Helena Halme's Blog, page 25

Approaching the pinnacle – a NaNoWriMo update

For me, this, the third week of the National Writing Month, has been the most difficult to date.

On Friday after I’d reached 25,000 words and got myself another badge (hurrah), I decided it was time to have a bit of a celebration. After a very late night with friends, Saturday’s word count was the lowest to date, just below the 1,000 mark. No more celebrations and late nights I decided, and on Sunday I managed my usual 2,000 words.

On Monday I just couldn’t get up at my customary NaNoWriMo time of 6am, and when I sat at my desk at 7am, words just were not presenting themselves to me.

Whenever this kind of freeze (or writer’s block for want of another term) happens, I do what my MA in Creative Writing tutor told me, ‘Research, research and research.’ In those days, more than ten years ago, research meant getting out of the house and into a library or newsagents, or out onto the streets. Though I sort of miss those days, being able to go places without leaving your desk is so much quicker and easier.

After an hour or so on Google Streetview and reading hairy newspaper reports on Royal Navy courts martial, I managed to write 2,000 words as usual. But it wasn’t easy and took me the whole of the morning. The poor terrier had to wait until 11 am for his walk, whereas almost every day during the first two weeks of NaNoWriMo, I’ve been done by 9 o’clock.

Again today, Tuesday, day 17 of NaNoWriMo, the words just didn’t flow. After an hour I’d produced only 600 words, so I decided to turn things around. Instead of waiting until the words were done for the day, I had breakfast and took the pooch out for his walk, and decided to return to my writing later. When I sat down at my desk again, with a second coffee of the day, I managed to get up to just over 2,000 words.

Walking the dog, it occurred to me that I’m approaching what I know will be the centre of the novel. The action needs to reach a pinnacle – a sort of eruption where the main characters come together in a either disastrous or a happy plot twist. I know what this twist in A Navy Wife is in broad terms, but I really, really want to make it good, and this must be what’s blocking me.

Of course when I think about it, none of this is new. I must have at least five novels in my virtual desk drawer that I’ve lost interest in around the 30,000 word mark. There is something scary about getting past that word count. It’s as if this is where the novel becomes a reality, and you have to know what you are going to do with the plot and the characters. You also know if the novel is going to be good or not at this stage – or you think you do. It’s that old friend, Internal Critic, who starts to play a part, and before you know it, you’ve convinced yourself that the work you’ve done thus far is rubbish.

But the strange thing is that unlike my previous novels, I know almost exactly what is going to happen in A Marriage Adrift. I even know what’s going to happen in the next novel in The Englishman -series. Having read back a few chapters I also think (in my humblest of opinions) that A Marriage Adrift is going to be alright – possibly my best writing yet. So what is my problem? I wish I knew….

Writing can be so frustrating sometimes – or all the time!

Anyone else have similar experiences?

The post Approaching the pinnacle – a NaNoWriMo update appeared first on Helena Halme.

Approaching the pinnacle - a NaNoWriMo update

For me, this, the third week of the National Writing Month, has been the most difficult to date.

On Friday after I'd reached 25,000 words and got myself another badge (hurrah), I decided it was time to have a bit of a celebration. After a very late night with friends, Saturday's word count was the lowest to date, just below the 1,000 mark. No more celebrations and late nights I decided, and on Sunday I managed my usual 2,000 words.

On Monday I just couldn't get up at my customary NaNoWriMo time of 6am, and when I sat at my desk at 7am, words just were not presenting themselves to me.

Whenever this kind of freeze (or writer's block for want of another term) happens, I do what my MA in Creative Writing tutor told me, 'Research, research and research.' In those days, more than ten years ago, research meant getting out of the house and into a library or newsagents, or out onto the streets. Though I sort of miss those days, being able to go places without leaving your desk is so much quicker and easier.

After an hour or so on Google Streetview and reading hairy newspaper reports on Royal Navy courts martial, I managed to write 2,000 words as usual. But it wasn't easy and took me the whole of the morning. The poor terrier had to wait until 11 am for his walk, whereas almost every day during the first two weeks of NaNoWriMo, I've been done by 9 o'clock.

