I was struck by a character name and a potential series with this character, but I don't know if I should make the book(s) an early reader, an easy reader or a MG purely because of the character's name.
I'm not gonna assign a gender to Fairy Nuff so that all the young readers can hopefully feel able to relate to them, but would the name "Fairy Nuff" make it harder for the child reader when they were taught to spell 'enough' or am I overthinking things please?
I'm a new-ish Egg and I've been doing the 5 day kick-starter since Monday. I've just learnt sooo much about what is needed for the tension point in my newest OMG novel (that was supposed to be my JanNo novel but wasn't, for an absolutely heart-breaking personal reason) that I'd never even thought of before. I thought I'd planned out the next guaranteed best-seller but today's task has shown me that I've got a lot of research and thinking and planning to do before I even start the document, let alone write it!
I realised last night that I hadn't planned out my JanNo novel yet and my muse was snoring their head off and refusing to wake up. I went trawling through all my writing files for ideas of the age range, what the novel would be about, character names and chapter ideas.
I ended up deciding that it'd be a younger MG fantasy novel so that I had an extra few thousand words to play with, I decided on a temporary title and overall theme running through the book and I managed to plan out the first ⅓ of the MS.
I had a delivery at lunchtime and a yummy and surprisingly filling bowl of soup for lunch and have now got it planned up to half way, so I'm happy with that for now and I'll plan out another few chapters after I've had me tea (a take-away that'll see me through tonight and into tomorrow). I'm still struggling for ideas, but at least I'm getting the basics down right now.
My MC is a 14 year old who is currently going through the start of puberty during the Summer holiday with their parents to give their aunt (who they live with) a break for a while. I just need to find a list of things that 14 year-old's wish for now lol
I've just finished editing each of my Early Reader manuscripts, so I've just got 6 more folders to go, but for now I'm gonna catch up on my TBR pile that I bought in preparation for my NaNo novel, so I'm gonna read for the next couple of hours or so. Feeling pretty proud of myself for getting through an entire folder of manuscripts in two days though!
I've been struck down by writer's block for the last couple of days but I've somehow managed to plan out up to chapter 20 of my NaNo novel today and it's at the point where my two MCs meet for the very first time, so hopefully I'll get another 15-20 planned out tomorrow, now that I've compromised with my muse and they have let me fight through the wall of writers block on the condition that I don't spend all day working on it.
Working out the mischevious things that the pixie can achieve has been the hardest bit so far, so if you've got any ideas about mischevious things that a pixie can do, ideally involving fruit, then I'd love to hear your ideas... it's an upper MG novel though, so the ideas need to be safe, legal (of course) and age appropriate... if there's a way for me to attempt humour into it too then that'd be brilliant!
Thank you so much for your support and I can't wait to hear your ideas!
...three days of JanNo, I'm now at the half way point of the manuscript after yesterdays writeathon where I managed to write a huuuuge 10 chapters. I've written 8 today, so I'm on track for finishing on the 7th as long as I keep writing at least 7 chapters a day.
My MC has just gone to see there GP so we're approaching the mid-point, with all the action and I'm determined to try and avoid a happily-ever-after for this one, just to challenge myself to see what happens. The ending might change when I edit it, but I'm hoping the first draft will end on a cliff-hanger with the reader finishing the story in whatever way they would prefer. I just wanna take each day as it comes with this "vomit draft" writing though... I'm not even thinking past the next chapter at this point.
I'll need to request the help of the police and my GP after I've finished the first draft, so that I can make sure I've got my fiction right so that I don't get into trouble when it's published 'cos it'll be too late at that point!
Wish me luck for tomorrow please?!
Delilah Jaywurth is gonna be a character in my JanNo novel but I know literally nothing else about her.
Could you help me out with an age range she would be and her relationship to the MC pretty please? It only needs to be "early 20's and she's the MC's accomplice" or "late 70's and she's the MC's mentor" or something like that pretty please?
Thank you!
I'd already planned out my NaNo and JanNo novels so just needed the reward (J2O's) for writing 5 chapters a day, but I've just spotted a pack of 24 bottles of Apple & Mango full size bottles for £25 on Amazon, so I've just invested in them and I'm now, officially, totally prepared for the twice-yearly writing marathons. As long as I write 5 chapters (5,000 words) a day, I'll be allowed to have a bottle to celebrate being on target for finishing each marathon writing session on 10th of November and January and still have 20 days to recover and come back to the real world as opposed to living in my characters heads.
Are you gonna join me this year?
Just finished planning out my next ECB. Not sure I'll ever submit it, but it's helped to be able to plan out something and the research for it has put my mind at rest too, which is what I wanted.
It's not exactly what I'm going through 'cos the MC fell off the bottom of a slide and banged their head as opposed to having memory problems, but having something totally different to concentrate on for the last couple of hours was what I was hoping for, so I'm gonna totally forget about it all weekend, then start writing it next week.
Might crack on with the editing this afternoon cos there's two ECBs and a lower MG in there, we shall see though.
...so I can use the time between now and 31st October to forget about it so that I can start NaNo with a clear head and let my characters do the writing instead of me.
I emailed Childline for research at the start to get their permission to use their trademark but I'm hoping they will be willing to have a read through the planned chapters too, so that I can be sure I'm supporting children instead of making them feel worse.
...6 chapters since I had my lunch and I'm really into Jayden's head now and I've decided to deliberately not put an age on the twins other than that they are still at Secondary School so that it's definitely a YA novel, but other than that I'm leaving ages up to the reader.
