writers (never) retreat

This weekend, ten of us got together to work on our respective projects for the first inaugural Manx Litfest Writing Retreat.

*pauses*

*Googles*

*confirms first and inaugural do mean the same thing*

Damn, I knew it. But, see, the difficulty is I promised myself I wouldn't edit during the Retreat. I would just write, splurge, obtain the vomit-draft, and worry about editing later. And there's the difficulty - it's hard to just write, without going back to fix things, even when (especially when) you can see there's something obviously wrong with what you've just typed.

And it's hard to find time to write, as well. I've complained before that we're all too busy. We have kids and jobs and social lives and pets and Fallout 4 and bottles of wine that won't drink themselves (delete as applicable) and a million other drains on our time. So this Retreat was designed as time set aside for just writing. No housework, no kids, no spouses, no interruptions (some wine).

I've started a new project, with no plan, only the most general idea ("write something in space," my husband says) and the determination to plough forward without looking back. And it was fun. Even during Nanowrimo I never set aside long periods of time to write. It's just never feasible. My Nano stats are (usually) a steady slope of approximately 1,666 words per day building up in increments. Sprints and all-nighters are not part of my usual repertoire.

I've no idea if what I wrote over the weekend is any good, because I've not read it back yet. I've got my momentum and I'm pushing forward with the draft... and I'm hoping we get to do another Retreat at some point in the future because it'd be super-helpful if I could write nearly ten thousand words every weekend...

april kicked my arse

Well it did. For reasons I'm still trying to figure out, April was quite an awkward, busy month, which is one reason why I've not updated things here in a while (the other reason is I couldn't think of anything good to say, but shhhh).

So what have I been doing? Well, I've not been working on the second draft of my military sci-fi novel, which is what I'm supposed to be doing, and I've not been reading through the first draft of my haunted-house-plus-time-travel story, which is the other thing I'm supposed to be doing. On the plus side, I've managed to stick to one deadline - I completed Camp Nanowrimo. So, y'know, yay.

Anyone who knows me will know I luuuurve nanowrimo. It's a structure that works for me - I like having deadlines, daily word counts, a little graph that tells me when how well I'm doing, and a certificate at the end. Not everyone needs that validation, and not everyone thrives under an enforced deadline, but like I say it works for me. Camp Nanowrimo is marketed as a more easy-going version of the November event - you can pick your own word count (so long as it's over 10,000 words, apparently), work on multiple projects, or write something other than a novel, like a screenplay or a play or whatever. (Obviously you could do this during November as well, it's not like the Nano police are gonna come after you.)

So, in the spirit of trying something new, I attempted to write a graphic novel. For reference, I know nothing about writing graphic novels. It was all a big fun learning experience... and the most obvious thing I've learned is that I don't work well outside my comfort zone. 50,000 words on a novel? Brilliant, bring it on. 18,000 words on a graphic novel script? Ehhhhh...

I did make my word count, and now have what I reckon is about eighty percent of a graphic novel script (and of course that's entirely a guess because I've no idea if I've got the formatting, pacing, layout, or anything else right). It's a hot mess at the moment, of course, but all first drafts are. It's also (to be entirely honest) unlikely to ever progress beyond a script. The premise is absurd, the plot's hackneyed and ridiculous, and even if I could bribe an artist to draw the panels for me, I doubt it would ever be worth the effort.

In a way, this has been greatly liberating. I've spent a month writing something that no one will ever read, that will never be published, and which I wrote for no other reason than it was fun. And, at the end of the day, isn't that the true meaning of April?

Now is never a good time

The second Camp NaNoWriMo of the year starts today over at www.campnanowrimo.org and, as usual, I'm am both greatly excited to be in a Nano month again and also hugely unprepared for whatever writing project I'm supposed to be undertaking. I like that they've adopted the term "Pantser" to describe those of us who write by the seat of our pants, because that's always been my approach to writing (and to everything else in life, for that matter). I'd love to plan, but who has the time?

Come to that, who has time to write?

I've voiced this opinion before, but no one really has time to do anything. We're all very busy. There's always a very, very good reason not to write, or at least to put it off to tomorrow. For myself, I don't feel like writing at all today - I've just heard some bad news about an old friend, and the last thing I want to do is sit down and write the stupid story I'm supposed to be working on. I would happily put it off till tomorrow or the next day or... how about never? Is never good for you?

Which is one of the reasons I'm writing this blog post, to at least get my fingers moving and get a few words on screen (also, for the purposes of this month's Nano, I'm working on three different projects so have decided that anything I write goes towards my word count, including blog posts), in the hope I might trick my brain into wanting to continue.

So I'll have a cup of coffee and I'll write a procrastinating paragraph and then I'll open that stupid Word document and figure out where the story is going next.

And that's as much of a plan as a proud Pantser like me can cope with.

(320 words! Off I go!)