Starting New Projects

First of all, I must apologise for the lack of updates recently, blame a 20th birthday, a tonne of assignments, preparing for a house move, and a new project, which is what I want to talk about in this blog.
Recently I started a new project, and by project, I mean a new story. I'd finished my old one (finally, after changing my self imposed finish date four times) and had had this idea in my head for a long time, so I had been excited to start it. The only problem was that I didn't know where to start.
One of the worst parts of being a writer is finding a place to start. So often a project sounds perfect inside the mind, but when it gets put on paper, it falls to pieces, or holes start appearing, or sometimes the story logistics get changed round. What's more, you have to get a feel for the characters again, find the voices of these people, possibly world build around them, and basically start from scratch. And that is difficult. We get so caught up in our projects that when we have to let go of them to start a new one, it's hard to let go. I've been a victim of this time and time again.
Even when I have been writing a sequel, I find it quite hard to get into the new story, even when it is the same characters I've been writing for a long time. Keeping them consistent is hard, as is keeping their voice flowing, and I think it's because it's the daunting idea of the new story that causes it.
But new characters in new stories are the toughest offenders. Characters, plot, setting and everything has to be reintroduced. Old stories have to be forgotten about, everything is fresh. You can't get into the plot and sink your teeth in because you have to establish things, and get a feel for what you're writing. And it's tough, so, so tough. To be perfectly honest, it's one of the things I hate the most about writing, because it's so hard to get things flowing in a new story. Of course I know I can rewrite later on, but I like to get everything going ASAP, and when I can't get the details right, I can't move forward. I get stuck, feeling desperate to just get on with it, but unable to until the details are right, especially when they're essential to further the plot later on.
I need to learn to control this perfectionism, but at the moment, it feels impossible.
It's murder on the brain, and can be a great one way ticket to the horrible land of Writers Block, something every writer wants to avoid. All I can do in this situation is push through, do my best, and tweak as needed later on. Book openings have to be written, characters need introductions, setting needs to be placed, and plot needs to be at least hinted at before anything else can happen. It's the hardest thing, but it's worth it. The time used writing introductions etc helps to introduce me as a writer to the characters, and everything else, to give me a feel for how this book (or draft at least) is going to turn out. From the introducing paragraphs, I can ascertain just how dark it's going to be written in, what POV I'm writing from, as well as tense and everything else.
I like to view these hard first few paragraphs the testers, to where I can prepare myself for what I'm getting myself into, and know what kind of thing I'm subconsciously going for with the story. I can set out my tone and get a feel for my new story, so I know where I need to go from here. It also helps me figure out if I need to go back to the drawing board and plan out a few more things. I've found it's so much harder to write myself out of a plot hole when writing the middle section of a book, than it is to write myself out when I'm at the beginning.
Basically, this long, winding post that probably doesn't make sense (it's late, straight after a bank holiday weekend, and I'm writing this after I melted my brain on assignments, don't blame me) is trying to say that really, beginnings are a struggle, but a good thing. Beginnings are needed to introduce you the writer to the story, and gives you the chance to go back to the drawing board if needs be. It's so hard to write, and sometimes you just want to jump the gun and get on with it, but it's worth it. In fact, it's a necessity. So don't skip your beginnings, don't leave them until the end of the book to write. Go and write them now, if they suck, you can tweak them later, but for now, get the testing ground going. You'll thank me later.

Happy World Book Day!

I love books, always have done, ever since I was a small kid. I was lucky enough to be brought up by a Mum who is a true bookworm, and so was always being read to, and reading by myself. It was to a point where I was reading on twenty minute car journey's (without feeling sick, might I add), and I ran out of room on my shelves, so had to get rid of a load (which hurt, a lot). I read so much that by the time I was ten, I had run out of children's books to read and so started on Kathy Reiches - and I'm really not joking on that one either. At ten, I was reading Kathy Reiches' Bones series.
As a high schooler, I read nearly the entire Angus, Thongs, And Perfect Snogging books in two weeks, which inspired several more trips to Waterstones to pick up book-to-film/film-to-book adaptions. I had to slow down a bit for my GCSE's and A levels (and to start writing too, of course), but I still kept at it really quite diligently.
Even now, I'm a big fan of books, I want to be an author when I graduate, so of course I love books. As I write this, I'm listening to a song called Boys In Books Are Better by Carrie Hope Fletcher, because I relate to it so much. If you haven't heard that song, here's the link:

But what is it about books that I love so much? Well, that's a hard question, because there's so much. 