Again today, Tuesday, day 17 of NaNoWriMo, the words just didn't flow. After an hour I'd produced only 600 words, so I decided to turn things around. Instead of waiting until the words were done for the day, I had breakfast and took the pooch out for his walk, and decided to return to my writing later. When I sat down at my desk again, with a second coffee of the day, I managed to get up to just over 2,000 words.

Walking the dog, it occurred to me that I'm approaching what I know will be the centre of the novel. The action needs to reach a pinnacle - a sort of eruption where the main characters come together in a either disastrous or a happy plot twist. I know what this twist in A Navy Wife is in broad terms, but I really, really want to make it good, and this must be what's blocking me.

Of course when I think about it, none of this is new. I must have at least five novels in my virtual desk drawer that I've lost interest in around the 30,000 word mark. There is something scary about getting past that word count. It's as if this is where the novel becomes a reality, and you have to know what you are going to do with the plot and the characters. You also know if the novel is going to be good or not at this stage - or you think you do. It's that old friend, Internal Critic, who starts to play a part, and before you know it, you've convinced yourself that the work you've done thus far is rubbish.

But the strange thing is that unlike my previous novels, I know almost exactly what is going to happen in A Marriage Adrift. I even know what's going to happen in the next novel in The Englishman -series. Having read back a few chapters I also think (in my humblest of opinions) that A Marriage Adrift is going to be alright - possibly my best writing yet. So what is my problem? I wish I knew....

Writing can be so frustrating sometimes - or all the time!

Anyone else have similar experiences?

Solidarité

Jean Jullien

The Navy Wife cover reveal!

The Navy Wife, a sequel to my Nordic romance, The Englishman, will be out at the end of this month, and I can now show you the fabulous cover which my new designer, the uber talented Emmi, has created.

I hope you like it, I am totally in love with it, but then I am a little biased...




What do you think?

To co-incide with the publication of The Navy Wife, there will be a special offer on The Englishman, so if you'd like to be first to hear about it, sign up to my newsletter here.

A NaNoWriMo update - Day Five

I thought I'd give you just a quick update on how my National Novel Writing Month is going. It's Day Five, and I'm still very excited about the characters and the storyline of this novel, called A Marriage Adrift . It's early days, I know.

But...(drumroll please) today I hit the first 10,000 words. Yay!





When I set myself this challenge of writing 50,000 words in one month, I decided that the only way I could carry on preparing The Navy Wife (this is the sequel to The Englishman, which will be out at the end of November) for publication, and write 1,600 words a day on a new novel, was to get  up a little earlier in the mornings and write the required words before I took my terrier for his morning walk.

Since the 1st of November was a Sunday, I took the day off The Navy Wife and managed to write the first 2,000 words for NaNoWriMo in the morning without getting up at the crack of dawn. But come Monday, I was at my desk at 6.30 and wrote a whopping 2,334 words before 9am.

Unfortunately my back has been playing up too, so I've been hampered by having to lie flat on the floor to stretch it at regular intervals. Still, I'm managing to do 12-hour days now, starting at 6.30am and finishing at 6.30pm. And I'm still standing...(just).


Waking up early has been hard, but I hope by next Monday I will have got used to it. Hopefully next week my back will allow me to get to the gym too, giving me more energy to carry on.


I will be back next week with another update. In the meantime, if you too are doing NaNoWriMo, let me know how you are getting on. And wish me luck!

The terrier camouflaged by the autumn leaves.

Advice for New Writers Part 3: How Long Does it Take to Write and Publish a Novel?

This is number three in a series of posts about writing and publishing fiction. You can find the previous posts here.


I need a lot of coffee to write!How long does it take to get your novel into print (or out in ebook form)?
Writing a novel takes time. How long a first draft takes to produce is highly personal, but at the end of the day, it's all about maths. In the summary below, I've used the minimum time each stage will take, so please use it as a (very) rough guide only:

If, say, you write 1,000 words each and every day (including weekends, Christmas Day and so on), it'll take you 70-100 days, or 2 -3 months to complete the first draft of you manuscript. If you write, say 5 out of 7 days per week, this will become 3-5 months and so on.

