Author: Scott Andrews

Thoughts From The Winners Podium

Yesterday I finished my 50,000 word NaNoWriMo novel.  I am now officially a winner.  And I am not sure what I feel.  The last 5k was somewhat haggard as I hit the wall at the 45k mark.  Having quickly realised that I didn’t have time to be methodical I wrote a prologue and an epilogue to help me stagger over the finish line.  Today is the first morning where I don’t have to write, yet here I am, a literary crack head.

Every day for the last twenty-nine I have woken up and engaged myself in the life of others.  Today I shall not.  My plan for the next week is to submit my first novel to the next agent, write nothing and read a little.  First I shall re-read the excellent Dice Man by Luke Rhineheart, and then hopefully having grown some distance to myself will I start to look at if anything can come out of November’s madness.

My doubts are not due to the nature of NaNoWriMo but more due to the fact that I have written a novel which finishes in 50,000 words, which in my opinion is far to short for most publishers.  Ideally 80k is a minimum.  I am not convinced by the idea of increasing the size of the story by an extra 50%, as at 50k the story seems to evolve quite naturally.  Whether my opinion will change at some point I don’t know.

Another question is what I do with this blog.  Having initially promised myself that I would resign from it on my 31st birthday, here I am.  I will think that over through December and make a decision in the new year.

I suppose the biggest positive to come out of November is the fact that I can say that I have written two novels.  For the first time I find myself feeling like a novelist as opposed to someone who has written a novel.  The only question now is whether they will ever see the light of day.  For the time being I can remain confident in the fact that I am, and I probably will always remain a literary failure.

The Final Sprint

I have literally just written the ending to my second novel.  I have finished the story 3,632 words shy of the 50k finish line for NaNoWriMo.  Presently I feel pretty pleased with how it went, whether that will fade with time I don’t know.

My biggest fear at the end of this project was whether I have the ability to do my characters justice.  About one month of writing about these people and thinking about them they feel as if they are companions of mine.  For a few days I have been carrying an awful sense of melancholy, knowing that I was soon to see the end of their evolution.  Now I have I am both saddened and  energised by the fact that the journey is over.

I know it is going to be hard to stay focused and find these last 3,632 words before I have had a chance to read through the whole story.  I am certain I will feel, at least in the beginning that anything I add will just be filler to pass the finish line.  Nevertheless I started this journey and I fully intend on finishing it.

It’s too soon to give a considered opinion on the NaNoWriMo experience.  What I will say is that I have enjoyed it immensely, which in my opinion is the most important thing.  At best I haven’t written a second novel which could one day be polished into something interesting.  At worst I have learnt that I do possess the discipline required to achieve my goals.

Happy Francsgiving Day

Last week I was invited to a Thanksgiving Day celebration by an American friend.  I had never ever experienced any form of celebration on Thanksgiving so I eagerly accepted the invitation and set my mind to work.

I settled on the flag Americans love most

I am sure the vast majority of people reading this will find it incredibly difficult to believe that I was once described by a close friend as ‘having mastered the art of being irritating’.  As an Englishman abroad it was a fantastic anthropological opportunity.  The only drawback was that I had absolutely no idea what to wear.

After some careful consideration I decided that my attire should be suitably respectable for a day of such stern seriousness.  My contemplations  made several matters abundantly clear.  First and foremost I realised that I knew absolutely bugger all about Thanksgiving Day.  What I did know is this – it has something to do with Pilgrims or Penguins, and people watch American Football games.  So I prepared my lungs to shout touchdown as often as possible and prepared myself to partake in lots of stimulating conversations about the possible extinction of the Galapagos Penguin.

Upon arrival at my friend’s home I realised that hosting a Thanksgiving party is actually a form of masochism on behalf of the host.  The man has a number of tea towels attached to his personage as he rushes around trying to raise the guests cholesterol.  It’s almost like the host gets bonus points if he can make some explode via a Turkey overdose.  For a basic Thanksgiving party for a few friends, its apparent that you require enough food to feed Bangladesh for a fortnight.

