After NaNoWriMo

That’s it, NaNoWriMo is over. My wordcount on the 30th of November was 71,434 words (I estimate that the completed first draft will be around 85,000 words) and I only have three chapters left to write. 

I am both elated and exhausted and eager to write the final words of The Orchid Collector. NaNoWriMo has allowed me to do in one month what took me YEARS for my debut novel. 

When I was writing the first draft of As Winter Came and Went, I only picked up my pen when inspiration struck. I could go for weeks, months even without writing a single word. I didn’t even know if I would actually finish it one day or just give up, like I gave up on so many projects. Well, I didn’t give up but there were about five years between writing the first words and publishing the book. 

And now, after thirty days, I am 15,000 words away from the end of my manuscript. And this is so exciting! Of course, this first draft is awful. Parts are incoherent. It will need months of editing. It may need a total rewrite. The style is sloppy in part. Most of the secondary characters are just cardboard. And to be honest, I am a bit fed up with it. But you know what? Once it is finished, making this first draft into a proper novel will be the fun part: I like editing, refining, working with words, trying to create the perfect sentence. 

And even if this manuscript isn’t very good, by taking part in NaNoWriMo, I have proved to myself that I could write every day. That I could take this writing thing seriously. That I could churn out chapter after chapter. And more importantly, I have learnt to not wait for inspiration: I produced about 2,000 words a day, even if I did not feel like it. Because that is what this challenge is about: pushing your limits, and getting the writing done. 

Could I do it the whole year round? No. But I will try to use the momentum this challenge gave me to finish The Orchid Collector and maybe another project. I will try to write the last chapters in the next couple of weeks, and then I will let the manuscript rest for a while. I have already made a list of details, scenes and characters I want to change, but I will wait, to look at it all from a distance. I also have more research to do, historical and otherwise, in order to flesh out the manuscript and make the story more realistic. So yes, lots of work ahead. 

But now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got three more chapters to write!

"The bog of..."

I'm currently writing the middle part of my NaNoWriMo project The Orchid Collector. And it feels a bit like wading through a swamp... But I trudge on. I am determined that this first draft will not join my collection of unfinished manuscripts. Even if it is written very badly, it will get written! 

My book of cartoons, The Would-Be Novelist, published last week, is available on Amazon: 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1702470016?ref_=pe_3052080_397514860

It's published!

The Would-be Novelist is now live on Amazon! To buy it, you can follow this link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1702470016?ref_=pe_3052080_397514860

"When you're so obsessed with a word..."

Some words appear again and again in my writing. I have, for example, a strange obsession with the word strange. People, buildings, landscapes, atmospheres, situations, etc., etc. are strange. Characters look strangely at each other. Everything is pervaded by strangeness. It's all very strange. 

One aspect of the editing I did on my novel was trying to get rid of those words I kept using again and again. I'm still wondering why I'm using strange so much... It sure is strange. 

"When you need a higher wordcount..."

Why use just four words when you could use more than forty? I hope that I will not have to use this ruse to reach my NaNoWriMo goals... 

NaNoWriMo preparations

November is drawing nearer, nearer, and so is the beginning of NaNoWriMo. I’m more and more excited about it and about my new project, The Orchid Collector. I don’t know if I’ll have a finished manuscript by the end of November, but hopefully, I’ll be 50,000 words in and more than half-way through. 

I want to give myself every chance of achieving this, and that means actually preparing this crazy writing marathon. 

I do not usually do a lot of planning when it comes to my novel. I do a rough outline and time line that gives me an idea of where I’m going. Sometimes I do not actually follow this outline, but it doesn’t matter. It’s just a guideline. Like a rough map of my writing journey, that will not stop me from making detours. 

However, I decided to make a much more detailed outline for The Orchid Collector. I’ve divided the story in parts, and chapters, and wrote small paragraphs listing different scenes and plot points within those chapters (12 of them). This does not mean I will precisely follow this outline, but it will probably save me time, as I won’t have to invent scenes as I write them. Thanks to this outline, I know precisely which scene will end the novel, I’ve even made a summary of it. 