Writing 1st draft: 3 months
Add to that the editing process. Your own edits can take two or three weeks.  If you use a professional editor, who has to fit your novel into their schedule, this will take a couple of weeks. Then there are the rewrites, if these are required, and the final proof read. Tip: If you are confident about when your final manuscript will be ready, do book an editor (and proof reader, interior layout and cover designer - see below) well in advance. This will save you valuable time in the publishing process.

 Editing: 1 month 
If you send the novel out to be read by a number of readers, something which I highly recommend for the first novel at least, this will also take time. Beta readers are valuable source of reviews, which will gain your book highly important visibility online. But you cannot expect anyone to take less than a month to read your masterwork.

Beta readers: 1 month
Finally there's the interior layout and cover design (if you're outsourcing this part), which, if you've managed to book these in advance, could do the job within a couple of weeks. There are pieces of software which can do the inside design for you, like Scrivener, and you can also design the cover yourself. (I am a great advocate for a professionally designed cover, but that's another discussion.) If you want to publish your book in paperback as well as in ebook form, getting a proof copy and stock sent to you will set you back another two weeks (minimum).


Cover, layout and interior design and paperback copy: 1 month
If you want to go down the traditional route, you can add another 6 months easily, while you submit to agents, and if lucky enough to be picked up by one, sell the book to a publisher. Note, however, that here anything goes. After an agent has sold your book to a publisher, it has to slot into the publisher's schedule and marketing plan. They may not, for example, want to publish two books in the same genre one after another, so your novel's publication could be postponed by a number of months.

Submit to agents and sell to publisher: 6 months
I've written and published a book every two to three years, which seems like a very long time, but in traditional publishing this is quite a normal speed at which fiction is published by one author. Some manage a book a year, others, like for example Mills and Boon authors, are required to write at least two per year. (Mills and Boon novels are usually a little shorter, in the region of 50,000 words)

Total for the indie route = 6 monthsTotal for the traditional publishing route = 12 months
As you can see, it's just about possible to publish two novels per year if you are very committed, disciplined and organised. But remember, this is only a very rough idea of the process. I'm also talking about independent publishing versus traditional, but the lines between the two are blurring, as the self-publishing market grows and grows. But more about this in later posts.

There are many ways to speed up the process of writing that all important first draft. I'll talk more about this, and about where to find the motivation and inspiration for your writing in part 4 which will be up on this blog in early December. In the meantime, I hope you've enjoyed this part of Advice for New Writers and tune in to the next one!
Happy writing and let me know how you are getting on. Please feel free to ask me about anything at all, and I'll try my best to answer your queries.
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Are you doing NaNoWriMo?

What is NaNoWriMo you ask? Well, it's the National Novel Writing Month, which takes place each year in November, when thousands of authors, or aspiring novelists, challenge themselves to write 50,000 words (I know, not quite a full-length novel, but nearly) in 30 days. That means exactly 1,667 words per day. Easy, peasy, lemon squeezy...?

I've tried to do NaNoWriMo for years, and have never got further than about 10,000 words, so this year, having given up my day job to write full-time (eek!), I'll try to complete this challenge.

The NaNoWriMo site is a font of knowledge how to achieve the required word count, as well as what you can do in advance of the 1st of November to prepare for the writing month. Go to the site for more, but here is a quick summary of what it's all about:

National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to creative writing.  On November 1, participants begin working towards the goal of writing a 50,000-word novel by 11:59 PM on November 30.Valuing enthusiasm, determination, and a deadline, NaNoWriMo is for anyone who has ever thought about writing a novel.The sequel to The Englishman, the Navy Wife, is now going through its final edits, and should be out in late November, so I'm going to attempt to write the bulk of the 3rd book in the series during the month of November. This novel is now fully plotted (or as fully as I ever plot in advance, which is about 75%), and even has a working title, 'A Marriage Adrift'.

So, wish me luck, and let me know if you are a fellow NaNoWriMo madwoman/man. I'd love to add you as my writing buddy on the NaNoWriMo site here!

Suffragette, James Bond, Ab Fab and The Lady in the Van...films, films, films

I love this time of the year when the best films are released, the weather is getting colder, and going to the cinema is just what you want to do.