I've messaged Childline on Facebook to ask for their permission to use their trademark in the book 'cos it's a name that the majority of Brits recognise and it might help them to get donors to support them too, as well as helping the young people I'm gonna be writing it for.
I don't suppose there are any transgender teens reading this that would be happy to help me with my research are there? If there are, please set up a throwaway email address with Google or Hotmail or Yahoo or your free email hoster of choice then email me at research@stories4childrengroup.com and remind me that I'm researching my NaNo novel and that you're happy for me to pick your brain about your gender identity.
Could you let me know your preferred personal pronouns in every message so that I don't offend you by addressing you in a way that you don't feel a part of pretty please.
Thank you so much.
...I need some help and/or book recommendations! This is what I've just posted on my Facebook wall:
I had the choice of three things to do this morning: writing, editing or studying.
I eventually chose editing.
While my weekly virus scan has been chugging along, I've managed to edit two ECBs and I'm hopefully gonna edit the lower MG novel that I wrote during April too, so I've achieved a pretty decent amoutn this morning. Just waiting for the weekly backups to finish and I'll hopefully be able to edit the lower MG MS this afternoon.
It was tough trying to summon up the motivation this morning, but now that I've got started, I wanna keep going!
Might try and do some research into twins who don't live in each other's pockets while I'm waiting, in preparation for my next MS, but dunno for sure yet... wanna see how quickly the back-ups move before I decide for sure. It says there's about 50 minutes to go, so I think I *will* start the research after all.
Wish me luck!
Afternoon all.
Literally just before our lunch was dished up (thank you Steve!) my muse smacked me over the head with an idea that I'm gonna need help from twins with to even make a start on it.
If you're not a twin and/or don't know any twins, then you can safely stop reading.
I'm after a pair of twins (obviously 😜) who have an at-best OK relationship with each other. If these twins are usually in each others pockets other than the occasional "I wanted that biscuit/cake/toy!" etc argument but they are back to being best friends within hours then that's great for them and their family and friends but they can't help with this research.
If you, as the adult, spend more time breaking up fights and squabbles and arguments than breathing a sigh of relief that you can listen to/watch your favourite programme on the telly or radio or you can read another chapter or more in a book or you can do a few puzzles or whatever then keep reading!
Everyone seems to think that twins always know what the other is thinking and that they will always support each other and stuff, but I can't help wondering about those twins who don't have such a close relationship with each other and, as with the majority of my manuscripts that I've written so far, I wanna help those two children to feel less alone by writing a book about twins who don't have the best relationship in the world.
That's literally all my muse gave me, so I'm asking that you, as the adult, email me and first off tell me the age of your twins so that I know what sort of book to write then ask each of your twins to make up a totally fictional name and from that point on, when you're talking to me about them, please use the fictional name that they have chosen so that I can respect their privacy as much as possible.
As long as you are happy that this is genuine research, can you help each twin to set up a throw-away email address (like Hotmail or Gmail or whatever) with the fictional name that they have chosen and with you sitting right next to them (or at least in the same room as them when they read and reply to each email) get them each to email me at research@stories4childrengroup.com and first off tell me their fictional name that they want me to use in the research, how old they are, then give me a run-down of a typical day and how they feel at each point for them... no specific times or identifying details at all please, just something like: "7am - Jessica woke me up with her snoring yet again, which made me angry, so I threw my slipper at her and yelled at her to shut the freak (or whatever word they would realistically choose) up. 8am - Jessica finished off the dratted cereal again. Well just for that I'm gonna finish of the orange juice 'cos she hasn't had any yet and there's only grapefruit left which she hates lol" etc etc.
How are their school days different to weekends and school holidays? Are they in the same tutor group/sets etc or different ones? What do they do at break and lunchtimes at school? Do they have the same friends or different ones? Do they deliberately avoid each other whenever possible 'cos they don't get on or do they feel forced together purely because they're twins and that gets on their nerves too (maybe it's the only thing they agree on)?
I just need to get into the head of my potential new main characters is all and I've got absolutely no experience of the day-to-day life of twins who don't live in each other's pockets constantly.
Please, please, PLEASE, have parental software running the whole time and if possible read every message I send them before they see it and each of their replies to me... I haven't got a clue who they are and that's how I want it to stay, so I wanna do as much as I can to keep your twins safe. Don't edit their replies and let them off the swearing (if that's realistic for them), just while they're helping me with this. If they swear, could you get them to put in the usual adult punishment in their own words, then you email me separately and tell me how you would react, whether that's a particular look you give them or shouting or yelling or huffing or grounding them or whatever else. I need to be able to get into the head of each of the characters in the real modern-day world, instead of the one that's painted usually.
I'm willing to answer any questions you've got for me before you agree to letting your twins loose on me... you can find all my sites and blogs linked to at amandas.website and I'm qualified to work with children aged 12 months to 7 years 11 months. I don't have a current CRB approval 'cos I haven't worked since 1999 due to my disabilities but you are more than welcome to run one on me if you want to and it would help to reassure you that I'm genuine, you would need to pay for it though, sorry!
I'm around all day, every day (except Monday early afternoons 'cos that's when our groceries are usually delivered and this coming Tuesday 'cos someone's coming over about a grant for something in the house that we might be able to get. I've got a hospital appointment on 24th June too, but let's get May out of the way first, eh 😉) and I'm happy to do my best to answer any questions or provide any reassurance you need whenever you want me to.
Feel free to ask any questions whenever you want and I'll do my best to answer them for you.
A huge thank you to you and your twins in advance.
