Gamebook Friday: On NaNoWriMo and the Dangers of Project Fatigue

As readers who have been following this blog for some time will know, I've dabbled with NaNoWriMo* in the past. (As has my friend Bill King.)

I contemplated taking part again this year, to work on a new project, but it got to the start of November and The Wicked Wizard of Oz was still unfinished and so I have decided to use NaNoWriMo as a motivational tool to help get me through to the end.

Why? You may well ask. Basically, two months into writing my latest gamebook I found myself in need a something to motivate me to keep going.

Why? Because half term happened, including a family holiday, and I took a break to write a couple of short stories, and I have a raft of new projects, snapping at my heels, that also need to be written. Also, because despite having reached section 500 I am still nowhere near the end of this particular adventure. The Wicked Wizard of Oz is going to be significantly longer than Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland (which means it will also be my longest gamebook to date) but then that's what happens when you allow the player to be one of five different characters all with their own abilities and unique backstories!

You will see that I actually started NaNoWriMo a week late, but I'm confident that I'll be able to catch up, and besides, I'm back on the horse now and galloping into Winkie Country as I type. Sort of.

I feel I should point out that the word count displayed above is what I've written during NaNoWriMo, not the total word count for the book so far!

In other news, someone has written a new and very pleasing 5-star review of Night of the Kraken, and fans of gamebooks may be interested to know that Joe Dever's Grey Star is back, courtesy of a new Kickstarter campaign.


* A.k.a. National Novel Writing Month.

Guest Author April - William King

Born of Darkness, the seventh instalment in the Kormak series, has just been released on all the major digital retailers. It's another rip-roaring adventure featuring a resurrected Shadow-worshipping, soul-devouring Lunar warlord unleashed in the vaults beneath the Palace of King-Emperor Aemon of Siderea.

Here's the blurb.

Millennia ago, the Shadow Lord Vorkhul vanished leaving only terrifying legends of his awesome power. Now he has reappeared in the sinister crypts below King-Emperor Aemon's palace. Can Kormak solve the mystery of his resurrection and stop his rampage before he acquires the power to topple kingdoms?

Until Wednesday 25th March, it will be available for the special price of $2.99 or the equivalent in local currency at the following stores:

[Amazon.com](http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00V3EBLLE)

[Amazon.co.uk](http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00V3EBLLE)

[Amazon.de](http://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B00V3EBLLE)

[Apple](https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/id979254824)

[B&N](http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/born-of-darkness-william-king/1121503330)

[Smashwords](http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/529777)

YOU ARE THE HERO around the Interwebz

I've been interviewed for various websites and written guest post for other people's blogs about the YOU ARE THE HERO Kickstarter and some are now starting to appear.

First up there's my post about Indie Publishing on William King's blog (yes, the William King of Gotrek and Felix fame!).

Then there's an interview with G*M*S Magazine.

And last, but not least, there's Matt Sylvester's interview with me over on his blog.

Still to come... More guest blogs and an interview with STARBURST magazine!

The inaugural Black Library Weekender

So (just in case you've not check my blog over the last month or so) this past weekend I was in Nottingham for the first ever Black Library Weekender. And it was awesome.

I could spend ages here waxing lyrical about all the wonderful people I met, how as soon as I arrived I was nabbed to sign books, how fascinating the panels were, and what the evening ents were all about, but instead I'll restrict myself to a few photos and a list of things I didn't know before the event butI do now.

After all, I've been inspired by my two days in Nottingham in November and there's work to be done!

The weekend was as awesome as this banner suggests. 

 Matt brought along his collection of JG 40K fiction to be signed. Which was nice.

Cthulhu (courtesy of Clint Werner) and a glass of wine (courtesy of one of Graham McNeill's fans).

 These two really should have won Pitch Factor.

 New friend Matt Sylvester and old friend Rob Sanders. Fantastic to see both of them.

 Signing after the Gamebooks panel during which Christian Dunn claimed that I've written more gamebooks than anybody else. (This claim is yet to be verified.)

 Clint Werner (who sounds just how you imagine from this photo) and Yours Truly.

 

My book stash from the weekend.

Ten things I didn't know before the BL Weekender but which I do now

1) The Kingdom of Billdonia is under threat from the emerging state of Danistan.
2) Raymond Swanland can wax lyical about the merits of illustration and commercial art for ages.
3) One fan from Washington D.C. didn't have a passport when he booked his place at the Weekender.
4) Michael Knight and Christian Dunn are natural showmen.
5) Laurie Goulding does a mean Bane impression.
6) Rob Sanders may just be an Untouchable.
7) Josh Reynolds isn't the hero Black Library needs right now, but he's the hero it deserves.
8) Graeme Lyon is editing The Book of the Lion.
9) Black Library are publishing a 100 page original Horus Heresy graphic novel written by Dan Abnett and illustrated by Neil Roberts.
10) Shadows over Sylvania is out in February!

Thought for the Day

"Slowly, a bit at a time, a book is coming into being. It’s fun to watch and at the same time frustrating, because writing always happens slower than you want it to. I have all these exciting scenes in my mind. I want them written down. NOW! I want the story rolling along. I want to see how it all works out. And yet it is arriving in the only way stories do, one phrase at a time, over a period of minutes and hours and days and months."

~ William King

Pure poetry, that tells you exactly how it is.

Counting Words

Today we have various authors on the thorny subject of word counts.

First up there's Nicola Vincent-Abnett.

Then there's William King.

Next it's Sarah Cawkwell.

And lastly, Josh Reynolds.

