It’s been a little while since my last blog entry, so here is an update on what I’ve been doing of late:

– I’m still working on my novel, though I’ve slowed down somewhat after hitting a slight roadblock, which I’ve just about worked out now.

– I’ve been doing a lot of character development and relooking at my overall plot to give myself new perspective and motivation.

– I downloaded a great free program called ywriter which has been designed by an author for authors. The program allows you to input all your novel’s information including character information, location information, you can write your novel in scenes, swap scenes and chapters around, keep notes and (my favourite part) it even reads your writing aloud to you! I’ve only just started using it, but I already love it and I know it is going to be a fantastic resource while working on my novel.

– I’ve been inspired by an event called NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) in which participants attempt to write 50000 words in a month. I’m not joining officially as I don’t believe I will be able to churn out 50000 words during November, but I am inspired to at least attempt to get some serious writing on my novel during November using NaNoWriMo as my motivation. The idea is to just write, without worrying about editing, whenever you have spare time. Then once November is over you can go back and edit and turn that writing into something legible.

– While procrastinating on my novel, I’ve been writing a novella on the side. It’s a horror story set within a high school. Originally I wrote this plot idea about 11 years ago as a script and made it into a short film for an English project. I’ve unearthed the plot and am now attempting to turn it a more substantial story.

So that’s what I’ve been doing lately. I’ll keep my blog updated during November and let you know how my novel is progressing during the madness of NaNoWriMo.