A Step-by-Step NaNo Plan

August didn't quite go according to plan.

Back in July, I pledged to myself I would spend August writing.
So confident was I, that I blogged about it HERE.

Then, the phone calls trickled in from potential clients. Instead, my month evolved into booking work in through my Amy Morse, Authorpreneur business.

I went from expectations of long days chained to my computer, to being outside in the sunshine walking between appointments, or hours sat in coffee shops and the Desklodge hotdesking space coaching clients through their social media, content marketing, and book building challenges.

While it was great for my bank balance, my suntan, and my portfolio as a business - it was less good for my fiction writing plans.

With the momentum continuing into a busy September, finding a regular writing routine has fallen to

the bottom of the 'to do' list.

I sometimes feel like a fraud; preaching to my clients to jealously protect time in their diary to sit and write while I continue to not follow my own advice!

I need to get my fiction writing mojo back and reboot that momentum.

I broke the back of Solomon's Secrets and Gabriel's Game, Part 1: The White Queen participating in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) in 2014 and 15 respectively, I should keep the tradition alive and do the same for 'Finding the Scream' this November.

For those unfamiliar with the concept of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) - often shortened to just 'NaNo' - It's a movement started way back in 2006 in San Francisco that has become a global writing phenomenon. Each year the community is growing as thousands of budding writers across the globe participate in a challenge to write 50,000 words in a month.

If you've been promising yourself you'd write a book for years, or you have an idea for a book and need a boost to get it going, NaNo is for you. Sign up and create an account for free and access a massive community, both on and offline, of fellow wordsmiths who can support you in your quest.




There's just under a month to go, and my key piece of advice for anyone starting a book on 1st November is to plan ahead. 

In both cases, I had a rough plan and structure for my books.

We all have different approaches to the book writing marathon.

For all of my fiction titles to date, I write the first chapter, the last chapter and the key scenes that need to happen, usually in a non-linear way. I then plot them out with sticky notes and stitch them together with other scenes and characters until eventually, my protagonist finds their way from A to B through a coherent plot and narrative.

Apparently, this is how many action movies (certainly the Bond films) are written; start with the big action set pieces, then weave the plot in afterwards. Sometimes it's really obvious when you watch a movie that's all action and flimsy plot.

When it comes to books, I've never been a fan of literary fiction. I love a good story with lots happening, so even though I consciously use this scene by scene approach, I'm mindful throughout that I not only want to create believable and emotionally compelling characters, I also want there to be a great story flowing through my books.

Part of what's making me approach 'Finding the Scream' so hesitantly is that I don't know how it will end, and I'm still figuring out what those big set pieces will be.

Apparently, Lee Child, doesn't know how his books will end when he starts writing them. 

I keep telling myself that I should just trust my characters and my experience from writing seven novels and publishing four of them. I need to just get on with it and see where the story takes me.

I have a vague idea of what will happen to Katarina Orlov throughout the book and I have a concept and a few scene ideas. I've already written the first chapter and a few other big chunks of disjointed text that are yet to connect together.

Here's a flavour of it:

The NaNoWriMo website is packed with tools, tips and articles to help you on your way, including some NaNo prep resources, however, here are my tips to help you use October efficiently as an opportunity to plan your NaNo book:




Start planning early to build some momentum and anticipation behind your project. By the end of October, you'll be all fired up to get cracking and can start with a confidence-building sprint.

Set aside time. At the start of October, go through your diary for November and block out time every day to write. Protect that time. Don't be tempted to fill it with other things. If an appointment has to clash with your designated writing time, replace it for a different time that day. You need to write an average of 1,667 words a day to meet the 50,000 target so any day missed adds extra pressure to another day.

Communicate. Tell your partner, kids, friends, colleagues etc. as soon as possible that you'll be dedicating time to writing in November. Be clear with them, that way they are more likely to respect the time you have set aside for the project; plus, it also gives you a sense of accountability. Once you start telling people, you can bet your backside they'll ask throughout November how the book is coming on - surely, you'll want to be smug and tell them how well it's going, instead of admitting defeat?



Write it down. We can go around fooling ourselves that we have a plan for the book in our heads,

but when it comes down to doing it that simply isn’t good enough. When your plan is written down it becomes a firm commitment to yourself that you'll do it. It makes life a lot easier when you do sit and write, that way you won't be distracted from writing by trying to remember something. Once it's written down, you can also see quickly whether the plan makes sense and where any plot holes may be. 

To help, download my simple ‘One Page Novel Plan’ HERE


Good luck with the book. 
Comment below to tell me how it's going...


If you found these tips useful, buy me a coffee to say thank you.

£2.50 will get me a cappuccino! 
Thanks :)

A Peek at Insta-wonderland

In my years of working as a trainer, I know that everyone learns in different ways. Without boring you with all that 'leaning styles' academia, I can tell you that I have a preference for visual learning.

It means that I learn by watching things, I then like to record it in writing and act on it. That's my methodical process. If I can't watch something I'll settle for reading about it, but I like pictures, flowcharts and diagrams to help my brain put the words into context.