There's the escapism element, for a start. I love getting lost in a story line, being completely and utterly swept up in it all. I tend to read teen fiction and things about the supernatural, I love getting so lost in it, I forget that vampires/werewolves/whichever mythical creature is involved isn't real. 

Falling for the characters is another reason, because as Carrie above says, boys in books really are better. Who wants a real guy when you can read about Finnick Odair or Draco Malfoy? (I'm a Slytherin, what can I say?) Nobody! Fictional men may not be perfect, they may have their flaws, but damn it I love them anyway (even when most of them are dead... and not coming back). 

Finding strength in characters too, I have always looked up to strong female characters. So while I fall for Kili, Draco and Shane Collins, I'm also looking up to Katniss, Eve Rosser and Valkyrie Cain. I love to read about these brilliant outcasts, who come in and save the world. Sometimes I like to imagine that I'd be as amazing as them in the same situation, even when I know that I'd die within five minutes. It's fun to pretend for a little while, after all. 

Before I spend the next six years telling you all the reasons why I love books, I should probably wrap this up. Basically, I love it all. Books are an incredible thing. They provide hours of entertainment, introduce us to new concepts, inspire us, and so much more. And all of it with just words, just 26 letters, rearranged again and again, to make sentences, which make paragraphs, which makes stories. Honestly, where would we be without stories? Without Harry Potter, without Bilbo Baggins, without Skullduggery Pleasant? Nowhere, we would be bored, we wouldn't know what adventure and bravery was. 

But with books, we can sail the high seas, fight the Capital, stop Valentine. We fall in love, solve mysteries and crimes, travel to far off places - some of which don't even exist. We can do all of that and more. For someone like me, who's socially awkward and doesn't like to leave the house all too often, a book is a godsend. 

So what is it that I love about books? Everything, really. I love it all. Books are magical things, and if everybody spent more time reading them, I think we would all be that little bit more magical ourselves. 

Top 5 Most Important Editing Points

Hey, so here’s the start of my series of blogs/vlogs on editing your novels! I thought I’d start off with a check list of the most important things you need to check for in your work. It’s so important that you get these things right, as these are the basics of a novel that you have to get right in order to get anywhere else.

11)      Check for spelling and grammar mistakes. That’s an obvious one really, because spelling and grammar are very important things. Spelling should be relatively easy thanks to spell check, but grammar is a bit harder to deal with, but there’s a few things you can do to help yourself out. One is to read your work allowed to yourself, speaking and reading engages different parts of the brain, so you pick up more mistakes if you’re reading aloud. It sounds nuts, I know, but it actually works. I’ve done it before, and have had it recommended by several tutors so I know it works a treat.  And two, you can use a website called Hemingway, which checks through your work and clearly highlights sentences that need improving. I’ve used it loads and it works great.

22)      Check your story for coherency. Make sure that your story makes sense and that it is easy to understand. I’m not saying you can’t have a convoluted plot, if you want that, go for it, but you have to make it easy to understand, or you will lose your readers. Make sure that you’ve explained your plot fully in your story as you’ve gone along, and not suddenly including an important element with no explanation as to how it got there.

33)      Make sure you have tied up all loose ends. Unless you’re writing a series and are planning on tying up loose ends in a further book, all the fragments of the story have to come together to make sense by the end. Go through and make a list of all your plot points, and check off each thing you resolve and see if you have anything left over by the end. If you do, you’re probably going to have to go back and resolve that point somewhere. Obviously, if you’re planning a series out, you can resolve plot points in a further book, but make sure that by the end of the series you have actually done that. As for one off books, then you have to resolve all plot points or you’re going to anger a lot of readers, as they will want answers.

