Nanowrimo - time to reflect

And what better place to do it than in our favourite bookshop with coffee and cake. Many many thanks to Anna Dreda of Wenlock Books for the refreshments and the use of her wonderful table.

Julie and I met up to write and to chat primarily about Nanowrimo and what we each got out of it. I think the biggest thrill was that we both completed our fifty thousand words although at the beginning of November, we both admitted it was quite a daunting task.

For me I found it easier to break it down into daily sections. Seventeen hundred words a day doesn't sound half as bad as fifty thousand in a month and also I set a time each day in which to write those words. My time at the computer was between 2.15 and 4.45pm which meant when I was about doing other things I could think about what I was going to write. This also helped me organise the rest of my day better, which for those of you who know me, will find that a miracle. Also I found myself looking forward to my writing time, my space, hell no my escape.

Writing without editing as you go along, I found quite difficult. I kept wanting to go back and change things whereas Julie managed to put that out of her mind and keep writing. However, mindful of the time restriction my editing was kept to a bare minimum. When I picked up where I left off, I simply read the previous paragraph and hoped for the best.

Yes we've both made mistakes with characters etc but hey we've got the real editing to look forward to and sort things out and you never know at the end of it we might actually have something that people will want to read and more importantly be able to read it and follow it.

So was it easy? Was it a walk in the park? No, it was running free in the wind. There were no guidelines, no one to tell us what to write, it was a month of pure indulgence and one where I learned that yes I can do it and I can be disciplined.

Has the good work continued? Okay I admit I did have about three days off but since then I have been writing and my precious writing time in the afternoon continues.

And one last point we both agreed it certainly helped knowing that just down the road we knew someone else was doing exactly what we were doing. Mad maybe but great fun.

And yes we'll do it again Nano and writing in the bookshop.

Thanks Julie x

If you don't know Wenlock Books then it really is worth a visit. For more information click here