I’ve decided to go for the whole novel in a month thing, starting at xmas and ploughing through january. I know it’ll be hard and I know it’ll be rubbish, but it’ll be my first draft, done and dusted and ready for a rewrite. I hope I can keep up the pace. I need to create a new writing spot in my home, I don’t want to sit at the usual computer place. I’m going to build / find a table against the wall in my livingroom, and possibly try a spot in the bathroom and kitchen too. I don’t want to spend all my time in coffee shops, thats nice for the odd day, but i’d rather create a good home location.

i’ve also started to tell a few people that i’m doing this. 3 people know for sure atm, with more to be told over the coming weeks.

I’ve also considered buying an www.alphasmart.com for when i’m on my lunch break in the car. May only do that if I’m really behind on the word count.

I’m also thinking about my plot … probably a bit too much tho. I know I need the spontinaity of ‘new-ness’ to power this book through, and if I think too much I’ll get bored of it. Its this reason that i’ve moved the date forward for starting, as I was going to attempt this write in March 08.

I’m currently focusing my efforts on reading as much as I can, and making notes of personalities and character details that I could use. I’m not a fiction writer, I’ve never attempted anything like this before… I know I could fail so easily and I know there’s a lot of difference between writing a few blog posts on various topics and writing a novel that paints a picture and suspends the readers disbelief. I heard a quote on the BBC morning programme this morning about ‘great writers become novelists, intelligent people become solicitors, those with steady hands become surgeons, and those that aren’t good at either become journalists’ … well I’m definitely at the ‘journalist’ level.

One of my weapons to doing this mamoth 30day book challenge, is very simple. To unplug the TV. I waste so much time infront of that, easily 2hrs a day. Also I surf my blogs updating, re-reading and surfing others too much, and also I hit up youtube waaaay too much visiting random fodder to graze. Not good. I know I can cut out all that stuff for a while and get this manuscript done.