44)      Make sure you’re consistent. If you’ve started writing in first person, make sure you’ve stayed in first person throughout, unless you have a specific reason to change it. Check to make sure your characters physical attributes are consistent and haven’t suddenly changed for no reason, make sure you’ve kept to the same tense throughout (a flashback/memory is mostly where a change from present to past tense is allowed, everything else should be in the same tense). All of these things are really important, and you have to make sure you have kept everything like that the exact same way throughout the novel, unless there’s reason for things to change. If there’s no need for things to suddenly jump from present to past tense, then make sure you’ve stayed in the original tense.

55)      Keep your story line on the right track. You have to be certain that you’ve kept to your story line from the beginning until the end. A story is going to go nowhere if your character starts off trying to find their parents at the beginning, and ends up battling demons by the end, unless they have been drawn into doing that while on their original quest. If they’ve completed their original quest and have had to go on another straight away, fair enough, but you have to make sure that that original quest has come to completion by the end.

It’s all about consistency people; every single thing has to be consistent and kept on a similar path. And yes, editing is boring, I know. But it’s an incredibly important part of the writing process, and will be the thing that sharpens your story into the incredible epic it can be. The editing is so, so important, and you have to check for these things and change anything that is wrong, or your novel won’t go anywhere.

If you guys have anything else you check for when you’re editing your stories, please comment below, I’ll add anything to this main post, or start a new one, so we can create one massive checklist of editing! 

Get To Know My Reading Habits!

Well hey there, it's been a while! Christmas and New Years wiped me out, and then I had a tonne of essays and assignments to do. But as of last Monday, they're all over now, or at least they are until March, so I thought I'd make another blog post.
Now as I said in my latest video, which you can watch here:

I want to make more blog posts about writing, and not just reviews. I would start with some writing tips, but my brain has fallen out of my ears thanks to my assignments, so I thought I'd do a tag I found on readerwriterzoe's blog. It's about reading and books, so it counts... Mostly... Don't judge me, I'm TIRED! I'll be back with proper writing blogs soon.

Do you remember how you developed a love for reading?
I can't remember because I was too young, but apparently I was talking before I was walking because I had health problems as a child. I spent a lot of time in hospital, not walking around, instead listening to everyone around me talking, so I picked up words very quickly. That soon descended into my falling for words and all things literary, and because I come from a family of big readers, I was fed books my entire childhood, and I loved it! 

Where do you usually read?
In my chair in my front room, and on the bus and train journey's to uni. Though journey reading is generally saved for things I need to read for whatever lecture I'm having that day. At home it's almost purely for enjoyment, though I have also been known to read fiction for fun on long car journey's too. 

Do you prefer to read one book at a time or several at once?
Weirdly, both. If I'm reading a book/ebook, only one at a time. I get confused far too easily otherwise. But if we're talking fan fiction, I can easily jump all over the place, even when it's all in the same fandom. Don't ask why I can't do that with more traditional books, but I can't!

What is your favourite genre?
Oh, that's tough. I like most genre's, though I am fond of Young Adult and a bit of sci-fi. 

What genre will you not read?
I'm really, really not fond of anything that's Victorian, I've been completely put off thanks to reading and analysing Dickens etc for uni. I'm not fond of romance either. 

Do you have a favourite book?
That's like choosing your favourite child! I love The Hogfather by Terry Pratchett (if you hadn't guessed by me talking about it constantly, and I really like Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell, I'm so like Kath it's actually physically painful at times. 

What is the worst book you've ever read?
Jesus, that's tough. Most recently, I really did not enjoy Wide Sargasso Sea, but I think the worst, and please don't kill me for this, but Alice In Wonderland. I read it for English A Level and wanted to slap Alice for most of the book, I know she's a small child, but I really cannot stand characters who cry at everything and accept everything so easily without questioning it. 

What is the biggest book you've ever read?
Er... I have absolutely no idea. I've read some quite thick ones in the past but I can't think of anything that big right now. Ask me some other day, I may remember! 