I’m using Microsoft OneNote to work on the outlining and planning of my project. I like the fact that the virtual notebooks can be synchronised on different devices. I think it’s an interesting tool to organise ideas. 

Because a novel is nothing without its characters, I’ve also worked on fleshing out the main ones. Rough physical and temperamental characteristics, but also bits and pieces of backstory. There will be two main characters. A third character will gain much importance in the second half of the story, but he does not appear before them. I’m also in the process of making a list of secondary characters with names, ages, motivations, fate in the novel, etc. 

I still have to do some research, especially on Cochinchina in the 18th century. Because setting and atmosphere will be important, I will have the pleasing task of going through photos taken on a trip to Vietnam a couple of years ago, to remember my impressions and the sense of place. 

On the whole, I’m really enjoying all this preparation, and I hope that the actual writing in November will be as pleasant and that I will reach my goal!

"The Would-be Novelist" cover reveal

Here it is, the cover for The Would-be Novelist! Feel free to let me know what you think of it! 

Announcement

That's right, The Would-be Novelist, that compilation of about 50 of the cartoons I posted on this blog, will be published in exactly one month!
All the cartoons I will be using have already been scanned. The script is currently being edited and proofread. I will start the formatting next week. And next week I will also do a cover reveal. I'm very excited about it all!

"When I'm trying to write a short story"

I love reading short stories. And I'd love to be able to write some. However, I still have to work on the definition of short. It seems that I need several thousand words and dozens of pages to express myself...

NaNoWriMo

I’ve decided that this year I would try to take part in NaNoWriMo. What is NaNoWriMo? This stands for National Novel Writing Month. It starts on the 1st of November and the goal is to write a 50,000 word long novel from scratch in one month. That means an average of 1,667 words per day. 

I’ve been wanting to do it for some time, because it sounds like an exciting challenge. So this year, I’m taking the plunge. 

To play by the rules, the novel you write for NaNoWriMo has to be one on which you have not started yet. You can research, plan and outline it beforehand, but you must not have started to write it before the 1st of November. So that means that, by the end of November, I could find myself with yet another unfinished first draft to add to my collection. 

I was tempted to do this challenge with one of my works in progress. However, I remembered a story idea I’d had some time ago and thought it would be a good opportunity to see what I could make out of it. 

What is this story? Well, it will be set in the 18th century, in the 1770s probably. Part of it will be in England, and another part in Cochinchina. Working title: The Orchid Collector. I still have a lot of research to make. I know who the main characters (two of them) will be, but I still have to work on secondary characters. And several historical points will have to be elucidated. I’m working on the outline now, chapter by chapter, in order to make the actual writing, when it starts, easier. 

I first had this story idea when I was visiting historical greenhouses in Paris and reading the historical facts about the explorers and botanists who travelled all over the world to bring back rare and precious plants. I thought it would be fun to write a piece of fiction about one of those explorers, about this quest for the beauty of the natural world. All the more so since I love orchids (but I’m very, very bad at cultivating them. I’ve got a few sad looking Phalaenopsis that have not flowered in years and struggle to survive). 

I’m quite excited about this challenge. Maybe I’ll even manage to complete this novel!

"When someone asks me what my book is about"

Writing the book is the easy part. Writing several hundred pages... No problem! Just don't ask me to tell you briefly what those hundreds of pages are about. Writing them was enough for me. 

"I'm going to be productive today"

Who else is guilty of that? I'm trying to be more productive with my writing by giving myself goals and deadlines. For instance, I'll try to write so many words in a day, or tell myself I have one week to finish a chapter. We'll see how it goes! 

A new project

September, the start of the school year, of the university year. The ideal time to make new projects for the coming months. 

During the summer holidays, I made much progress on the first draft of the sequel of As Winter Came and Went. I have actually started to write what will be the last chapter. Once this is finished, it will be time for the first round of edits, the most important one: some scenes will have to be cut, others lengthened. Because the manuscript was written over a period of months (years? I’ll have to calculate), some aspects of the stories evolved and parts of the first chapter will have to be changed accordingly. 

