NaNoWriMo

NaNoWriMo

NANOWRIMO 2018

Published by Owen Jones on 30 October 2018

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NANOWRIMO 2018

NANOWRIMO 2018

NANOWRIMO 2018

Have you ever wanted to write a book? Many people have… I hear it from someone every week. The main reason they cite for not doing it is that they wouldn’t know where to start. I have written fifty-two novels and a hundred and twenty-five short manuals, but I still remember vividly how scared I was writing the first one. It took me seven years and I kept putting it off, because I had no confidence in it or myself. Now let me introduce you to NANOWRIMO and NANOWRIMO 2018 in particular.

Written correctly, it is NaNoWriMo 2018 and stands for National November Writing Month. The ‘national bit lasted a year, then it went global. I joined NaNoWriMo in 2013 and have participated every year since, so this year will be my sixth.

As it happens, 2018 is the one year when I really don’t have time to get involved, but I feel that it would be such a shame not to join in and I enjoy it a lot anyway.

However, the point of NaNoWriMo is to help beginners to gain the conference to write. So, to me, that especially means their first book, but many people only write one book a year, so NaNo is a big thing to them. And I have written many books, but it still is to me too.

NaNoWriMo offers so much support to writers. It is a fantastic feeling writing in a group. I say ‘a group’, but I have never met any of the people I have written with. We write together connected by Skype. However, the world is divided into sections for the NaNoWriMo 2018 experience, and most cities in the West have NaNo writing groups.

The challenge is to write 50,000 words during the month of November. I know that that might sound daunting, hut it is 1,667 words a day – call it 2,000 if you want a cushion. It doesn’t have to be published or edited in November, only written.

I urge everyone who wants to write a book to get on over to nanowrimo.org and sign up right now. You won’t regret it, I promise you, even if you don’t finish on time this year. You will have started and that is the biggest hurdle. Start now, finish wherever, and then really go for it next year.

I’ll be one of your writing buddies, if you like. Look me up, owenjones, and say ‘Hello’.

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All the best,

Owen

Podcast: NANOWRIMO 2018

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Books and Newspapers

Published by Owen Jones on 9 November 2015
Books and Newspapers - A Night in Annwn

Books and Newspapers – A Night in Annwn

Books and Newspapers

I am not going to claim that this idea is revolutionary or even new, but it occurred to me yesterday that the main difference between books and newspapers is fact and ideas. A friend was telling me that he gave up reading books years ago and only reads free online publications these days. I said that I thought he was subjecting himself to only the depressing part of reading, and missing out on the uplifting ideas in many books.

Newspapers are about how many people died in which wars and where; how many people have lost their jobs; rapes; murders; government cuts… they are depressing and don’t attempt to be anything else.

It strikes me that reading only that seven days a week just because it is free, without the counterbalance of excitement and hope for the future that is in many books is dangerous for the equilibrium of the mind.

‘How many times have you read a newspaper that you couldn’t put down?’ I asked him. ‘Compare that with the number of books that engrossed you to the point that you were sorry to reach the end’.

I do not expect a conversion, but he will go away and think about it.

After that 80mm grasshopper the other day, came another new animal today. It is in the picture here. A

Tree Shrew

Tree Shrew

tree shrew. When I first saw it, I thought it was a rat, but they are rare – I have only seen one in eleven years. Then it jumped into a tree and looked very at home, so I thought ‘a squirrel’. My wife said ‘no’, and gave me the Thai name (gra-dtae) and someone on the Internet translated it for me.

My NaNoWriMo entry, ‘A Night in Annwn’ is coming on nicely at 57% complete. It is about a Welsh sheep farmer, who undergoes a near-death experience. It will be released on December 10th, but you can pre-order it here in case you forget.

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All the best,

Owen

Podcast: Books and Newspapers

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NaNoWriMo Entry 2015

Published by Owen Jones on 3 November 2015
NaNoWriMo Entry 2015 - A Night in Annwn

NaNoWriMo Entry 2015 – A Night in Annwn

NaNoWriMo Entry 2015

I think I have my NaNoWriMo Entry for 2015. I don’t mean that I have written it, that would be against the rules, as entrants are not allowed to even begin writing until tomorrow, but I have the title, and that is always the first step for me.

I’m not sure that I should give you the NaNoWriMo Entry title yet, perhaps I should try to eke out the suspense. On the other hand, knowing it is not going to change your life, so I doubt that you find it particularly exciting anyway. I want to call the book ‘One Night in Annwn’, but I am not going to help you anymore for a while. If you don’t know what Annwn is, you will have to look it up yourself. It is on Wikipedia (there you are, a clue and I said I wouldn’t help).

Why don’t you join us in NaNoWriMo? I think that there are usually about twenty-five thousand people taking part scattered all around the world. We normally keep in touch with a local group by Skype (free) messenger service and egg each other on to achieve the minimum average daily word total of 1,666 (50,000/30 days).