What was the last book you bought?
Nocturnes At Nohant - The Decade Of Chopin And Sand by Helen Farrish. I had to buy it for part of my uni course, and I wish I could say I've bought a book recently for my own reading pleasure, but I simply haven't had the time as of late! My best friend did get my a Doctor Who trivia book for Christmas though if that counts?

Which do you prefer? Library books or buying books?
BUYING! I love libraries too, but there is nothing better than staring at all the books you have bought and feeling incredibly proud that you have read them all. It's like a badge of honour, or several walls of them. 

What are you reading now?
Unfortunately, nothing at the moment! I'm too busy to read! If I had time, I would be either finishing Fangirl, working my way further through the Discworld or finishing off the Buffy The Vampire Slayer comics. Or starting on the Marvel comic universe, because I want to know EVERYTHING these films are going to give me in the future!

What are the disadvantages of being a book-lover?
Having absolutely no money thanks to books, running out of space on kindle/bookshelves and bad movie adaptations ruining perfectly good stories with bad casting choices/leaving out important details.

And Then There Was One Massive Plot Twist

Hey everyone, I hope your Christmas' were fun and you got everything you wanted! I had a pretty good time, and have mostly been sitting on my arse doing nothing all week. Well, when I say nothing, I mean watching TV, and my God did I stumble upon one hell of a TV special.
Of course, I'm talking about And Then There Were None, the BBC's latest adaption of Agatha Christie's novel, and over three nights I was utterly hooked on it. I'd been looking forward to watching this show ever since I saw the advert for it a while back, to be honest, I probably would have watched anyway because a) Aiden Turner is in it and I love that man a lot, and b) it's a murder mystery. If there's one thing I love to watch, it's a murder mystery, or really anything to do with murder. So, I sat down and watched it, and I fallen in love.
First of all, the plot is amazing, ten strangers are invited to an island, each one with a secret, and slowly they get killed off one by one, not knowing who is behind it. Each person is killed according to poem that hangs in every persons room in the house, and when a body is found, the ten statues in the dining room reduce numbers. This could have gotten very monotonous after the third murder, possibly even predictable, but it never did. I was on tender hooks the entire time, wondering who was going to die next, and how it was going to be done. For the first two episodes, I resisted looking up the whole poem, but I had to by the end episode, just to see if I could get any clues from it, all I got instead was the creepy factor amping up further.
Secondly, the characters were incredibly cleverly written. Each one is hiding a common secret - they're all guilty of murder in some way or other, and none of them have been caught for it. Between a doctor who drunk on the job during a surgery, to a cop who killed a gay man simply for being gay, every single one has killed at least one person and none feel the least bit guilty for it. And while some characters are sort of likable, you as the audience don't really warm to anyone. Not to say that they all deserved to die (though let's be honest, Douglas' Booth's character was a complete asshole and was pegged to be 'the first to go' from the start) but you don't actually route for anybody, not really. I found myself liking Aiden's character, not just for his face (or his body, dear lord that towel scene was a nice edition, thank you producers that one) but because he was honest. He admitted to his killings, and while showing no sign of remorse, he did show some brain, and some kindness at times. He didn't just think of getting himself off the island, he did try to help the others he trusted to. So I liked him. Which (spoiler alert) made his death quite painful in the end, at least he was second to last to go, so it wasn't too bad.
Nothing is all too obvious in plot line either, nothing is revealed straight away. You have to watch all three episodes to get everyone's story, and to figure out who is behind all this. It is never made clear, or even hinted at, whether the killer is part of the ten or if they is another player in the mix. Trying to figure it out is nigh impossible, as at every turn you find out something new that creates a new theory. I had so many I lost count, and never once was I right in my deductions. At one point I went so far as to think that maybe this was all happening in someone's head, and that this was some sort of psychotic break Shutter Island style, which seemed very plausible. Every theory seemed plausible as I went along, and I never expected the plot twist at the end.
Now, I'm going warn you SPOILERS AHEAD. IF YOU HAVE NOT WATCHED AND THEN THERE WERE NONE, SCROLL PAST THIS BIT RIGHT NOW. I HAVE WARNED YOU.

