I am Actually an Author!

If you are a parent you might recognise the tone of my title today, inspired by the Charlie and Lola series of books written for children. My daughters love those books, and I enjoy reading them at bedtime. It came as an epiphany late last week, when I was mentally reviewing my recent freelance workload, or lack thereof. I am currently experiencing the dry spell of the freelancer, and it threw me into a slight panic, not least because of the lack of income. I began to worry that I wasn’t good enough, and that I am an impostor.

Stop! Wait a minute. I am actually an author! For most of the past twelve months I have focused on growing my SpookyMrsGreen pagan family lifestyle blog, and the results are beginning to show. I have a growing audience, and one that is engaged with my blog posts, and I still enjoy writing for my blog. But I have neglected my novels. I have been half-heartedly working on book 6 in the Redcliffe novels series, but I am no further forward with it than I was twelve months ago. I have been distracted by my blog work and have allowed my fiction work to fall by the wayside. And so, I have decided that this year I shall participate in NaNoWriMo – National Novel Writing Month. I need to write approximately 50,000 words to finish the first draft of Bite of the Wolf (A Redcliffe Novel), so November is the perfect time to do the writing. Let us see if I manage to complete my challenge, or if I allow other distractions to creep in…

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Why I Didn’t do #NaNoWriMo

This year I consciously avoided participating in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). It has been something of an obsession for about the past five years. I eagerly awaited November so that I could achieve my 50,000-word target, print out my certificate, and order the t-shirt. It worked well for me, because it helped me to write the first draft of several novels, some of which I have now published. You can read my last NaNoWriMo novel, Heart of the Vampire (A Redcliffe Novel) Book 5 to see an example.

At some point I realised that I no longer needed NaNoWriMo. I have a collection of draft novels awaiting my attention, and I am so busy with freelance work and family life that I really couldn’t fit in the challenge this year. I didn’t want to. If I really needed to take part, I would make the time possible, like I did in previous years. But it simply lost its appeal. I loved the time I spent working on NaNoWriMo projects, and I would recommend it to anyone who is looking for a starting point, some inspiration and motivation, and the online support groups that come with it. But I am moving on. Farewell, NaNoWriMo. We had a good run together.

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Why #NaNoWriMo and #CampNaNoWriMo are Perfect for Me

This month I am a very happy writer. After what feels like a ridiculously long absence, my Muse has returned, and she is raring to go. I signed up for #CampNaNoWriMo last year and my enthusiasm fizzled out very quickly. There were a lot of distractions within the family due to babies and accident-induced illness. I had to reluctantly accept that my writing would not flow while my mind and heart were consumed with other affairs. And it put me into something of a depression, I will admit.

Anyway, that was last year. This year, I am back on track. I never gave up with my writing, and it was always there, ticking over in the background, buzzing like a machine on standby just waiting to be switched on. Perhaps I needed the time to recharge my batteries. Maybe I was simply focusing my attention on my young children, conscious that they are growing fast and that my writing will still be there when they leave home as adults. Whatever the reason, I feel like I didn’t achieve very much on the writing front in 2014. I did, however, keep both of my blogs updated regularly, so I was still writing something, even it was largely what I call ‘disposable babble.’

Now, back to the present. When I began #CampNaNoWriMo this year, I wasn’t entirely certain that I could achieve my goal. I set a word count target of 25,000. That way it is not as much as the full 50,000 required for #NaNoWriMo, but it is still a good enough chunk of words to constitute a fairly decent novel. I had to start somewhere. I need new material to publish. My last novel was published in 2013, and now I am itching to get something else out there, although my methods and plans are a whole other story. And I am happy to report that my novel is growing steadily, and I am well on my way to achieving the word count goal.

I find that #NaNoWriMo and #CampNaNoWriMo are perfect writing challenges for me. I am one of those people that works better to deadlines, and I believe that the reason I have not necessarily reaped the benefits of being a freelance writer so far, is that I have not been putting myself in positions where I have tight deadlines and people to answer to. It was quite nerve-wracking, I suppose, taking on such a responsibility, and what with the distractions of preschool children, I didn’t trust myself to do the work. Doing #NaNoWriMo is a fantastic compromise. I get to write my novels, in the way that I choose, and there is nobody to criticize. Indeed, I receive a whole lot of praise, encouragement and support from my virtual cabin mates on #CampNaNoWriMo, and there is always someone to talk to online when you need a pick-me-up. You get a whole month of writing abandon, and afterwards you have a solid piece of work that you can mould into a finished novel. Perfect!

Will I Succeed This Time? #NaNoWriMo

It is that time of year folks. How on earth did we get to November already? I have no idea. All I know is it has been a long and challenging year, and yet it seems to have gone really quickly. Back in April I attempted to do #CampNaNoWriMo. It wasn't quite the success I anticipated, but at least now I have the beginnings of a YA novel languishing on my hard drive until such time as I feel the urge to finish it.

For #NaNoWriMo 2014 I have returned to my vampires. OK, I never truly left them. But this time I am writing a story about a vampire hunter. Hannah Oakley retired from the job nine years ago after the vampire she was hunting seduced and almost killed her. She never did finish the job, and the vampire is out there, somewhere. Hannah is now married with two young children, and finding motherhood both a joy and a chore (sound familiar?). We meet her at the point where she is remembering the past, wondering about her former vampire lover, and wondering if she will ever be able to slay the one vampire who broke through her strong defenses.

The good news is, I am getting into this story. It is quite exciting, it is calling to me, albeit it faintly at the moment, and I do feel the urge to write every day. My difficultly lies with the ever-present domestic distractions. I am currently home alone with my own two young children, one of whom returns to pre-school next week after an extended half-term holiday. Perhaps then I might settle into a proper writing routine. As it stands I have written 4,957 words. The NaNoWriMo stats tell me at this rate I will complete the challenge on January 10th 2015. I had better suck it up, get my ass into gear, and get some words on the page!

Happy writing, fellow Wrimos!


*Vampire hunter image courtesy of 500px.com