• Getting my YA Fantasy Song Of The Crystal Tree to the beta reader stage (finally)
• Participating in both Camp NaNoWriMos and NaNoWriMo
• Writing the fourth book in my fairytale rewrite/superhero series
• Editing the first book in said series so that the plot finally makes a lot more sense and the dual POV narration works.
• Finally learning how to use all the cool stuff in Scrivener properly

Well, that's NaNoWriMo over for another year. Another month of desperation fuelled novelling, late night plotting, and chaotic character killing conquered. Whether you ended up with that purple winner's bar, or didn't quite make it, you should all be very proud of yourselves for being brave enough to have a go. (If you weren't doing NaNoWriMo, then thank you for being so patient as the rest of us abandoned the world for the entire of November.) Now that it's all over, it's probably time for me to see how I went with my goals, where I succeed, and also where I failed. Shall we begin?


This one was a big fat fail. I managed eight locations, but unexpected amounts of other commitments cropped up in the final week crippling my efforts to add more fun writing spots to my list. I did however, treat myself to a lovely solo write-in at my local library on the last day, which made the final sprint to the line so much easier. Libraries are excellent places to write in, once you get used to people walking past.


You may remember last week I mentioned that, as I finished this goal in the first week, I wanted to challenge myself further and hoped for another 10k day before the end of the month. Well, as you can see by my handy little graph. I managed not one, but two. This was the point where I was despairing of finishing my book on time and just chained myself to the desk for two days straight in a last ditch attempt to reach the end.



That's right. Book number two was finished late on Monday night after a few frantic days of trying to catch up word count. I have to admit, at one point I didn't believe I was actually going to make it, but somehow everything came together right at the end for another successful goal.


Yep, That is a goal that wasn't on the list before. But this month, as well as doing NaNoWriMo, I was also finishing up my last month of university study (hence the couple of stressful weeks in there where the word counts were low and the assignment work was great). But, as of last Friday, I am now the proud completer of a Bachelor of Professional Writing and Publishing. It is a great feeling to have finished both a degree a NaNoWriMo this month. Please excuse me while I collapse from exhaustion.

And now? Back to our usual schedule. I apologise for how sporadic my posting was towards the end of the month, when things were at their busiest. Everything should be back to normal from now on (hopefully!). Also, thank you to every who left a comment during November. You guys are the best, and I will be answering all comments and visiting back blogs as soon as possible, so expect to hear from me soon!

How did your month go? If you participated in NaNoWriMo, did you win? How many words did you write? Be proud of whatever amount you wrote. You are amazing! If you didn't do NaNoWriMo, what did you do this month? 

It's week four of NaNoWriMo. I can't believe the month has passed so quickly! From here, it's only a short run to the end of the month. To those of you who are already finished and celebrating their wins, congratulations! You are amazing and you deserve all the cake. To those of you still soldiering on, keep up the great work. You're amazing too. You deserve celebratory cake for getting this far. Stay strong until the end.

With only five more days to go until the end of NaNoWriMo, it's probably a good time for me to report in on how my goals are going. Or not a good point, considering what I actually have to report.

With NaNoWriMo starting this coming Sunday, it’s the perfect time to join in with Cait@Paper Fury and Sky@Further Up and Further In’s lovely Beautiful Books link-up, the special edition of the usual Beautiful People. Today I’ll be sharing a little about my project for this November. And, as a special bonus, I will be attempting to answer all 10 of the questions for pretty much the first time ever. So, here we go!


I came up with it the usual way. While eating food and thinking about unrelated things. In this case I was watching a medical documentary about a month and a half ago, latched onto a throwaway line about blood being the currency of life, and voila. A novel was born.


Blood as currency. Dystopian societies. Families. Diseases. Thieves. Rebellions. All kinds of lovely things like these. There are so many fun things about this novel.

Have a bonus cover. Just because Photo credit: Heo2035 / Foter / CC BY-NC

Title? Um…I’m not very good at those. It currently holds the very boring place holder title of Blood Debt.

The concept on the other hand is so much cooler. In a nutshell:

When her father racks up a blood debt that will literally cost Kyra her life to pay, she negotiates a new deal: Steal a blood donor for the slumlord Moe, or sacrifice every last drop of blood in her body to satisfy the debt.

I haven’t discovered all my characters yet (that’s the pantser in me showing), so we’ll just stick to the main three shall we? Make of these words what you will.
Kyra-Dedicated.
Jason-Innocent.
Slumlord Moe-Desperate


Kyra, for sure. I generally like my protagonists best. After all, they’re the people I’ve chosen to write an entire novel about. Kyra lives in the slum Section D, working as a thief for Slumlord Moe, helping support her family, and donating blood to help her mother combat her degenerative blood disease. She’s a strong character, but not a fighter, relies on her smarts a lot, is actually quite compassionate really, and adores her two younger siblings.


Kyra’s main goal in the book is to find a way to satisfy her father’s debt in such a way that will leave her alive to look after her family after his untimely demise. What stands in the way? Social divides, bodyguards, the tricky nature of slumlords, and the sheer logistics of stealing an entire human being.


The story is set in the city of Rhesus. The city is divided into several different sections. Section A is the biggest, and occupies a circular space in the middle of the city. This is, of course, the rich sector, where the people who have stable jobs and can afford a government pension live. Around Section A are the eight other Sections, B through to I, which are slums of varying degrees of poverty. Each of these sectors is much smaller, and contains all the poor people. Each Section is unofficially ruled by a slumlord. In Section D, that is Slumlord Moe. Ruthless, unscrupulous, ambitious, and fuelled by hatred for those richer than he.


The most important relationship Kyra has is definitely with her family. Not that she’s eager to die herself, but her dying pretty much dooms the rest of her family as well, and she loves them far too much to allow that to happen without trying to find an alternative. Her younger siblings are her favourites by far. They’re like little puppies.

To be honest, I’m not 100% sure. This book may or may not have only half a plot currently (who needs more than half a solid plot anyway?). Possibilities do include forgiving her father, learning to look beyond her own troubles, and forgiving the rich people for the fact that the slums aren’t so great. Hopefully she lets me know what’s happening as we go.


Strong themes of family and unlikely heroism, per usual. As to how I want people to feel when the book’s over. Well, I want them to be dazed as they come back to reality, devastated because the book is over, and looking for a book 2. That’s totally not too much to ask now, is it?


Ah, now this, this I can do.

Number 1. Be 100% committed to writing this book. If you go in half-heartedly, you’re going to put other things ahead of your writing, or make excuses as to why you can’t find time to write. Commit to this book. Write a contract in your own blood if that helps, but don’t doubt your ability to write the book. Just go for it.

Number 2. Get ahead in week 1 if you possibly can. Let me tell you right now, week 2 is the worst week ever. The novelty has worn off. The book hasn’t come together yet, and everything’s looking a bit bleak. Try and have a bit of a word count cushion going into week 2 so that when the slump happens, you’re sure not to get behind while waiting for things to get better.

Number 3. Word wars. Do all the word wars. Trust me, nothing gets your word count up faster than racing another human being in a limited amount of time. They are the secret weapon of all good NaNoers. Track them down on Twitter, stalk them on Facebook, or search them out on the NaNo forums. But do them. Lots of them.

Are you doing NaNoWriMo this November? What are you writing? Are you linking up with Beautiful Books this month? Link me to your post! And tell me, what advice would you give to someone trying to write a book in a month?