For those of you who may be interested, during a recent school visit a child asked me how many words I'd written.

Now this is only a rough estimate, but in terms of published words I reckon I'm past the 2 million mark now. That's quite a lot, isn't it? Not as much as the likes of Dan Abnett and Graham McNeill, but not a bad start, I think you'll agree. ;-)

Yes, it's time for another Writers Round-up!

And today we have Scott K Andrews on the doubts that occasionally beset any writer...

Veteran comics pro Gordon Rennie tells us what not to do when it comes to comic writing...

Black Library scribe Sarah Cawkwell writes about the joy of deadlines...

And finally there's William King on the subject of inspiration...

Until next time...

More writers on writing

Some Black Library-related updates today...

Josh Reynolds has published a video in which comics legend Alan Moore gives some... interesting, shall we say?... advice to the unpublished writer.

William King has blogged on the commitment of regular blogging.

There's an in depth interview with Clint Werner over at The Black Library Bolthole.

And Rob Sanders (who does a great line in soundtrack advice) has been interviewed about his work for the Black Library over at Imagined Realms.

Writers round-up

New year, new round-up, starting with...

Cavan Scott, on hating your current work in progress. Reading this, I was reminded of Tony Jordan's comment when asked if he liked writing: 'No. I like having written.'

Then there's Mark Gatiss, on turning Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's classic, The Hound of the Baskervilles, into a modern classic.

Lavie Tidhar's had a busy year, which you can read about here. And so has Dan Abnett.

Lately, inspired by New Year's resolutions, William King has written an interesting post on the subject of changing habits.

And Juliet E. McKenna has been posting on the subject of awards and self-promotion. (All I'll say on this matter at the moment is if I was eligible for the Legend Award I'd damn well make sure everyone knew about it.)

To end with, here's a comment from the Script Doctor on Facebook:

'Write what you know' is probably the stupidest advice you'll ever hear. 'Don't write what you don't know' is some of the best.

Black Library Weekender - will you be going?

I've known about this one for a while (as have a number of you, I expect) but today Black Library posted some more details about the Black Library Weekender that's taking place on 3-4 November 2012.

This event is for the dedicated BL fan, for whom there are Silver Tickets available. However, for the truly dedicated dedicated BL fan, there are the exclusive Golden Tickets (a la Willy Wonka, I guess).

To find about more about this event, click here.

And while we're on the subject of the Black Library, why not vote for William King's Blood of Aenarion to win the David Gemmell Legend Award this year?

Writers on writing

Yes, it's time for another round-up of what other writers are saying about the process that gives them their raison d'être.

First up we've got James Swallow on how bad cover art can scupper sales of your magnum opus.*

Then we have William King on the distractions of the internet.

Next up is my editor Jonathan Oliver talking about the insecurities we all suffer as writers.

Rachel Aaron then feeds even more fuel into the fires of our insecurities with this blog post about how she went from writing 2,000 words a day to writing 10,000 words a day!

And to top it all we've got Matt Forbeck talking about the time he wrote a novel (91,000 words long) in two weeks!

Sheesh! The guy must be a machine!

I'll leave you with Rob Sanders on the subject of bad sex.**

* Note to self: really must put together a blog post on this subject myself some time.

** If I have the guts I'll produce a blog post on this myself... one day.

Writers on writing

To continue my semi-regular series of posts, here's a round up of writerly-type posts I've come across over the last couple of days...

In this piece, novelist Polly Courtney explains why she has dropped her publisher HarperCollins in frustration at having her books presented as chick lit.

This link will take you to a video in which author/comedian Charlie Higson talks about writing for children and young adults.

Here's an interesting piece on the growing trend of aspiring writers not being keen readers.

Sarah Pinborough talks about 'the Blur', that place where all writers dwell, on her blog.

Anyone who's ever said they want to write, but has never actually finished anything, needs to read this post by m'colleague James Swallow.

Not exactly a writer talking about writing, but out of interest the list of books for World Book Night 2012 has been published. There are a fair few genre fiction titles on the list. Let's just hope the programming schedule for the night doesn't ignore SF/F and Horror again, like last year.

If you follow the Floor to Ceiling Books blog you'll already know that Magemanda is away on holiday. Having had her trip planned for some time, she asked her friends to write guest posts for her blog. Well she's now posted the list on her blog and my guest post 'On the Stigma of Being a Tie-In Novelist' will appear, appropriately enough, on 25 September - Games Day!

To continue the theme, William King talks about how he goes about writing a tie-in novel here.

And then, just to finish things off, here's Adelie High's latest video in which Dan Abnett talks about the very process of Writing.

More writers on writing

This time we've got Chris Wraight talking about getting to the end of a project, and then there's Nick Kyme talking about how his writing has matured over time.

Guy Haley's posted a bit about world-building and writing his first novel. And we'll end with the inestimable William King talking about colour coding the dramatic structure of a story.

I'll have to try that myself some time...

A writer's lot...

Writers on... well, writing.

More writers with interesting things to say about the experience of writing.

1) Weston Ochse talks about short stories.

2) Then we have William King discussing the idea of writing 'when the mood takes you'.

3) And here, William King is very honest about how much actual writing gets done during a writer's week.

4) Sarah Pinborough is an awesome writer, as she demonstrates here in a seemingly simple blog post about haunted houses.*

5) Roz Morris has something to say on the subject of chapter breaks...

6) ... while Rob Sanders writes about soundtracks to write to.

* Sarah and I are appearing together in Solaris Books' forthcoming horror anthology House of Fear. I'll give you three guesses what the stories it contains are about...