YES!!!

Fourth chapter of the day finished so I've cracked open my first can of J2O in celebration.

Means I've written 4k words in about 10 hours today which is my target for the rest of JanNo.

I can so do this now that I've done it once!

YAY ME!!!

Third chapter of the day sorted already!

That's the third chapter done and dusted and it's not even 5pm yet, so I've got 5 hours to write the fourth chapter before I'm allowed my J2O... in theory I should be able to write 5 chapters today before bed time... should I risk it while I'm in the writing mood and risk having a late night though?

Second chapter of the day done and dusted

Just finished writing chapter 4 which is the second chapter of the day... half way to getting my first J2O of JanNo.

I can so do this today 'cos it only took 1.5 hours to write a full chapter including a bathroom break!

Gonna have a slurp of pop then start on the third chapter of the day now!

First chapter of the day written

Just finished writing chapter 3 and it was a lot easier than last night to get started, so hopefully all the rest of the chapters will be done relatively easily too.

It's just the getting started each time that's the hardest part for me... when I've got going I'm all sorted for the rest of the day then.

Gonna have me toasted cheese sarnies for lunch then write chapters 4-6 before bedtime tonight.  I can soooo get it finished by the end of January, even though I didn't get going until yesterday!

Second chapter written so...

Finished chapter 2, stole a few of Steve's chips and I'm off to bed now.

Hoping for 4 chapters a day so that I can be finished on or before 27th January.

Nite nite orl!

First chapter of JanNo (re)written now!

I wrote two paragraphs for JanNo on 1st or 2nd January and was totally overcome with writers block.

I've totally got rid of those two very telling paragraphs and just finished chapter 1 in only a couple of hours, so I'm hoping to write at least one more chapter before I head to bed and I'm hoping for at least four chapters a day for the next 10 days so that I can still get it finished for JanNo.

I can't thank SCBWI enough for their gentle truths about those first two chapters and inspiration to start again but getting straight into the fighting without boring world-building telling to start with.

Just need to work out which is the right way to format a manuscript.  I know which I prefer and which looks better to me, but I want all my manuscripts to be industry standard not just my preference.  Not going to worry about that until I've finished JanNo though!

Book review: The Shadowverse by John-Clement Gallo

⭐⭐ out of 5

This book is written by a 17 year old who clearly hasn't experienced much of life because his main characters are several years older than he is!

The first four chapters are boring and un-necessary.  They could quite easily have been written as a couple of *paragraphs* of back story at the start of chapter 5.

When the author gets into his story, you can tell because it just flows and makes you *want* to keep reading.  Unfortunately that doesn't happen until at least a third of the way through the entire novel and it isn't the sort of thing you would take to the counter and buy in a High Street book shop because the author forces you through about 20,000 words of boredom before he really gets into his writing.

The opening chapters are also way too long and there is precisly no action and only a tiny amount of speech.  The longer chapters are fine during the fight scenes, but being forced to drudge through 5,000 per chapter right from the start is just boring and un-necessary.

Sorry John, you really needed to start with action and weave the backstory into shorter chapters.

It's 111,000 words of boredom other than in the middle to last part of the book.

Don't give up, John, but at the same time write for your age or younger instead of guessing about what'll happen in the future 'cos that's like me writing about retirement - absolutely no first-hand experience of it for years into the future.