At the end, just when I thought I would never find out who was behind all the murder (let me tell you right now, if that had happened, I would have hit the roof in anger and this review would be very different) to find out that it was the judge all along - I never saw that coming in a million years! In hindsight, I probably should have, judge/jury/executioner and all that, but I honestly didn't! I immediately discounted him after he faked his death, thinking him as just another victim, and possibly the sanest one of the lot. So to see him actually reveal that he was behind all of it, as a sort of 'get the uncaught bad guys' before dying himself, wow I had never even considered it. I actually screamed a little when I did if I'm honest.

SPOILER FREE ZONE STARTS AGAIN HERE.
Truly, And Then There Were None was a brilliant thrill ride of a TV show. Combing suspense, gore, murder and wonderful plot twists into a beautiful three hours. It distinctly reminded me of an old fashioned How To Get Away With Murder mini series, set in the space of a few days instead of a few months. I love every single second of it, and wish to see more things like this in the future! BBC get right on it, I need more!
Did anybody else see anything good over the holidays? If so, let me know, I need more things to watch to distract me from my essays and currently not much is working. Also, if you watched this show, let me know some of your theories, were you as shocked as I was when the killer was revealed? Let's start a discussion going, I sure as hell don't want to let this show end so soon!

NANOWRIMO IS OVER

THAT'S IT! WE ARE DONE PEOPLE! IT'S THE FIRST OF DECEMBER, NATIONAL NOVEL WRITING IS DONE!
And if nobody minds, I'm going to go and pass out now, because DAMN, that was one hell of a month! Between uni work, distractions and a thousand and one different fandom explosions, I'm surprised I managed to get through this month.
Thing is, I didn't just get through NaNoWriMo, I smashed it to pieces. As in, I went nine thousand words over target. Have a look yourself at this madness!

If you're asking how I did that, the answer is that I have absolutely no idea whatsoever. Literally, I don't have the faintest clue how I managed. I'm going to call it a complete fluke, considering for the rest of the year my average daily word count has been around 800. But this month I managed to double (some days triple) that. 

It was definitely a fluke, a complete fluke. One I'm very proud of, but still, FLUKE! 

There is also one person I'd like to shout out to this month, and that's my best friend Charlie who also smashed it this year. She finished an entire week early this year, doubling (and then some) her last two NaNoWriMo word counts! I'm a very proud, and very, very jealous, best friend this year!

Anyway, I hope everybody who took part got the word count they wanted, or at least got some more words than normal done, because that's what NaNo is all about. So I hope it all went swimmingly for you, and if not, hey there's always next year, and nothing to stop you practicing throughout the year!

But now, I feel that the real hard bit has arrived. It's time to decide what to do next with your project. There are three options for this, and it's up to you to figure out what you want to do next. 

Number One: Pass out, ignore the novel until next year, possibly never open the file again, leaving it to gather dust.

Number Two: Finish the story off if it is not completed.

Or Number Three: Start editing this mammoth.

All options are scary (yes, even running away. Think of the missed opportunities if you leave it to gather dust for the rust of time!) but if I may, I'd like to suggest something. In my opinion, I think you should try all three options. 

Hear me out a minute when I say this, because I know that sounds mental, but trust me, I've done this before. It's December, aka Holiday Season, and you've trapped yourself a way to write for a month. Go out and do that dreaded thing known as socialising for a bit, take a break from the writing and do something else for a bit. And when you've done refreshing yourself, come back to your novel, if you haven't finished it yet, you'll hopefully have a tonne of ideas and stamina to finish it off. If you need to start editing, it'll be easier now that you've had a break. You've been staring at your screen for ages now, completely consumed by every word you've typed, editing will be near impossible under those circumstances. But if you take that break, you'll be looking at the novel with fresher eyes, there will be bits you have forgotten about, things to surprise you, it makes it so much easier to look over things when you're refreshed. 

If you're stuck for ideas on how to edit things down, I will hopefully have some videos up soon to help you with that, for now, think about sorting out spelling/grammar mistakes, possibly start thinking up ways to solve anything that's bugging you with your story. That'll give you a good editing starting point. 