Here's a neat little online test to find out what your preferred learning style is:
http://vark-learn.com/the-vark-questionnaire/

In my fiction writing this manifests itself as a 'cinematic' experience when reading my books in the Sheridan and Blake Series.

It also means that my ultimate dream would be to have my books made into a film, which is part of my motivation for wanting to at least do my own book trailer.

I wrote about my experience of creating a book trailer a few weeks back, read about it HERE.

The concept of the trailer is the 'investigation wall' in Tom Sheridan's office at The Agency (as featured in The Bronze Box).

I've spent weeks collecting newspaper cuttings, pictures, maps etc. to put the web together.

With such a rich vein of visual content opening up, this seemed like a good time to delve into the world of Instagram.

It does irritate me that I can only use it on mobile or my tablet. Call me old fashioned, but I rather like my PC with its two big screens and that old fashioned bit of kit with actual buttons on it called a 'keyboard'. However, I am persevering. Here's my bookish little wobderland on instgram for Amy C Fitzjohn:

Amy on Instagram

What images would you like to see on my Instagram for an isight into my world as a writer?

 

Building a Book Trailer - Part One

We all love a good movie trailer.

It's the first thing we watch before deciding what film to see at the cinema or buy on DVD.

IMDB is stuffed with them - we watched Jason Bourne at the Cinema this week. It didn't disappoint...




But what about books?

I don't know about you, but I walk into my local branch of Waterstones and after I've spent a few seconds appreciating the wonderful smell of books I then cruise around the colourful maze of literary and entertainment potential, before freaking out.

I find it all so overwhelming, and inevitably, I walk out empty handed or buy some lovely stationery

instead!

 If you can have a trailer for a film, surely you can have one for a book?

This was something that had been on my radar for The Sheridan and Blake Series but it had never progressed beyond a shiny idea.

That was until I met Ros Shennan at a networking event a couple of months back.

Ros was looking for projects to work on to build her portfolio as an independent film maker and I pitched the idea to her.

The concept I had in mind was around an investigation board.

 In The Bronze Box, Sasha Blake arrives at The Agency and is introduced to her partner, Tom Sheridan.

In Tom's office is a wall covered in newspaper cuttings, photos, images, scraps of paper, maps etc. It's everything he has on the investigation into the missing bronze box, all laid out on the wall in front of them.

With basically no budget, my trailer concept can't involve big expensive set pieces, pyrotechnics or lots of actors. I had to think small and achievable but also something appealing enough to make people want to know more.

We started with regular meetings to plan it out. I gave Ros signed copies of all the books in the series.

She is now working her way through them and pulling out lines, snapshots, bits of dialogue to inspire the scenes on the investigation wall.

In the mean time, I'm collecting images, cuttings etc from magazines, newspapers and printing things off.

I found two big canvases at the back of my craft cupboard that will be perfect to set up the 'wall' and pin everything in place.

There is one scene that requires two actors to play the parts of Tom Sheridan and Sasha Blake and I put a call out on Social Media. I've recruited a friend of mine to play Sasha. I'm yet to find my Tom, but I'm working on it!

We're getting rather carried away with this concept, and have already talked about how we could make the books into films or an online TV series...

Trailer first, but it's exciting to think about the future possibilities.

Say Hello to Amy C Fitzjohn, Author...

I first started blogging in 2013 – here’s my first ever blog post.

It was just a hello, with some sketches from an idea about a buzzing, clicking, squeaking robot that generates ideas in little puffs of smoke, grab them quick before they dissipate. 

My second blog was a snapshot, another random idea:

A Head Full of Popcorn 

Take a handful of popcorn corn, throw it into a pan and see it scatter.

 
Some of the corn will pop and settle.

 
Some will pop and fly out of the pan, forever lost down the back of the cooker.

 
Some will just smoulder and burn and smell bad.

 
Some will stubbornly refuse to do anything, no matter how many times you try to cook them. 

 
You can take a handful and enjoy it, but there will always be a few that taste funny or didn't pop properly.

 
That's how I would describe the way my brain works - I just have a head full of popcorn! 

 

What started as a way to explore ideas, evolved into a 365 ‘Operation Author’ project and later became:

Idea’ism = The syndrome of having too many ideas

My mewsings have been more and more writing related so it seems like the time to just call this what it is… this is the home of author, Amy C Fitzjohn.

I've come full circle, when I first started blogging it was in my guise as an author...

 

I’ve been writing all my life, ever since I was old enough to string a sentence together. 

I’ve always been a storyteller, and would make up stories to tell my younger brother and sister when we were kids. 

I officially started making money from my stories when I published The Bronze Box in 2013. 

Since then I’ve completed the Sheridan and Blake Adventure Series. 

I now have 4 fiction books published as Amy C Fitzjohn (my maiden name) and a growing portfolio of non-fiction business books in my married name Amy Morse.

I've taken all the lessons I've learned in the last three years of blogging and compiled them into my latest non-ficiton book:

Blogging for Business

I've just started writing my next fiction book 'Finding the Scream'.

I'll keep you updated on progress but for now, I've set up a Pinterest board to start collecting research links