A blog for lovers of pocket novels written by a group of authors who are: Kate Allan, Cara Cooper, Fay Cunningham, Noelene Jenkinson, Patricia Keyson, Chrissie Loveday, Carol MacLean, Fenella Miller, Margaret Mounsdon and Sally Quilford
I had the same inspired idea - Nano is just the right length for a first draft Easy Read, so I've signed up today. I'm hoping it will encourage me to speed up my writing generally as I'd like to increase my output. Great to get support from others doing the same thing. Wendy - I'd say have a go - nobody is going to get at you if you don't make the 50,000 - even a few thousand words is an achievement!
This morning I decided to aim for about 1,000 words a day as realistically it is as much as I will get to write. [The Romaniacs blog have a post about this today.]This goal allows me the luxury of writing whatever comes up for me, without writing thousands of words which will later have to be deleted. It is a number/goal that makes me feel more comfortable than that scary 50,000 mark!! :-) One question: are there any links to specific posts on actually structuring a pocket novel? I am reading as many as I can and plan to keep reading as many as i can lay my hands on for the duration (and beyond! -they are my favourite genre of romance!), but it would be wonderful to find some guidelines, eg chapter breakdowns, outlines, structures, etc. Also minimum/maximum number of characters; what about sub-plots, etc etc. BTW the original post was wonderful. Thanks for writing it and offering inspiration and encouragement to Just Do It!
There's nothing as prescriptive as that on this blog, Edith, though there are plenty of craft posts on ideas, conflict etc.
As it's a while before I'm scheduled to post here again, I can do a blog post over on my own blog on chapter structure, pivotal moments, black moments etc. Also, Kate Walker's book, The 12 Point Guide to Writing Romance is an excellent resource for romance writing.
Edith - my advice, for what it's worth, is to read a few pocket novels/easy reads and analyse them for structure, number of chapters, breakdown of scenes, number of key characters and how many subplots etc. That's what I did before I tried to write one and it really helped. You can also discover useful things like how to lay out dialogue and paragraphs, where to indent and so on which helps when sending in a polished manuscript.
Thanks, Sally. The post was really interesting. Not sure if I'm brave enough yet to have a go!
ReplyDeleteYou can't lose anything by trying, Wendy. But I agree that the time has to be right for you.
DeleteI had the same inspired idea - Nano is just the right length for a first draft Easy Read, so I've signed up today. I'm hoping it will encourage me to speed up my writing generally as I'd like to increase my output. Great to get support from others doing the same thing.
ReplyDeleteWendy - I'd say have a go - nobody is going to get at you if you don't make the 50,000 - even a few thousand words is an achievement!
Good luck, Carol! NaNo could have been made for Easy Reads, couldn't it?
DeleteThis morning I decided to aim for about 1,000 words a day as realistically it is as much as I will get to write. [The Romaniacs blog have a post about this today.]This goal allows me the luxury of writing whatever comes up for me, without writing thousands of words which will later have to be deleted. It is a number/goal that makes me feel more comfortable than that scary 50,000 mark!! :-)
ReplyDeleteOne question: are there any links to specific posts on actually structuring a pocket novel? I am reading as many as I can and plan to keep reading as many as i can lay my hands on for the duration (and beyond! -they are my favourite genre of romance!), but it would be wonderful to find some guidelines, eg chapter breakdowns, outlines, structures, etc. Also minimum/maximum number of characters; what about sub-plots, etc etc.
BTW the original post was wonderful. Thanks for writing it and offering inspiration and encouragement to Just Do It!
There's nothing as prescriptive as that on this blog, Edith, though there are plenty of craft posts on ideas, conflict etc.
DeleteAs it's a while before I'm scheduled to post here again, I can do a blog post over on my own blog on chapter structure, pivotal moments, black moments etc. Also, Kate Walker's book, The 12 Point Guide to Writing Romance is an excellent resource for romance writing.
Thanks a million Sally! This is so very exciting and is really revving me up to get started! Roll on November 1st!!!! :-) xxx
DeleteEdith - my advice, for what it's worth, is to read a few pocket novels/easy reads and analyse them for structure, number of chapters, breakdown of scenes, number of key characters and how many subplots etc. That's what I did before I tried to write one and it really helped.
ReplyDeleteYou can also discover useful things like how to lay out dialogue and paragraphs, where to indent and so on which helps when sending in a polished manuscript.