So in conclusion, YAY NaNo is over so we can breathe, I hope you all hit your word goal (if not, don't be disappointed), take a break before you break your poor overworked fingers, and allow yourself some time to yourself! It's been a great month, and I'm already looking forward to next year! 

The Mockingjay Lives!

Okay, nothing to do with NaNoWriMo today, I'll vlog about that instead at some point in the next couple of days. Instead, let's talk Mockingjay part 2 - the final installment of The Hunger Games series.
I've been a fan of the series ever since the first came out several years ago, and I've been looking forward to the final for quite a while, desperate to see the conclusion to Katniss' revolution. I could have read the books, but I've been so damn busy recently with writing and university, I haven't had the chance to get past chapter 7 of Catching Fire. I knew enough though, thanks to conversations with my best friend/cinema buddy Charlie, and several spoiler filled posts on the internet. So I knew that this was going to be a painful film, I packed tissues especially, just in case.
And trust me, Mockingjay part 2 does not disappoint. The film follows straight on from the end of Mockingjay part 1, after Katniss discovers that Peeta has been hijacked and had all of his memories twisted until he wants to kill Katniss. I especially liked that Katniss' first words in the film were 'I am Katniss Everdeen, I'm from District 12' reflecting the first one beautifully. From there the film follows the revolution against the Capital, specifically on Katniss and her troop going off to kill Snow.
Admittedly, I was a little worried when Katniss and co head off through the city to get to Snow, thinking that it could have been boring or repetitive. It was anything but, the troop are constantly in danger, fighting against the traps the game makers have set up around the city. I was on the edge of my seat for several of these, knowing that people were going to start dying at any moment. The danger is palpable through the screen, between the troops fighting for their lives against the traps, and the fear that Peeta would be triggered into trying to kill Katniss again.
Peeta's struggle with figuring out what was real and what wasn't was painful to watch, and seeing how it hurt Katniss too was heartbreaking. Before this film I was still on the fence on the Peeta/Gale argument, but I think I've now been fully converted to team Peeta, if not because of him, but because of how much Katniss needs him, and how much she cares for him through all this. Peeta and Finnick's interactions were also a joy and made me fall for their friendship, it was a subtle, almost background thing, but still a lovely thing to watch. It didn't need to be shoved in our faces, but it was still a clear connection between the two being established.
I won't give too much away about who dies and how, but let's just say it's very close to the book. There are a great many rumours about a certain character living instead of dying, and I'm sad to report that they aren't true. The character still dies. Now I'll be honest again, I was certain that their death was going to be gut wrenching Battle-Of-The-Five-Armies-Oakenshield-death levels of agony, hence the packing of tissues, but it wasn't. I was incredibly sad to see them go, but it wasn't too painful. Maybe it's just me who's gotten scarred thanks to Tolkien and Shonda Rhimes over the years, but I was expecting more of an agonising end to this characters life.
Overall though, Mockingjay part 2 is a very, very good film. It's emotional and filled the peril, leaving you on the edge of your seat. The plot twists make you hate characters you didn't think you'd hate and realise that war makes people do truly terrible things. Watching Katniss grieve was so real it nearly brought a tear to my eye, and to think that the character is supposed to still be a teenager is devastating.
Everything is tied up beautifully by the end, we find out where all of our characters have ended up, and finally see Katniss and Peeta living the life they deserved together. My only suggestion for the ending would have been to have one last look at the fallen Victors and characters from the last four films, or one last listen to Mockingjay call, or even possibly the Mockingjay pin evolution, like the previous films have done.
But overall, the film is beautifully shot, edited and acted, I loved every minute of it. Mockingjay part 2 is a very, very good ending to a truly epic series, and I for one am very sad to see it go.

I'VE HIT 10,000 WORDS!

