It's 12:30am and I just felt the bittersweet success of reaching my goal. Katherine is now 19,817 words, and I still have one last chapter to edit. But the point is that she is now small enough to be submitted to the 2013 Somerset National Novella Writing Competition.
Saving that last chapter for tomorrow. I think it's time to sleep!
Have you unlocked your achievements this NaNoWriMo?
- Bonnee.
Monday, November 26, 2012
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
A Surreal Feeling: Finishing 'Katherine'
What did I just do? I just finished writing the first draft of Katherine. It doesn't feel real!
I started writing Katherine in June this year. Five months later and she is 25,707 words long. That's 5,707 words over the limit to put her into the Novella competition, but there is still time to edit. My goal over the next few days is to transform her into something a little more concise. I already have an idea which entire scenes I can backspace, although I'll be saving a copy of the first draft for the expected no-win of this competition, so that I can put her into the Text Prize competition next year and whatever else comes along.
The reality of finishing my second full manuscript hasn't quite hit me yet, but I assure you that I am brimming with excitement right now!
How is everybody else going with their writing or revision goals? NaNoWriMo? Do share! I'd love to have a discussion!
- Bonnee.
I started writing Katherine in June this year. Five months later and she is 25,707 words long. That's 5,707 words over the limit to put her into the Novella competition, but there is still time to edit. My goal over the next few days is to transform her into something a little more concise. I already have an idea which entire scenes I can backspace, although I'll be saving a copy of the first draft for the expected no-win of this competition, so that I can put her into the Text Prize competition next year and whatever else comes along.
The reality of finishing my second full manuscript hasn't quite hit me yet, but I assure you that I am brimming with excitement right now!
How is everybody else going with their writing or revision goals? NaNoWriMo? Do share! I'd love to have a discussion!
- Bonnee.
Monday, November 19, 2012
All Done!
Thank you to all of you lovely people out there who have been supportive of me while I neglected you to study for my yr 12 exams! I'm happy to announce that IT'S OVER and I sat my last exam today.
To be perfectly honest, I was afraid I was going to be like a few of my friends who finished their last exams last week, and didn't know what to do with themselves because they didn't have to study. But I know EXACTLY what to do with myself.
Dear Katherine,
I should have finished you WEEKS ago! I am so sorry for neglecting you more than I neglected my blog, my beautiful new creation. But exams are over and I am on my way to write your last few chapters and edit the living (%@! out of you so that you're under 20,000 words and I can put in in that novella competition. I promise I'll give you an awesome ending, and get Mrs Goulding to read you, and I'll print you out and send you away before 5th December.
Lots of love
- Bonnee (your mommy...)
If the rest of you didn't pick up on it, I'm going to write my brains out. I miss it so much! So wish me luck and please let me know how all of your NaNoWriMos are going, or whatever other goal you set for yourself this month with revisions and editing!
- Bonnee.
To be perfectly honest, I was afraid I was going to be like a few of my friends who finished their last exams last week, and didn't know what to do with themselves because they didn't have to study. But I know EXACTLY what to do with myself.
Dear Katherine,
I should have finished you WEEKS ago! I am so sorry for neglecting you more than I neglected my blog, my beautiful new creation. But exams are over and I am on my way to write your last few chapters and edit the living (%@! out of you so that you're under 20,000 words and I can put in in that novella competition. I promise I'll give you an awesome ending, and get Mrs Goulding to read you, and I'll print you out and send you away before 5th December.
Lots of love
- Bonnee (your mommy...)
If the rest of you didn't pick up on it, I'm going to write my brains out. I miss it so much! So wish me luck and please let me know how all of your NaNoWriMos are going, or whatever other goal you set for yourself this month with revisions and editing!
- Bonnee.
Sunday, November 11, 2012
Inspired by a Song
Have you ever been inspired to write something because of a song you've heard? Or even just a part of a story?
It happened a few years ago for me. I was listening to Lips of an Angel by Hinder and the idea for a story just came to me. I'm sure the basic storyline is a cliche. The love triangle. But I always wonder how authors put their own twists on the same cliche to make it interesting, stop it from being boring and keep the readers engaged.
More recently, I've been listening to Face Down by Red Jumpsuit Apparatus and it's inspiring me to write something about a woman finding her strength and standing up for herself. Or maybe not even a woman. Someone of a minority, or an underdog, a victim. Standing up and shaking off the pain. Learning to be strong.
What songs have inspired you?
- Bonnee.
It happened a few years ago for me. I was listening to Lips of an Angel by Hinder and the idea for a story just came to me. I'm sure the basic storyline is a cliche. The love triangle. But I always wonder how authors put their own twists on the same cliche to make it interesting, stop it from being boring and keep the readers engaged.
More recently, I've been listening to Face Down by Red Jumpsuit Apparatus and it's inspiring me to write something about a woman finding her strength and standing up for herself. Or maybe not even a woman. Someone of a minority, or an underdog, a victim. Standing up and shaking off the pain. Learning to be strong.
What songs have inspired you?
- Bonnee.
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
The Text Prize by Text Publishing (Aus, NZ)
 |
| Source: http://textpublishing.com.au/about-text/the-text-prize |
Submission for the 2013 Text Prize for Young Adult and Children's Writing opens on 4th March 2013 and closes on 29th March, 2013.
Do you have a novel you would like to receive a $10,000 contract with Text Publishing for? This competition is open to all Australian and New Zealand writers, both published and unpublished, of all ages.