My goal is to finish this first draft by December 2019, and edit, proofread and make ready for publication over 2020. However, it is not my only project. There’s Cinnamon, as you already know, but I haven’t made any progress on it during the summer. For now it’s at a standby. I’ll finish it, eventually, but for now I’m concentrating on other projects. 

One is completely new. Well, it stems from an idea I had some time ago. One of the characters from As Winter Came and Went is Summer, a Barb horse imported from Morocco. I love this character. I love writing about him. And readers seem to love him too. So I decided he deserved to be the hero of his own story, a story spanning from his birth, around 1815, to his first appearance in As Winter Came and Went. A prequel of sorts. 

It will not be very long, only a novella. I’ve made an outline, and it will have six, probably relatively short, chapters. It will be possible to read it independently from As Winter Came and Went, but it will give readers of my novel the opportunity to learn more about Summer. I also intend to lavishly illustrate this novella (which will be self-published as well). 

I’m really excited about this project and am, at the moment I’m writing this, a bit over 1000 words into the first chapter. It’s not a lot, but it’s a beginning. Who knows, maybe it will be published sooner than I expect!

"Where are they all gone?"

A new cartoon! Hooray! Not really true this time, because all my ideas have not escaped while I was trying to write them down: I've been unusually productive lately and am really motivated. I haven't forgotten the book of cartoons I intend to publish. But I'm still trying to decide how to organise it... But I will probably make an announcement about it soon enough! 

What's up?

I’m afraid I’ve very much neglected this blog and that it suffered a similar fate to many blogs held by would-be bloggers… Started with enthusiasm… Posts twice a week… Dwindling to one image a week… Then a repost of an old image a week… Then nothing. The problem is that at first, I had a schedule and I stuck to it. But the moment I decided that after all, it would be ok to not post something, just for this week, next week will go back to normal… Well… The rhythm’s broken and... you know the rest. 

Anyway, today’s a good time as any to create a new post and let you know how I’m doing with my writing (because I’m hoping that you are reading this because you have read my novel and loved it and wish to know when the sequel will be released). The writing’s going well. I probably should write more than I’m doing at the moment (good excuses and sheer laziness being so many obstacles) but I’m making slow progress on the sequel of As Winter Came and Went. 

I’ve also made some progress on Cinnamon which is my second main fiction writing project (still not sure though if it will end up being a novella or a novel). I’m also considering taking up an abandoned project, the half-written first draft of a short novel set in 19th century Dartmoor. It would probably need lots of reworking. Maybe a total rewrite. But I’ve been thinking about this project lately and I think that the main characters have some potential. I’d abandoned it because the storyline was becoming rather (very) silly. But perhaps, reworking it, and shortening it to a novella format, might make it more palatable. 

My main project remains the sequel. I’m reaching the last chapters of the first draft and I’m hoping to finish that by the end of 2019. I would like to say, by the end of Summer 2019, but that’s probably too ambitious. 

If all goes to plan (but we all know it never does, right), the sequel could be available in 2020. That gives you time to read As Winter Came and Went if you have not already. It got a few nice reviews on amazon (amazon.fr and amazon.co.uk) so, if you have nothing to do this summer, and enjoy literary fiction in a historical setting, you could always give it a try! 

https://www.amazon.com/Winter-Came-Went-May-Bermont-ebook/dp/B07K618J3M/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=as+winter+came+and+went+may+bermont&qid=1563440828&s=gateway&sr=8-1

"Cute picture or horror story?"

Cat + computer + manuscript = not always a very good idea...

"A would-be novelist's daydream"

"I should have a compensation"

"I need drama..."

"Starting the first draft of the first book..."

How naive I was when I started the first draft of As Winter Came and Went! Writing a book? Easy peasy! Publishing a book? Even easier.
Now I'm not naive anymore. Just tired at the simple thought of repeating that process again. Still, I must be a little bit crazy. Because in spite of that, I'm doing it anyway!

"When the story you're trying to write..."