That may sound like a lot to a beginner, but it is only five hundred in the morning, another five hundred at lunchtime and seven hundred in the evening (or something like that).

I do not know what the prizes are for achieving that goal this year, but everyone who writes the 50k wins, not only a

NaNoWriMo 2015 Winner

NaNoWriMo 2015 Winner’s Badge

few. The best prize for me is the free books: hardback and paperback. However, there are lots of other benefits of a NaNoWriMo Entry too, one of which is the lasting friendships you can make with other members of your group.

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All the best,

Owen

PS: You can pre-order or buy it here: A Night in Annwn

Podcast: NaNoWriMo Entry 2015

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NaNoWriMo 2015

Published by Owen Jones on 10 October 2015
Tiger Lily of Bangkok - NaNoWriMo Winner

Tiger Lily of Bangkok – NaNoWriMo Winner

NaNoWriMo 2015

Are you aware of NaNoWriMo 2015? I imagine that if you are not a writer then you are probably not. However, NaNoWriMo 2015 is very important to the world at large and to many, about twenty-five thousand people individually every year.

NaNoWriMo 2015 takes place in November and stands for ‘National November Writing Month’ or something very similar, but is actually open to anyone in the world. NaNoWriMo 2015 is a n organization that encourages and more importantly supports writers, especially novices, to write a book once a year during the month of November.

I know people who have written a book for NaNoWriMo 2015 every year for more than a decade, but never write one outside that month. It is a breath of fresh air to write a book a year and then return to their normal lives. Not that you need to take a month off work to write that novel.

To ‘win’ at NaNoWriMo 2015, you have to write a novel of fifty thousand words in thirty days. Now to someone who has never written a book before, that may sound frightening, but it is easier when you realise that it only means writing about seventeen hundred words a day.

NaNoWriMo

NaNoWriMo

If you think that that is a lot, it really isn’t.

Ten years ago, I read at the bottom of a diary page, ‘If you want to become a writer, write for ten minutes a day’.

That will sound stupid to non-writers, but I can assure you that once you are ‘in the groove’ and the advice said actually writing, not thinking about it, the time flies.

I cannot write for only ten minutes, because ten minutes turns into hours, and in hours you can write seventeen hundred words.

I personally write at the speed of about six hundred words an hour, but I know those who write much faster. Well over a thousand is achievable by those who can  type. I am still a two-finger plodder after thirty-three years of learning.

So, if you would like to try your hand at writing a book, go along to the NaNoWiMo.com website and read more. It is all free.

If you see me there, say hello and we can become writing buddies!

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All the best,

Owen

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Tiger Lily of Bangkok

Published by Owen Jones on 9 November 2013 11
Tiger Lily of Bangkok

Tiger Lily of Bangkok

Tiger Lily of Bangkok

‘Tiger Lily of Bangkok’ is my entry into the NaNoWriMo 2013 challenge. The challenge is to write a book of 50,000 words during the month of November. This is the diary of my MaNoWriMo 2013 experience.

1/11/2013: I have never entered before, but I am ready to write a new book. I decided to go out of my genre and write a book involving murder. I called it ‘Bangkok Lil’ and wrote furiously. In fact, I wrote more words on that day than I have ever done before.

I wrote all night, slept for two hours and wrote all da and night again. My total was 12,136 and that was 3,000+ more than my highest ever.

For the next six days, I hammered out loads more words, but I was expecting a stop. I know abot myself, that if I write at more than 4,000 for a long time, I just dry up.

Sure enough, that happened on the 7th and 8th, but last night, I was able to write again, writing 3,000+ quite easily.

By now I was on 34,077 and due to finish the book on or about the 12th of November, 18 days early. It is not a race and it is not a competition, it is a challenge, but one that I can handle very easily, having written ‘Maya Illusion’ in July and that was 112,000 words.

9/11/13: I wrote my second ever murder scene tonight, the other one was also in this book. I can’t say that it was not nice to do. No, sorry, I can say that it was awkward … No, disturbing to do. Or at least, it was very odd.

It was decidedly odd to put myself in the place or mind or a deranged psychopathic serial killer, plot and carry out the murder (on paper) of a man,. It made it easier knowing that Lily was sure that he deserved it.

I am not happy with the name of the book. ‘Bangkok Lil’ sounds too common. It reminds me of  ‘Fag-Ash Lil’ and Lily is not like that. I tried ‘White Lily of Bangkok’, but that was screaming out for a ‘the’ before it, which I did not want to put for SEO reasons.

I settled for ‘Tiger Lily of Bangkok’ tonight, I think, but don’t try to hold me to it.

I made it to 38,297 words and the end of the chapter, so we will have to see what tomorrow brings. It is midnight now.

