Fi Phillips

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...

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.

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...

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...

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...

or to the uninitiated, National Novel Writing Month. I've taken part in this month-long writing-fest for three years now. This year I'm determined to write my 50,000 words. I have my synopsis, my characters, and my chapter plan. I just have to wait until the beginning of November. Here's what the NaNoWriMo website says. " National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30. Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking craft, NaNoWriMo is a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought fleetingly about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort involved. Because of the limited writing window, the ONLY thing that matters in NaNoWriMo is output. It's all about quantity, not quality. The kamikaze approach forces you to lower your expectations, take risks, and write on the fly." Soun...