

These three events are not unrelated to the recent lack of posts. This will be remedied shortly, since it's nearly NaNoWriMo! I'm really excited about this - last year, NaNo led to the first draft of Exile, and this year, I'm hoping to be similarly productive and driven and produce a prequel, telling the story of Krystal, one of the main characters in Exile. I'd never written a long piece of fiction before, never even really thought of myself as being someone who could write a book, but I did and I'm fascinated by the way it's changed my perspective of myself and the world around me.

You will no doubt hear more about this new story than you ever wanted to, in the coming weeks. If you're NaNoing too, let me know what you're writing about in the comments - Id love to follow your journeys too!

(I haven't forgotten about Emperor's Assassin; it's sitting here waiting to be drafted. But NaNo takes priority for now, in amongst flat-hunting and pesky things like employment, so EA is shelved for the minute...)