10/11/13: off we go again! Day ten of ‘Tiger Lily of Bangkok’, as she will definitely be called now.  I got up at 6 AM, which is not that unusual, although I normally start a little later. That should allow me to get most of the 4,000 words I like to write a day done before noon.

I have the next three 4,000-word chapters fixed in my brain now and that will take me over the 50,000 mark to complete the challenge, but I will probably need at least one more and that is swirling about in my head – I can’t see it clearly yet.

So, here we go with chapter 11, which reminds me that I should upload a new chapter to Smashwords in order to release more words to the public to read (they get 20% starting from the first word in the book).

The keyboard on my Asus is lousy today! It seems that most of the keys either don’t work or repeat, meaning lots of needless editing, costing me time. Anyway, back to writing Tiger Lily of Bangkok…

Can’t get started… I’m thinking of promoting this page, but it is just displacement, not writers’ block. I just need to get started and it will flow from there. A concession… I’ll promote this to Facebook and Twitter first and then start – honest.

That’s the first 421 words of the day written, so the ice has been broken!

I did quite well at the end of the day topping my 4,220 daily average by 700 words. That means I have only 6,791 to go to finish the challenge, but not the book.

I wrote with the Bangkok chapter of NaNoWriMo last night for the first time in a few days, but I will go back tomorrow night at 10 p.m.

I am now wondering whether Lily should get away with her murders (five so far).

11/11/13: I have sorted that dilemma out, but I can’t tell you my decision or I’ll spoil the story of ‘Tiger Lily of Bangkok’.

I have started late today, but I have done all my email, so that is something. It’s 10 a.m. and I’m raring to go with a slight change in plot on the near horizon.

I had a very good day, writing 6,800+ words and completing the challenge by 10:30 p.m.

So, that’s the first 50k done!

However, joking aside, I will add another chapter or two to round it off as Lily has gone and changed the ending again!

12/11/13: starting at 8:30 a.m. today, but been here thinking for an hour.

I have the ending to ‘Tiger Lily of Bangkok’ but I’m not sure how she gets there from here. Usually, for me, it is bst to just write and see what happens. Just thinking can put me in a tailspin of, ‘yes, but what if’s’. The ending has definitely changed though, but at least I can see that, it’s just how to get there now.

I found a path to the ending!

‘Tiger Lily of Bangkok’ is now complete at 53,000+ words and I have started editing.

I bought the URL for the book too – an exact match which shocked me as I could not get anywhere near it on Facebook.

The website is:

http://tigerlilyofbangkok.com

and the Facebook page is:

http://facebook.com/tigerlily.thebook/

13/11/13: I did some moreediting today and I worked on the FB page and website. ‘Tiger Lily of Bangkok’ is coming along nicely! 🙂

 

Use the ‘Comments’ box at the bottom of the page, if you’d like to say anything about ‘Tiger Lily of Bangkok’.

Please vote for the book’s title in this one-question survey:

http://owencerijones.com/wordpress/

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NaNoWriMo Challenge 2013

Published by Owen Jones on 9 November 2013 12
NaNoWriMo Challnge 2013

NaNoWriMo Challnge 2013

NaNoWriMo Challenge 2013

Hi,

I have entered into the NaNoWriMo 2013 challenge. This is my first time. For those of you who don’t know what NaNoWriMo stands for, it is National Novel Writing Month. It has been going for about twelve years, but I had never heard of NoNoWriMo either.

Despite it describing itself as a ‘national’ event, it is not it is definitely international and you may enter in any language you like. The challenge is to write at least 50,000 words during the month of November, which is not as hard as some people make it out to be, although I suppose we all have other calls on out time too – some a lot more than others.

NaNoWriMo have very helpful web site where every entrant has his or her own page which tracks progress and stats. There is also a lot of encouragement from staff and other writers. So far over 280,000 people have entered and I recommend everyone to have a go. It is not too late to enter even now, it would mean writing an average of less than 2,500 words a day.

I have used this opportunity of NaNoWriMo to write outside my normal box – I have chosen the genre of…, er well, I’m not sure what it is called, really, I’m not very good at recognising niches.

It is about Lily, a 19 year-old serial killer living in Bangkok, but it’s not a mystery, because the reader knows that. It is not a detective novel, because the police hardly get a mention, so what is it? Suspense? If anyone can help me out, please do, because I need it.

You can read the blurb under a book with the name ‘Lily’ in the title and that is under the heading of ‘My Books’ on the Header Bar, up there somewhere ↑

As I was saying, I still don’t have a firm title yet. I started with ‘Bangkok Lil’, then moved to ‘White Lily of Bangkok’, but am now considering ‘Tiger Lily of Bangkok’.

If you’d like to give me your anonymous opinion, please complete this one-question poll :

http://owencerijones.com/wordpress/

Thanks for your help.

Regards,

Owen

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