And it's...a new cartoon! My stories have a tendancy to multiply as I keep having ideas for sequels and prequels and spin offs... Not that all those ideas will actually be turned into novels. But some...

"When I want to work on my novel..."

No new cartoon this week either, and no real progress on my manuscripts. So this one felt quite appropriate, 

"A novelist and her main character"

"Listen to your characters"

Have you read As Winter Came and Went? No? That's a pity... You'd be able to understand more precisely what I mean with this cartoon!

"Writing the first draft"

Another repost. But that means there'll be more new cartoons in the book! 

"If it was that easy"

Another repost, because I'm lazy, because several of the new cartoons I've created will be just for the book, and because I'm hoping that I've got heaps of new followers since I first posted this one, who will not have seen it already!

"Editing the first draft..."

Some of you may remember this cartoon. It is the very first one I created, about a year ago.
Because of the book I am going to publish, I made several cartoons which I am not going to publish on this blog, so they can remain original. So I thought that, from time to time, I could repost old ones. I hope you don't mind!

"When I'm trying to write my novel..."

Is it more annoying to have to no ideas or to have too many?

"Writers..."

This week's cartoon, a bit late, because I forgot to post it on the blog...
Anyway, here it is now!

Announcement

I have some exciting news! *drum-roll* I have finally decided that I would turn my cartoons into a book, or rather, into a series of small books, focussing on the different aspects of a (would-be) writer's life. I know that I've been hinting at this project for some time, but now it is official.

 

I do not have a release date yet, as I have to write/edit/proofread the text that will go with the images, make some new cartoons (that will only be published in the books, not on the blog), format the whole thing, make some nice covers... But I'll try to publish the first book before the end of the year! I'll make another announcement as soon as I've settled on a date.

"A would-be novelist's desk"

Based on real events...

What's up?

What's up? A lot of things. Too many things. This is why I haven't been publishing articles on this blog for some time (though I hope you will admire my regularity in posting those weekly cartoons!).

 

As Winter Came and Went has been published. However, that doesn't mean that it can now just live it's own life: I have to work on the marketing side of the writing business and find a way of letting the wide world know that my novel is out there. And find a way of inciting the wide world to actually buy this novel (more subtly than posting BUY MY BOOK! BUY MY BOOK! on every social media I can think of).

 

I've reached (and hope to finish this month) chapter 9/13 of the sequel of As Winter Came and Went. I know that I'm making slow progress, compared to people who managed to churn out a book a year, if not most (how do they do it? If someone knows, pleeeaaase tell me!). But it's progress nonetheless. I'm eager to finish the first draft, because then I'll have something to work upon, to refine, to shape. To turn into something which I hope will be beautiful.

 

You might remember the other work in progress I already mentionned on this blog, Cinnamon (working title). I do not want this project, novel or novella, we'll see, to join the ranks of the unfinished stories that lurk in the depths of my computer or under piles and piles of paper. So maybe, once I've finished chap. 9 of the sequel, I'll work on Cinnamon, just Cinnamon, for a whole month.

 

I've also got an exciting project regarding my little cartoons. There are almost 50 of them now. 50! And it will be almost a year since I first started drawing them. So maybe, quite soon, they could be making their way into a little book... More on this in another post! 

"Writing the first draft..."

There's a reason why one of the pieces of advice given to would-be novelists is to leave their first draft rest for a few weeks before looking at it again...

"When someone tells me they can't wait to read the sequel of my novel..."

Of course, I'm overjoyed when someone tells me they want to read the sequel of my novel. But then I realise that I've got to write it (and edit it, and publish it...)... And I'm not so overjoyed... But don't worry, I'm not going to change my mind! For now at least...

"There's still a long way to go..."

That moment of exhilaration, when you've reached your goal, when you've published your book... And then you realise that if you also want to reach that elusive situation, success, the road is still very, very long, and the obstacles very, very numerous...

"I need a holiday"

"A writer's best friends"

Dogs may be Man's best friends, but a writer's best friend is certainly the cat. Even if cats take up all the room on the desk and play with the pens and like to lie down on manuscripts...