HELLO! I'm super excited to announce that I HIT 10,000 WORDS ABOUT 10 MINUTES AGO! And I am SO HAPPY about this (if you couldn't tell by all the capitalisation!)
This week has been a pain to say the least in terms of writing, three days this week I've been at uni, and that means getting up at 6.15am in the morning, so by the time I get home I'm exhausted and really not ready to do any writing! But I've pushed through every time, ignoring all distractions and everything I possibly can to get my 1667 words done, even if that means I'm stretching out my writing time to 4 hours!
To give you context on how painfully slow that is for me usually, I can usually whack out 800 words in about half an hour. So in practice, 1667 should only take an hour, but that hasn't happened this week! This week has carried on in the same vein as last week, where I've been distracted/busy/uninspired for most of it, so it's been a long, hard slog. But it's worth it, because I've somehow managed to push myself almost an entire day ahead of schedule (don't worry, I haven't miscounted, I've checked... three times) and hit 10,000 words at the same time! I'm ecstatic!
To be perfectly honest, I was fully expecting to be miles behind already, or to have run out of steam, but currently I seem to be wanting to keep on going. That could be because at this current moment, I'm being distracted by a) the idea that the band Busted are getting back together and are announcing a new single in 4 days and b) Doctor Strange set pictures and both those things are hyping me up, but I reckon it's mostly down to the fact that the first 10,000 words are now written down for my projects.
I've now officially gotten one fifth of the way through, I just have to continue this pattern just four more time and then I'm there! It doesn't seem as difficult when you get through the first 10,000!
But on a serious note, if you're behind target or really struggling, all is not lost. This week could just be a bad week for you, getting into the swing of 1667 words a day is hard, and more importantly, it's exhausting. Nobody can judge you for that, and you are trying incredibly hard, and that is all that matters.
Think of it this way, you've still got words down, which is more than you had before the start of the month. You're still giving this challenge a good shot, and if you don't reach the 50.000 target, then that's okay. You gave it your absolute best, and still got so much written, you can continue at your own pace for the rest of the year until you make it to the end of your project. Writing is a process and it can't be rushed, 50,000 words in 30 days is mental, and not reaching it is absolutely nothing to be ashamed of. The rest of the year is still yours to write in, as is the next year, and the next, and the next. You have all the time in the world to finish your novel, and while the rest of us are stuck in the painful editing process, you're still in the fun bit of writing the story!
So if you're behind then don't worry, if you're ahead like me then go party, and if you're on time, congratulations! But remember, we all go at our own pace, and sometimes life gets in the way of writing, this challenge is insane, and we should all be proud of everything we achieve in this month! Even if we only manage 5000 words by the end of it!

RIP The Works

Not a writing tip or review, but a mourning of a good book shop instead.
Some of you may have heard, but The Works bookshop was hit with an arson attack in Maidstone recently, in the hour before another 5 cars were also set alight. The cars survived mostly and the owners are on their way to replacing their vehicles.
But The Works, oh The Works is wrecked. There is nothing left of the shop, I've seen it for myself, just a few hours ago. All that is left of the book shop is the charred shell, reminding me far too much of the Baudelaire Mansion from A Series Of Unfortunate Events. Shops on either side of the building have also lost their roofs, leaving most of the street cordoned off for safety of the public.
Luckily nobody was hurt in this terrible attack, apart from all the book fan's hearts. Everybody loves a cheap book, and that was The Works for us, good quality, first hand, cheap books. It's probably the single biggest threat to my best friend and my Mum's bank balance, with many trips in there ending up with a new bag filled with new stories to explore.
But now we have been robbed of that, because someone decided that they wanted to set the place alight and burn it down. Countless precious books have been lost, Harry Potter, Hunger Games, Sherlock Holmes, hundreds of other classics, have been destroyed by fire. This has then subsequently robbed many of the chance to buy and then read these books at a lower price to normal. Sure, we still have a Waterstones, WH Smith and Amazon to order from, but there's nowhere for those of us on a tight budget to shop. And that is a tragedy. 
Not everyone can afford to buy full price books, and book lovers like myself relied on The Works to give ourselves books are a discounted rate. Sometimes places like Waterstones proved too expensive when buying an entire series of books, whereas The Works provided the same series in the same great condition for a fraction of the cost. That was a Godsend to us, it meant we could buy our books and not break the bank as much as a shop at another retailer would have.
The shop also proved useful when buying books for our education too. Not all of them (I can't say I found any of my uni course books in there) but I did find many of my A Level books in there. There was no wait time or P&P costs from Amazon, and they were generally cheaper there than at any other book store, which was useful as a 16 year old.
Book lovers aren't the only ones affected either, artists who bought their supplies at The Works now have look elsewhere, others looking for notepads and school supplies have to trek somewhere else to buy them. The people who worked in the shop are now out of a job, all because someone felt the need to set something on fire. What I'm trying to say is that the shop was a life line for many, and now it's gone for a long time.
And for what? Entertainment? A sick need to see flames? What was the point? 
There wasn't one, now people have lost their jobs, others have lost a shop filled with their passions, and a building has been destroyed. It's going to take years to get that back to normal, and it's because someone likes to light things on fire. The only positive in this situation is that nobody was physically hurt in the blaze. Instead we've lost a big part of our lives.
So to whoever did this, fuck you, if you like fire so much, get your kicks by lighting candles and fireplaces. Stay away from buildings and places of enjoyment for so many, you've robbed so many from their cheap book and art outlet, and took away several people's jobs.

