Fi Phillips

By the time November rolls round, a lot of people are on full Christmas mode. If it isn't present shopping, it's event planning, or just reeling out Christmas songs and memes on social media. Me? I'm happy to plan ahead, where needed, but I also believe in savouring the moment. For instance, despite the time of year, the weather here is glorious, mostly dry and with that wonderful golden light  that you often get in the autumn. What's the rush to get to the end of the year? It'll be here soon enough. I'm busy this month, with work, with writing and with saying farewell to something that's been a major part of my life for over two decades. And no, I don't mean my husband. Bye bye Murdering The Text Back in 1997, I wrote my first murder mystery play with co-writer and friend, Janet, as a way to raise funds for the amateur theatre group we were involved in. Little did we know that it would turn into a business that would serve other amateur th...

Is it just me or has it got chilly since October started? Brrrr. I had to root out my slipper boots because the dog won't let me use her as a foot warmer when I'm working. October looks to be a full month - lots to do, lots to decide and lots to enjoy too. Haven Wakes That's the new title of my middle grade futuristic fantasy novel. What do you think? After finishing the latest (and hopefully last pre-editor) draft, I've been submitting my novel to literary agents in the UK. I've had one rejection so far but I'm not letting that dishearten me. Preparing for November - or not? NaNoWriMo will begin again in November and I'm in a bit of quandary over (a) whether to take part, and (b) what to write if I do NaNo this year. The Camp NaNoWriMos have always been really successful for me and given me a real boost each time I've taken part, but I've never yet succeeded at the 50,000 word count of NaNoWriMo. I think it's to do with the time ...

In November last year, I took part in National Novel Writing Month ( NaNoWriMo ) and got a massive amount of work done on my novel. Now that I'm revisiting/redrafting/ rewriting/editing (any of these may apply) my novel post manuscript assessment, I feel like I need another boost to get me going. Camp Nanowrimo is for writers who want to return to the chaos *cough* concentrated effort of a month's committed writing. It takes place twice a year. I'm dipping into it this April. Unlike the full November NaNoWriMo, you can choose your own wordcount and you are also assigned to a cabin with a number of other writers to share the experience with you. Working from home, I sometimes lack the momentum that working out there in the real world with a team of colleagues can provide. Camp Nanowrimo is just what I need. Wish me luck.

It's that time again, the breath before the final leap into the new year. It's that chance to take a moment to look back before we shut the door on the old year, to check over our intentions for then and our wishes for the future. Back in January , I talked about what I had accomplished in 2013 and how I wanted to approach 2014. I think I managed to maintain that wish to see my life, good and bad, with new, refreshed eyes. Later that month , and again in February , I set myself a reading list. I got around halfway through that list, reading some wonderful novels and poetry. The rest are for next year's reading list. Towards the end of February, I began a new series of blog posts - Something Useful for 2014 - that provided my readers with monthly writing exercises. That's something I'll be continuing in 2015, along with my monthly photo inspiration posts. In the first half of the year, I took customer commissions for three separate murder mystery plays...

So November is over and NaNoWriMo is wrapped up for another year. The usual target for each participant is to write 50,000 words. My personal target was to complete the first draft of my second children's novel during the month. So, how did I do? Well, I didn't complete the draft but I did write the first fifteen chapters. That's approximately half of the novel. What stopped my progress, besides real life, was the fact that my original chapter plan unravelled slightly when I started writing it. I realised that changes had to be made to my plot and I also found that a certain amount of extra research was required. Personally, I'm delighted with last month's progress. NaNoWriMo has provided the kickstart I needed to begin novel number two and I can happily continue with writing the rest of the book. So where does chapter fifteen leave us in the novel? Well, Isabelle and Blessing have a mystery to solve, Cormac is stood outside Hartley's shop, and Steve and...

As you know, I'm  taking part in NaNoWriMo this month (National Novel Writing Month). A large part of the NaNoWriMo experience is writing freely, without edit, and just keeping going. That's one of the reasons that it doesn't suit a lot of writers. Some people can just go for it full-pelt, while others need to stop and consider, research, edit a bit, and so on. So in honour of NaNoWriMo, the exercise I'm setting this month is to write for at least twenty minutes in the spirit of 'full-pelt'. Don't plan. Don't think. Just write. Don't edit and read back. Just keep going. Good luck.

So this November, I'm taking part in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) . The goal is to write 50,000 words in a month. It doesn't have to be polished words, or even pre-planned words. It's quite acceptable for it to be an outpouring of 50,000 words of garbage (although I'm sure that doesn't happen). I started off with my chapter plan complete and for the first few days was keeping up with, and at points exceeding, the daily average of 1,667 words (to accomplish 50,000 by the end of the month). Then, I hit not exactly a brick wall so much as a sticky patch. Here was the problem - my chapter plan didn't work. Now, I know that the premise of NaNoWriMo is to plough on regardless but I just couldn't carry on without rethinking my plot so I had a few days where I went back over what I'd written. I realised that a 'method' to find clues in my novel was ridiculous. It just didn't work. I thought up a new one, made a few amendments to what ...