Near us in Muswell Hill, Everyman Cinema has began refurbishing the old Odeon, with new sofas and a lick of paint. Although it's far from finished (there are planning issues), or being the quality of Everyman cinemas in Hampstead or Belsize Park, it's already better than the old, freezing flee pit.

Daughter and I went to see Suffragette there this week, and we both really enjoyed the film with Helena Bonham-Carter and Carey Mulligan, and with a brief but inspiring appearance by Meryl Streep. I was, however, highly disappointed that they'd failed to mention Finland as one of the first countries in Europe to give women the vote (already in 1906) during the roll call at the end. Harrumph!


I'm also really looking forward to seeing the new Bond film. I know it's overly commercial, and complete escapism, and shouldn't really even be mentioned in the same blog post with Suffragette, but Bond is my guilty pleasure, and I cannot wait for next week when Spectre is on general release.

Talking of guilty pleasures, another film that may not be as good for the intellect as it is for the soul, is the new Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie. Fox and the BBC released some information and a picture of the forthcoming film this week. Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley as Edina and Patsy escape a media storm resulting for a major incident at an uber fashionable launch party, to the French Riviera, where they hatch a plan to live the high life for ever more. I have to wait a few months before the release, but one thing is certain - I'll be desperate to see this film when it's finally out.


Alan Bennet's The Lady in the Van is out in the UK a bit sooner, on November the 13th. With Maggie Smith in the title role, how can this be anything but brilliant? Here's the trailer, enjoy!

 

Five things you should know about a Finnish sauna

Image: Visit Finland
I was three days (yes days!) old when my parents took me into a sauna. It was early spring, and we were visiting our summer cottage near Kangasala in the Häme province of Finland. By all accounts I loved the heat and gurgled away on my mother’s lap.

I’ve been an avid sauna-goer ever since, and I've even managed to covert the Englishman, and the Daughter-in-law into the practise. Before the Big Move, when we lived in the sticks, one of our priced possessions was a sauna, but alas in London we have to do without.
It's different in Finland, where most new flats come with saunas. If you are lucky to own a summer cottage (many Finns do), there'll be a sauna there by a lake, or deep in a forest. There are reputedly some 3.3 million saunas in the country; that’s more than one sauna per two inhabitants.
Historically the sauna first came into being as part of the main dwelling quarter; later it was where you cleaned yourself, where women gave birth, and the dead were washed before burial.  
Even today, the sauna is an integral part of the Finnish psyche. There’s a Finnish proverb, “Jos ei viina, terva ja sauna auta, niin tauti on kuolemaksi.” If alcohol, tar and sauna don’t make you better, you are facing death. (Tar was used as a disinfectant in the olden days)
When I lived in Finland, sauna was where business was conducted; where the long-standing Cold War President Kekkonen had his most secret and important meetings with visiting Soviet leaders. Oh, how I would have loved to be a fly on the wall in one of those powwows! (Of course flies could not survive in a hot sauna, but you know what I mean.) 
As a result of this sauna culture, nakedness in Finland is more natural. However, contrary to popular misconception, it isn’t normal for women and men to mix in a sauna (unless they’re immediate family). It’s also now far more likely that business meetings take place on a golf course. Talking of which, some of the better public saunas I’ve visited in Finland have been in golf club changing rooms. In fact most hotels, sports halls and public facilities in Finland have a sauna. The Helsinki parliament building has a sauna, as do all the Finnish embassies and consulates around the world.
There are three main types of sauna today: electric, wood-fired and smoke sauna. I really love the wood-fired one, but whatever the type, to me, there are five crucial points you should know about a Finnish sauna:
Image: Visit FinlandA sauna has to be hotThere has to be a bucket of water available to throw over the stones to create steam, or löylyIf there’s no lake or sea to dip yourself in after a sauna, there has to be an area for quiet contemplation afterwardsYou have to be naked in a sauna, but the sauna has nothing to do with sex (try doing it in a sauna...)Having a sauna is a tranquil process; it’s not an activity to be hurried. 
So, if a Finn asks you to have a sauna with him – fear not. He’s not trying to embarrass you. All he wants is to share something holy with you – so say yes. You might be surprised and become a convert like the Englishman!

A version of this article will appear in the CoScan magazine later this year.

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