The difficult second

How often do we hear 'oh well that was the difficult second album?' It seems if you have the talent and the perseverance to make an album or write a book the second one is never quite as easy.

It seems that the first time we do something that is good enough to be shown to the public at large we have been working on it for the whole of our lives up until that point.
Then either through personal or peer pressure the second album or book is required before the furore of the first has died down. So often the second is a disappointment and the star wains until five years later they reappear with a third that is reminiscent of the first.

I looked today and I published my first novel a little over three years ago. I had written it as part of the 2012 NANOWRIMO and had then taken two years to tidy it up and eventually get it to a state that I was happy with and able to publish it.
As part of NANO 2013 I wrote my second novel. Then I got ill. Once I was better and ready to write again I turned my pen to writing about my illness and produced what I consider to be a passable non fiction book about my health struggles and the British NHS.
Then I started to go back to my second novel. It lacked something but it was okay I had an idea. I have sat down twice in the last six months to write that idea and started with all good intentions to  find the following day that I need to go to work and I am too busy to carry on.

Yesterday I saw an article about a fellow writer who has just won an award with Amazon. In it he talks about how he would write at night after the kids had gone to bed and how he discovered self publishing through KDP. Eventually he 'discovers' he has earned enough money to give up his job and write full time.
I read that article and was immediately overcome with jealousy. Wouldn't it be amazing to just discover that the account where your royalties are paid into suddenly has enough money for you to give up work. Why does that never happen to me? Why do I not have an army of fans buying my books? Why can't I write full time?

The reason I can't is because I have published one novel in the last five years. How are people supposed to become fans if I can't give them more things to read? I'm not Harper Lee.

So now is the time to start writing. Time to put aside that 30 minutes each day and get out that old manuscript and turn it into something that will generate fans.
James Patterson has millions of fans but then he has written and co-written hundreds of books.

Time to stop waiting to be discovered.

And so to my difficult second book. Is it worth finishing? Of course it is. Will it take hard work and perseverance? Of course it will. But I've done it once and I sure as hell can do it again.

Jenny Cartwright Interview

Today I am very lucky and happy to be joined by Jenny Cartwright the main character in ‘Stripper of the Yard’ and she has agreed to answer a few questions for us.

Jo Jenner (JJ): Good Morning Jenny. Great to see you here today.

Jenny Cartwright (JC): Thank you for asking me Jo although I can’t see why you want to interview me.

JJ : How like you Jenny. The folks at home would just like to get to know you a little more, so how about we start by you telling us a little about yourself.

JC: Okay. My name as you know is Jenny Cartwright, I am 35 years old and I work at the Blue Lagoon Gentlemen’s Club.

JJ: And what do you do there?

JC: I am one of the strippers. I used to be a waitress but you get better tips and touched up less as one of the dancers, so I moved over as soon as I could.

JJ: What type of establishment is The Blue Lagoon Gentlemen’s Club?

JC: It’s an old fashioned back alley strip club in the centre of Nottingham.

JJ: How did you end up there?

JC: It’s a long story, which will be partially revealed in the book, but let me just say I was brought up in Nottingham and once I left care there wasn’t really anything else I knew how to do. I started behind the bar and things just progressed from there.

JJ: Why don’t you tell us about some of the other people you work with?

JC: Of course. First of all there’s Mike. He owns the club and is just great. He has helped a lot of the girls and makes sure we keep a clean club and all the girls are safe.

In fact he won one of my best friends in a poker match. Blossom had got herself into a lot of trouble in her teenage years. She was very lucky that Mike found her when he did.

JJ: Mike’s not the only one who’s helped some of the girls get out of trouble is he?

JC: I have been involved in helping women who are victims of domestic violence. Sometimes they just need a friendly face and sometimes they need to know where to go to get help. I met Mindy, another one of the girls, while I was visiting a victim of domestic violence. Mindy is a wonderful girl and she works with me now.

JJ: Is there anyone else special in the club?

JC: Yes. There’s Carly. She’s a student doctor and she works with us to help pay off her student debts. She has a very different back ground to the rest of us, but she gelled with the group real well, and is now a key member of our group.

JJ: I think that’s all we’ve got time for today. Thank you for coming in to see us.

JC: My pleasure. I hope to see you all again at the Stripper of the Yard launch party on 3rd August

https://www.facebook.com/#!/events/693967973984710/

Get your copy of Stripper from amazon

for Kindle http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00LRF6X44

and for paperback http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1500267430

NaNo – Tougher that last year?

So finally I have finished. The novel is complete and 50,650 words have been written in the last 24 days. I am very happy that I am a NaNo winner for the second year in succession but why was it so much harder this year?

Was it because last year’s story had been circling round in my brain for many years and this year’s story had only been there a few months?

Was it because I planned less?

Was it because the story is not as good?

Was it because I am a better writer now and writing without editing as you go feels strange?

I think it is probably a little of all of these. This year definitely felt like running through treacle at points and I had to force myself to sit down and write. Last year I couldn’t wait to write and would pick up my laptop at every opportunity to get on with my story.

I thought I must be miles behind this year even though my word count was above average but when I checked last year’s daily word count it was almost identical to this year’s.

To all of you that have started NaNo this year I take my hat off to you. Every word written is one that probably wouldn’t have existed without NaNo. The support on facebook and through the NaNo site is amazing and the write ins sound great even though I have yet to pluck up the courage and attend one.