Happy Francsgiving

Another valuable lesson I learnt that night, as I became more acquainted with an old friend from Tennessee was that Americans don’t actually give  Swiss Francs to each other on Thanksgiving day, every time I offered them to guests they looked at me as if I was slightly crazy.  Also, I was incredibly disappointed having spent half the day before researching penguins to find that there wasn’t a single person interested in discussing their imminent demise.  In fact the only penguins  people were genuinely interested in talking about was the Pittsburgheon, a breed which I never even came across during my research.

In my opinion if Thanksgiving Day is to survive and perhaps even cross over into different cultures it needs to adapt to an international audience.  Which means the food and alcohol should stay, but perhaps the manner and the reasoning for the celebration should change, after all there is no point having a day which no one understands.  Instead it’s title should change every year, as should the rules, that way Thanksgiving Day will only be celebrated by the most devoted followers.  Therefore next year rather than giving people Thanks, I shall be giving people DVD’s such as Forrest Gump, Saving Private Ryan and Big.  I am certain that TomHanksgiving day will be an even bigger hit.

40k Day Tomorrow

It’s hard to believe that for some time I fell behind schedule with my novel.  Part of me was considering jacking it in, as  I had absolutely lost faith.  For the  last 15-20k I have been feeling like it was impossible, that my story would never stretch.  Today I have stopped on 38k, confidence that my 2k a day system will finally catch me back up.  Today was my fastest yet.  I can finally see the finish line and my compulsive nature is now in fifth gear.  I don’t want to go to work, I don’t want to sleep, I don’t want to eat, I just want to write.  I have to force myself to break my cycle.  I love this feeling.  And it only gets stronger between now and the end of a project.

One thing which I have enjoyed is watching the story evolve.  At the beginning I had a clear plan on the subjects I wanted to touch on, but no plan of how to approach them.  The fact that you have only 30 days to complete the story means that you cannot stop when your plot hits a pothole.  Whereas with my first novel I would take a few days off to get some distance from the story to think about how to get around a ‘plothole’, now I just have to push on.  It’s hard sometimes, however I am enjoying the fact that it feels like a somewhat more natural evolution.  Whether I will feel that way when I read the entire project I don’t know.

Initially I wanted to write a slightly fun novel about a man, religion and ninjas.  The plot does contain elements of all three, however somethings have taken back seat, whilst others have emerged.  Now I feel as if the story is more focused on the powers of grief, belief and human nature.  With some religious commentary, and a ninja.  I have started to read the first part of the novel and have been pleasantly surprised so far.

In the meantime I still have submitted my first novel to my next target as my attention is completely fixated on my NaNoWriMo project.  I will try to find time, alas I can’t see it happening before I write my 50,000th word.  In the meantime I will try to post something on Sunday about being old and miserable.

The Last Lap

Apologies for my inactivity, however I have been finding it really quite difficult to find the time to post.  For now I shall post a brief update and optimistically finish a longer post in the next few days.

Regarding my first novel, I have decided to keep submitting it in the hope that I can find someone interested.  I have chosen my next target and whenever I find some time I will finally send it.  If/when I receive my next rejection I will look at redrafting it.

On the NaNoWriMo front I have fallen behind schedule slightly.  I have passed 32,000 words and may potentially make 37-40k before I have to start adding scenes.  I feel that I have lost the pacing of the story which is a shame.   The deadline is looming large on the horizon, and honestly I am starting to feel the pressure.  The idea of writing 18,000 words in 11 days is a terrifying prospect.  With my better half going away for the week, I shall try doubling my output between now and next Saturday.

In previous updates I have mentioned a few words which have been pleasant surprises to me, this time I want to leave you with a sentence which makes unusual use of one of those type of words.  I am undecided as to wherever it works, none the less it’s one of my two favorite sentences from my new novel.

‘Fate, chance, lady luck or whatever label you wish to attach to whatever it is that brings such dishevelment to a man’s life can conspire to be an angel at the best of times and an absolute bastard at the worst.’