I learnt some things about my writing process over the past 30 days of the WriMoFoFo challenge. The first is that I can actually push myself to let the story come out and 'write badly' if I put my mind to it. I kept telling myself that it didn't matter if the dialogue was bad, … Continue reading WriMoFoFo wrap-up
Why I keep a Writing Journal
When I started writing my current novel manuscript back at the beginning of June, I also started keeping a writing journal. On the first few pages I scribbled down the basic premise and broad story overview, a preliminary list of major turning points, and a list of major characters. After that, I started keeping almost daily … Continue reading Why I keep a Writing Journal
Wine and chocolate
With just one more week to go of the WriMoFoFo writing challenge, I have had the following epiphany: I cannot get through this coming week without wine and chocolate. I have been trying to abstain from both of late, but have now chucked that resolve out the window. Today I have ground my way to my word quota (a … Continue reading Wine and chocolate
Why research is important
Anyone who knows anything about astronomy knows that comets tend to arrive in our skies for several weeks, sometimes months. This is certainly the case with Halley's Comet, which I remember seeing on a wonderful clear morning (~4am) in March 1986, while on a school hiking expedition in the Victorian high country near Mt Bogong. The viewing … Continue reading Why research is important
Waffle or bones?
When I push myself to write quickly, I tend to waffle. It's as though I throw anything onto the page in the hope that out of the chaos will emerge the odd little gem that can be extracted and polished. This means that on a subsequent much-needed editing/revision pass, I invariably lose a heap of … Continue reading Waffle or bones?
Quality versus quantity
At the moment I'm a bit obsessed with wordcount. That's what happens when you embark upon a writing challenge such as WriMoFoFo, which comes complete with a Nifty Spreadsheet (its creator should patent it!) to keep track of words produced, owing, and averaged. What's good about this: It makes me keep going and going and going … Continue reading Quality versus quantity
WriMoFoFo writing challenge
The SuperNOVA writers group is undertaking a writing challenge at the moment. It's inspired by the well-known NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), when writers attempt to splurt out a 50,000 word novel during the 30 days of November. But since this is just, well, CRAZY, we've evened out the odds a little. Our WriMoFoFo (Write … Continue reading WriMoFoFo writing challenge
Ideas in the night
Ever have one of those nights when your mind is churning churning churning as it nuts out a story? And you turn the light out, because it's time to sleep . . . but then you have another idea and although it feels like you'll remember it in the morning, you know from experience that the chances … Continue reading Ideas in the night
Word goals & the wordmachine
At the moment I am working to a fairly ambitious daily word goal as I write the first draft of my current ms. It is not so much an ambitious goal on its own (and some writers I know would scoff), but to reach it five or six days in the week -- and then the … Continue reading Word goals & the wordmachine
On writing & discipline
It is an unequivocal truth that novels do not write themselves. Irrespective of how many words a writer can produce in an hour, or how many hours in a day (or even a week) can be made available to write, the fact remains that every single word and every single minute counts. Today I am mostly concerned … Continue reading On writing & discipline
Ellen Gregory 