The next step is to edit. I am still editing last year’s novel but this time I won’t leave it so long. As soon as 2012’s NaNo is ready to go out into the world to find a publisher I am starting editing 2013’s NaNo. I think it will need a lot more work but who knows, once I read it in the cold light of day there may be more to it that meets the eye at the moment.

Am I glad it’s over? Yes. Now I can get on with the writing I do the rest of the year.

Am I glad I did it? Yes. Even if only half the words I have written are usable I am well on my way to my second novel being completed.

Would I do it again? You betcha, Putting myself through this pain and agony each year shows me what is needed to turn writing into a career and not just a hobby.

So for now it’s goodbye but watch out. I’ll be back.

NaNoWriMo teaches showing not telling

I am sure we are all aware of NaNoWriMo by now but if not I wrote about it in a recent blog that you can check out here.

There are many ways which people use to try and hit the 50,000 words needed to be a winner. Some do not use any constrictions which can lead to some rather stilted dialogue. Others insist on putting every characters full name each time they speak which makes no odds if you character is called Cher or Madonna but can significantly increase your word count if you are including Sir Major General Albert Santos Di Caprio. Others insist that you should never delete anything instead just scoring through and rewriting which in a way gives you double word count.

I personally want to hit the word count with something that faintly resembles a first draft and whilst I will not be adverse to changes all my don’ts to do nots if the need arises I am currently trying not to.

So how to hit a massive word count and retain something useable. Well the first rule of writing is always ‘show don’t tell’ and with my short stories I have sometimes been accused of rushing to a conclusion that could hold the reader’s attention for longer. So in the effort to attain greater word count and more showing less telling I have gone from writing this:

Abby’s mum had a stroke

To writing this:

As she sat down at the kitchen table she noticed the shopping list notepad had vanished.

‘Mum have you moved the notepad?’ Abby called into the other room.

‘Yes it’s in the top draw same as always.’

‘Did you look at it?’

No response

‘Mum I said did you look at it?’

Still no response. Abby hated it when she went into one of her sulks and was determined not to stand for it. She stomped into the lounge. As she walked through the doorway and was about to let rip she noticed her mum’s hand dangling over the side of the armchair.

‘Mum, mum are you okay?’ She rushed to the front of the chair. Her mum had a lopsided grin on her face and dribble coming out of the corner of her mouth. ‘Don’t worry mum it’s gonna be okay.’ Abby said as she grabbed the telephone and dialled nine nine nine.

And so we move from five words to one hundred and fifty four, a significant dent in my daily total and whilst it’s still just a first draft and not perfect, it holds a lot more meaning than the first sentence.

Thank you NaNoWriMo for helping me to improve my writing.

Have any of your found other ways that NaNo has helped?

Are there other ways your writing has been improved when you didn’t expect it to be?

In Praise of Scribophile

I recently discovered Scribophile and cannot recommend it highly enough.
For those of you who are unaware of Scribophile you can link to it here.
So what is Scribophile? It is a website for writers. The way it works is that when you first join you can connect with people and critique their work. You can select stories to read that are from many different genres, short stories or chapters of novels. Every time you critique someone else's work you receive Karma points. You then build up Karma until you have enough to post one of your own works for other people to critique. Karma points awarded increase the longer the critique that you give but on average I get about 1.5 Karma points per critique. You need 5 Karma points to post one of your own pieces so for every three to four pieces you critique you can then have one of your own pieces critiqued.
Why is this better than other writing groups? I think it is better because everyone has to give before they can receive. I am always surprised by the other online groups that I am a member of, where people post stories and thank you for your critique but then claim they are too busy to critique your work. What makes them think I have nothing better to do that to encourage them in their writing? In order to improve we all need to get feedback.

Once you join Scribophile you can have quite a lot of interactivity for free. If you want to have more than two pieces live on the site then you need join. This is relatively cheap and with the exchange rate at the time it cost me £45 for a year's membership.
I am currently editing last year's Nano novel and the feedback I have had from the chapters I have posted so far has really helped me to develop the story and give me some confidence that people are going to want to read it.
Also I have started critiquing a story and it means I am getting to read a really good novel before anyone else.

Have you used Scribophile?

What other sites/groups do you use and are they as useful?

It’s NaNo Time again

Only a few days into October and already the ionosphere is buzzing with talk of NaNoWriMo. For the uninitiated this is where over 300,000 people sign up to try and write a novel in one month. Yes that’s right. The plan is to write at least 50,000 words in 30 days.

I am not sure whether I am more excited this year because I did it last year and know what to expect, or whether I have more connection this year that are taking part but it definitely feels like there is more excitement from everyone this year.

The Kent NaNoWriMo work on facebook seems to be more active than the Oxford group were last year and scribophile is alive with groups and people talking about it. I have even managed to convince a friend of mine, who’s has been talking about writing a book for years, to give it a go.

I am approaching NaNo in a similar vein to last year. I had a list of my main characters, an idea of the start of the story and a list of chapters with one or two sentences explaining what should happen in them. Once I started writing I got to chapter three and in walked a character I never even knew about. He was amazing and helped the story move along at a much better pace. It’s for this reason that I won’t be planning in detail as I don’t want to stifle my characters. I do know there are people who will plan to the smallest detail, and good luck to them, but I have always liked surprises.

So are you interested? If so why not sign up? http://nanowrimo.org/

If you’re already signed up let me know how you do it. Are you a planner or not?

Have you had successes from the things you have written for NaNo?