It's that time of year again, when writers all over the planet dive into the challenge of writing 50,000 words in only a month (November, to be exact). This year, I'm taking part as a way to kickstart my next novel. That leaves me a couple of weeks to finish my initial chapter plan which is already well on the way to being complete. I've never actually made the 50,000 words. I think, 25,000 was the most I managed one year. This time round though, I have the added motivation of working on the second novel in my trilogy. I'm itching to get started. If you want to be my writing buddy on the NaNoWriMo website this year, or just want to follow my progress, you can find my NaNo profile here . Wish me luck.

That's rich like a good coffee, sumptuous chocolate or the deepest red of a velvety rose, not rich as in financially overflowing (although that one would be good too). How do you achieve and maintain that quality within your writing? 1. In the competitive world of Nanowrimo-esque word counts, it can be tempting to write as much as possible in one go. This can be a useful approach when creating a first draft or tackling NaNoWriMo , just getting the words down, but there is another option that I've recently found to serve me much better. Try to write a little at a time, concentrating on those words, until they are as 'right' as they can be at that moment. I've taken to writing 3-500 words in one sitting, taking my time to reach the correct tone. That might only be a handful of paragraphs but there is nothing to say that you can't have more than one session like this in a day. 2. Don't 'info dump'. Do you like that phrase? I recently came across ...

1. Plan your book I don't necessarily mean write out a chapter plan but at the very least sketch out an idea of where your story will go, the barest bones of its plot. You don't have to keep exactly to this plan but at least you'll have a guideline to start from. 2. When will you write? It's all well and good to announce that you're going to take part in NaNoWriMo but when during each (and every) day in November will you fit in that writing? Be realistic. You will still need to eat and sleep, go to work, have a bath and so on. Don't sabotage your writing month by not working out when in your current routine you can fit in this creative onslaught. Look at the things you have to do in November. Reschedule if you can. Juggle. Delegate. Beg mercy from your family. Find your slot and stick to it. 3. Where will you write? You may already have a perfect corner to do your writing or you may be one of those people who writes where they can, or wherever they ...

As you know, the month of November saw me taking part in National Novel Writing Month , the aim being to write 50,000 words. I started off well, remaining on target until the middle of the month when life intervened in the form of ill children and work commitments. Still, I broke my writing record from past NaNoWriMos and managed just over 26,000 words. I may not be an official NaNoWriMo 'winner' (the term used for those who have achieved the full 50,000 words) but I feel like a winner none the less. For the entire month, I sent my internal editor on holiday and just kept on writing. The resulting prize are several chapters of first draft quality which I'll look back over next week. Writing in this way, without editing, felt risky at times and stumped me at others. The world of my story grew, the  details and colours gradually sketching themselves in. My characters fleshed out in often surprising ways. A couple of minor characters became more important and a new villain...

I must improve my NaNoWriMo wordcount. During week one of National Novel Writing Month, I carved myself a regular writing slot. Once the children had been delivered to school and my husband to work, I would sit at the computer with a coffee and write for a couple of hours. I was not only achieving the suggested daily word count of 1,667 but bettering it. For the first time in the history of my NaNoWriMo attempts, I was ahead. Week Two is notorious for being the week when most of the lunatics, I mean contestants of NaNoWriMo falter in their attempts and gnaw through more than one pencil (not sure if that metaphor works for keyboards...). I was ahead though, hair flying in the sweet breeze of success. I laughed at the thought of anything going wrong with my progress just because we'd hit the second week of our challenge. On Monday morning, I found a rash on my daughter's neck and my son had a fever. The doctor was called and my daughter was diagnosed with an unidentified v...

When are you at your most productive during the day or night? For me, it's when I've just arrived back from the morning school run. My creative mind tends to start turning over on the drive home and by the time I sit at the computer, I already have the details of what I'll write next. This slot has worked out well for my NaNoWriMo adventure this year, giving me a chance to write my November novel undisturbed and when my brain is energised. Today, however, my routine was thrown. I had offered to help out at my daughter's school in the morning. Then I had to buy some replacement school uniform (my children keep growing). By the time I got home, it was almost noon. My muse was on her lunch break. I managed about 400 words before other duties called. Tonight, I decided to push on and upped my daily word count by another 2,000 words but it was hard work. I was tired, my children were noisily settling for the night and I felt bad neglecting my husband so my writing stoppe...

NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) begins today. I mentioned this in October and ever since then I have been putting together a chapter plan for a quirky, dimension travelling, fantasy novel. Then three days before the month began, I changed my mind about which novel to write and started all over again with a different story idea. Am I mad? Probably but then I think, to an extent, most NaNoWriMers are a little mad. Why else would we throw ourself into the lion's pit, battling through a monthly wordage of 50,000? That's 1,667 words per day. I started as I always do in my NaNoWriMo onslaught (this will be my fourth year) with blind enthusiasm and a childlike rush of excitement. With my chapter plan (well, what I could manage to put together in three days - fourteen chapters) beside me, I managed to achieve 2,467 words today. I'm quite impressed with such a good start but the challenge will be to keep the momentum going. Wish me luck.

get set... We're almost there. In just under three weeks, National Novel Writing Month starts. For NaNoWriMo virgins, here is their press release. Novel fever takes the world by storm. Symptoms include flashes of brilliance, questionable plotlines, and blatant use of mixed metaphors. Berkeley, California (Oct 1, 2010) - At midnight on November 1, armed only with their wits, the vague outline of a story, and a ridiculous deadline, more than 200,000 people around the world will set out to become novelists. Why? Because November is National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo, the world’s largest writing challenge and nonprofit literary crusade. Participants pledge to write 50,000 words in a month, starting from scratch and reaching “The End” by November 30. There are no judges, no prizes, and entries are deleted from the server before anyone even reads them. So what’s the point? “The 50,000-word challenge has a wonderful way of opening up your imagination and unleashing creati...

You may remember that in November last year, I took part in NaNoWrimo , that is National Novel Writing Month. Organised by The Office of Letters and Light , NaNoWrimo is a writing event that anyone can enter for free with the aim to write 50,000 words in the thirty days of November. Sadly, I didn't quite achieve that target but it certainly made for a creative whirlwind of a month. Script Frenzy is another writing event run by the The Office of Letters and Light. This time, the aim is to write 100 pages of a script (screenplay, stage play, TV show, short film or graphic novel) during the month of April. You can read their press release here . I'm up for that and have my scene plan ready to start writing on 1st April.

When I was preparing for my November Nanowrimo writing session this year, I decided to write my novel with pen and paper, rather than type it up on my computer. There has always seemed something luxurious and magical about writing by hand. I find myself becoming so involved in the story that I don't stop to think 'what next' which fits in perfectly with the Nanowrimo ethic of 'just write'. The temptation to read back is less, partly because of my ornate handwriting which becomes a mesh of loops when I'm writing quickly, but mostly because by writing the words down by hand, I've lived the experience of what I've created and it stays with me. There's no reason, therefore, to read back at this stage. Editing will come later. The other delight in doing this, especially if like me you use a hardback pad to write in, is seeing your book literally unfold. It's not just a computer file to click on, it's a physical, graspable object that you can flick...

As you know, November is my month for Nanowrimo - that is, writing a novel in a month. The premise is that you don't hold yourself back editing (re-editing), worrying over chapter plans, character names or anything else that might distract you from the actual process of writing. You just go for it, ploughing ahead, accepting the nonsense and cliched with the possibly brilliant writing too. Last night, armed with a pen and an A4 pad against the beastly 'No but' Monster and with several cups of coffee, I produced just short of 1,000 words. This was actually the first chapter which my voice of writing reason tells me is too short for a chapter. Ignoring both the monster and the voice, I drew a line under what I had written and tonight will start on the second chapter. I'm behind the daily word count target set by Nanowrimo at the moment but there's still plenty of time to catch up so keep your fingers crossed for me. Begone ye beasts of procrastination and doubt. My pe...

Nanowrimo starts today. I know what I'm writing this year and have the first five chapters planned out of a fantasy novel called 'Open Haven'. Good luck to all my fellow Nanowrimers. Bring it on!

Mwahahahahaha... Sorry. An evil laugh seemed apt. I have a problem. Having got past the issue of procrastination in planning my novel for NaNoWriMo in November, I now have another obstacle to tackle. What do I call my villains? I have four. At the moment, they're all rather non descript but giving them a name will help me to begin to paint their portraits as such. So how do you go about naming a villain? Are you ironic, as in the popular American TV vampire Angel? Do you go for the obvious like Stan Lee's Doctor Victor Von Doom from the Fantastic Four storyline? Where do you start? If I look down the list of the Telegraph's 50 greatest villains in literature , I find alliterative names such as Velma Valento (Farewell My Lovely), the White Witch (The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe) and Milo Minderbender (Catch 22). There are names that point out physical characteristics, Captain Hook for instance. There are sinister sounding names like Sauron (Lord of the Rings), Voldemo...