writing

I’m Doing NaNoWriMo 2015?!

~ Natalie Cotterill ~ 4 Comments

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I’m doing NaNoWriMo! You probably already gathered that from the image and the title of this post. But I wanted to say it again. I know it’s halfway through the month, don’t worry, I did start on the first. This is why I haven’t posted much recently because if I have free time, I’m writing.

Reading has also become a thing of the past (for this month anyway) and I do want to say that I will get around to reading the two books I have for review out this month as soon as I can get into reading. I cannot get into reading any books at the moment, which is disheartening. But at least it means more time writing.

Although I would love to achieve it, I’m not looking to write a 50,000 word novel, as that quite honestly, is unrealistic. My first goal was to write more than I did last year (not difficult considering I only wrote 14,341 words) and I achieved that in the early hours of this morning (why are my most productive times between the hours of 11pm and 1am?). So that’s made me very happy.

This is my final year of school, and so obviously the workload is massive as it’s the year of the A levels. AS levels are done (thankfully I passed with high grades – somehow) and now I have to put a load of energy into getting equally good grades in the other half. However the other day I received an unconditional offer from my favourite uni (well, it’s only unconditional if it’s my firm choice – but that’s obviously going to be the case since it’s my favourite uni!) and I feel like I’ve been floating with happiness since. Yes, I’m weird. But can you blame me? I’m going to uni next year. My whole life has led to this (honestly uni has been my goal in life – I’ve always been desperate to go!).

Needless to say, the fact that I have a place for certain takes the pressure off me a lot and means that I’m letting myself prioritise writing a bit more (especially since my course is English Lit and Creative Writing). I’m hoping to write at least 25,000 words this year, if not more (because I’ve planned for more).

The difference between this year and last year is definitely planning. I had no idea how to continue last year with my story, yet so far I’ve planned for at least 42,500 words (I’m working on approximately 2,500 words per chapter basically) and I have ideas for how to continue after that. Whilst I don’t know exactly how it’s going to end, I’m sure I’ll work it out along the way and I have plenty of time before I’ll get to the stage where I’ll be writing it.

Is anyone else doing NaNoWriMo? I know it’s extremely popular amongst authors and I do think that it’s been amazing for me and my confidence with my writing because I hadn’t written much prose for ages. I didn’t think I’d be doing it this year as I had no ideas whatsoever but now I’m 15,000 words in. Not many for some, but a great achievement for me, and I have the rest of the month to go.

If you want to add me on NaNoWriMo then my username is NatalieLC! 

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Musings: “Good Luck”

~ Natalie Cotterill ~ Leave a comment

Someone said to me today “Good luck with your writing!” Which, I have to say, was lovely of them, but it leads me to question, why do we tell writers “good luck”?
As far as I’m aware, writing is a lot of hard work, sleepless nights, wandering thoughts and cups of tea. Since when does luck come into it?
In essence, you are saying that you hope they get lucky and some fabulous, fully formed idea falls into their head. If that’s happened to anyone, please can they let me know? I’d like that to happen too. I took a break from writing because I had no ideas for ages, and I hated it. That was until I realised that writing anything should lead to something, after developing every aspect possible of a piece of work.
My current idea started with a word, some personal experience, and a lot of “just write the blasted thing!” I’ve only written six chapters and I’m already contemplating changing a major character from a rich male to a poor female…
So, maybe we should say something like “keep working with your writing” instead of “good luck with your writing”. It seems more realistic after all. But maybe not, as “good luck” does sound more friendly. I don’t know… Maybe it’s just me.

Why I write…

~ Natalie Cotterill ~ Leave a comment

Thankfully it’s half term, meaning that I have more time to write and relax, although I do have a large amount of work to get done. Last weekend was really busy as we’ve started having some building work done, hence why I didn’t post last week!

So I thought I’d do a short post today simply talking about why I write and what got me into writing etc. It’s only short as I’m working on a piece at the moment, but hopefully I can do a better post next week.

The thing that got me into writing was the fact that I’ve always been a daydreamer and have loved reading since I learned how to! When I was little I used to see my Grandma a lot and she used to read poetry to me. It was that that got me into loving poetry. Also, I’ve written stories ever since I was small, my first (as far as I remember) was called “When Badger Saw the Sun” – I think! There were probably about ten words per page and about six pages, and then awful drawings (I never have been able to draw) but I still have it somewhere. I haven’t written many stories since I got into writing poetry, however I am trying harder now, and I’m going to try to complete NaNoWriMo, just to get me regularly writing and practising. I’m not too bothered whether what I write is good or not, providing I have written something, I’ll be happy!

Anyway, I know today was a short post, but that’s because I’ve been doing quite a lot of writing recently, especially today, and so haven’t had much time to write on here. Next week’s post will hopefully be a lot better and more interesting!

Page Talk

~ Natalie Cotterill ~ Leave a comment

So coming up this half term is a writing week for young people in Staffordshire. The event is called Page Talk, and lasts for five days in Stafford. There will be established writers who have had things published, working alongside the young people in the workshops. Personally, I think this sounds like a fantastic opportunity and I have been to the place where the workshops are held and it is gorgeous – a wonderful place to work! Anyone reading this post who is aged 12-16, I’d take a look because it really does sound interesting! There is a Facebook page for the event (just search page talk), as well as a twitter account: https://twitter.com/PageTalkYW – definitely worth a follow! It costs £25 per person however for a week with professionals that is pretty good!

The website for the event is:

http://www.writingwestmidlands.org/page-talk/

You complete various tasks through the week and then on Saturday 1st November you can showcase your work at a festival which finishes the week off perfectly!

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