What Is The Right Word Count For Me?

Okay, okay, I know I said I'd actually going to start blogging properly and then went AWOL for eleven days, but I got busy alright? I'm here, now, that's what matters here.
So, here we go, first bit of writing advise I'm imparting in blog form - What Is The Right Word Count For Me? - following on from my last Pro Tips video.
What I mean by that is, what kind of word count should you be aiming for when you have a writing session? For some of you out there, you'll be reading this thinking 'but I just go with whatever I can manage that day and move on' and that's great, I envy you laid back people greatly. For the rest of us, we set daily word counts to either challenge ourselves every day, or to make sure we have a reasonable amount down on paper.
So what should be a good, obtainable daily word goal? The short answer is that it's different for everybody. There is no 'one word count fits all' solution, and to be honest, it is up to you to figure out how much you want to get down on a daily basis.
There are some professional writers out there who write over five thousand words a day, there are some who decide that just six hundred is enough. So really, there's a huge range you can go for here. Personally, I like to aim for somewhere between six hundred and a thousand, depending on what project I'm working on. For one story I'm working on, the six hundred is about a page worth of writing, and can get across my current ideas well without me losing momentum. For my other story, a thousand is needed to fully explain what I want to get across that day. In short, I like to reach at least six hundred words or I feel like my day has been wasted.
How did I get to this number? By trial and error mostly. I started out by making sure I wrote five paragraphs, consisting of at least five lines, every day. But that was in the days before I set things out properly and put speech on new lines (those were dark days my friends, I do not speak of those days any more). Once I did start to set things out properly, it meant my five paragraph rule went out the window, so I had to find a new system to work with. I counted how many words were in my paragraphs, and that came out at about six hundred on average, so I figured that that was a nice minimum to aim for.
Six hundred felt right as it was the number I could get out comfortably without straining myself, so I rolled with it, and has worked well for me over the years. Of course, if I go over that word count then I'm ecstatic and feel very, very proud of myself (and usually find myself some chocolatey treat to reward my wordy little brain). I regularly do go over that word count on a story whenever I write it, which brings me onto another point I want to bring up in this post.
Changing word counts for changing projects.
As I said before, everybody is different, so they have different ideas about what productivity is. And like how every person is different, every project is different too. Some are easier than others to write, which means that some projects make hitting your preferred daily word count easier. You might want to consider changing your word count goals if this happens, to keep the challenge up. If you're writing something you're struggling with but really want to continue it, try lowering your word count a bit, so you're not struggling to reach what seems like an impossible target every day. At the same time, if you're project feels easy to write and flows excellently, maybe try increasing your target, to give yourself a challenge and keep you on your toes. It's up to you though, whatever you feel like is a good productive goal you'd like to reach every day.
In summary, choose your word count wisely. Go with something you can obtain relatively easily without pushing yourself too far, and don't be afraid to change that number if your project needs it. Word goals should not feel like a chore, it should be a nice challenge to yourself, so choose wisely!