Click on the link above to go to the Text Publishing website, directly to the page containing information about The Text Prize. From there, you can also download the 2013 entry form and read more information about the competition.
I hope to give this competition a crack myself. Best of luck to any other Australians and Kiwis who want to give it a shot! I'd love to hear from you if you decide to participate and I'd be happy to chat about it as you make progress. Start writing!
(Thank you to Greg Gorton for sending me the link in the first place.)
- Bonnee.
Sunday, October 28, 2012
Australian Literature
So I graduated last week. Classes are finished and school is out! Over the first 19 days of November, I will sit 5 exams which will hopefully give me the score I need to get into my first-preference course at Deakin University next year.
I've been doing a lot of thinking about what this summer will hold for me, and I've narrowed it down to four main things: Reading, Writing, Workingmy ass off and Socializing. Of course, I've already made a big start of that second one, as I told you in my previous post about what my NaNoWriMo endeavours are. But yesterday, I decided to kick-start the reading aspect. It was a toss up with what to read first: The Hunger Games trilogy, or the 7 books of the Tomorrow series. Considering I'd already read the first of the Tomorrow series (three or four years ago, admittedly), I decided to pick up the second book and start reading that.
I heard about the Tomorrow series around the same time I heard about The Hunger Games, but before THG became a big thing in Australia. After talking to some of my international friends, I realize that a lot of you probably have never heard of Tomorrow, When the War Began or the other books in the Tomorrow series, but they are bloody amazing, Australian-written books by a great author, John Marsden. In short, the Tomorrow series is about a group of eight Aussie teenagers who go bush-bashing (camping) one week over their summer break, and return home to find that their town and country has been invaded by an unidentified foreign nation. The series follows this group of teenagers through their fight to avoid being killed or captured while they try to do what little they can to fight the enemy, guerrilla style. I loved Tomorrow, When the War Began, and now almost 150 pages into book two, The Dead of the Night, I'm eager to finish reading the whole series this summer.
But reading this series makes me think about literature written and set in Australia, by Australians. And especially when it focuses on aspects unique to Australia: our cities, wildlife, climate, etc. Some of these things, I hope to incorporate into Katherine, but that isn't the focus. Katherine is focused on issues that are can be experienced all over the world. Then I thought, there's nothing stopping me from writing something that has a bigger focus on Australia as a setting after I finish the things that are already on my to-write list. I am an Australian, living in Australia. There is plenty I could write about and share.
The question is then, what do you guys want to read about if I write about Australia? Do you even want to read about Australia at all? Or do you think I'd be better off making other Australians my target audience?
- Bonnee.
I've been doing a lot of thinking about what this summer will hold for me, and I've narrowed it down to four main things: Reading, Writing, Working
I heard about the Tomorrow series around the same time I heard about The Hunger Games, but before THG became a big thing in Australia. After talking to some of my international friends, I realize that a lot of you probably have never heard of Tomorrow, When the War Began or the other books in the Tomorrow series, but they are bloody amazing, Australian-written books by a great author, John Marsden. In short, the Tomorrow series is about a group of eight Aussie teenagers who go bush-bashing (camping) one week over their summer break, and return home to find that their town and country has been invaded by an unidentified foreign nation. The series follows this group of teenagers through their fight to avoid being killed or captured while they try to do what little they can to fight the enemy, guerrilla style. I loved Tomorrow, When the War Began, and now almost 150 pages into book two, The Dead of the Night, I'm eager to finish reading the whole series this summer.
But reading this series makes me think about literature written and set in Australia, by Australians. And especially when it focuses on aspects unique to Australia: our cities, wildlife, climate, etc. Some of these things, I hope to incorporate into Katherine, but that isn't the focus. Katherine is focused on issues that are can be experienced all over the world. Then I thought, there's nothing stopping me from writing something that has a bigger focus on Australia as a setting after I finish the things that are already on my to-write list. I am an Australian, living in Australia. There is plenty I could write about and share.
The question is then, what do you guys want to read about if I write about Australia? Do you even want to read about Australia at all? Or do you think I'd be better off making other Australians my target audience?
- Bonnee.
Sunday, October 21, 2012
NaNoWriMo
Who's participating in NaNoWriMo this year?
Most likely, I'm down for the count. My exams are during November... sadness. However, there's only five exams and they're over by the 19th. There is certainly nothing stopping me from doing a buttload of writing anyway. My first endeavour is to finish writing Katherine, which is a perfectly achievable goal. Considering the lack of detailed planning I made, I'm severely impressed that the first draft has gone this smoothly so far. Hopefully, I'll be able to keep it under 20,000 words and it will be eligible for a novella competition.
Second on the agenda is my goal to transform a fanfiction I am writing into a full-length original novel. It's not quite finished in it's fanfiction form yet, but there are many things that will be different by the time I'm through with it. So I'm excited.
What are your NaNoWriMo goals?
- Bonnee.
Most likely, I'm down for the count. My exams are during November... sadness. However, there's only five exams and they're over by the 19th. There is certainly nothing stopping me from doing a buttload of writing anyway. My first endeavour is to finish writing Katherine, which is a perfectly achievable goal. Considering the lack of detailed planning I made, I'm severely impressed that the first draft has gone this smoothly so far. Hopefully, I'll be able to keep it under 20,000 words and it will be eligible for a novella competition.
Second on the agenda is my goal to transform a fanfiction I am writing into a full-length original novel. It's not quite finished in it's fanfiction form yet, but there are many things that will be different by the time I'm through with it. So I'm excited.
What are your NaNoWriMo goals?
- Bonnee.
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