Happy Christmas

I'd like to wish you all a very happy Christmas and thank you for reading my blog throughout 2016. It's been a pleasure to know how many have read the posts and I'm particularly grateful to those who've left comments. 

We shall be a full house this year with everyone coming down from Manchester. On Boxing Day, when my other son, daughter-in-law and their baby join us, there will be seven adults, three grandsons and two dogs! I'm really looking forward to having the whole family together.

I look forward to starting the blog again in the New Year when I shall be reflecting on the year that's just gone and looking forward to what 2017 may hold.

A Busy November

A few weeks ago, I announced with confidence to the world - well, to the readers of this blog, anyway! - that I'd been preparing for NaNoWriMo 2016 and was ready to write 50,000 of a brand new novel. Did I achieve my goal? I'm sorry to say that I fell way short. I wrote 15,352 words, in fact. In terms of word count, it could be considered as a big fail.

But was it? Isn't writing more than word count? I think so! November turned out to be a very busy month with meetings, visits and two weekends away. As a 'bottle-half full' girl, I decided to look back on the positives. Out of the thirty days in the month, I didn't write on eighteen days. Therefore, writing almost 15.5k words on the remaining twelve wasn't too bad, was it?

The month started well and the planning I'd done throughout October helped me start writing novel two with flying colours. I was enjoying getting to know my characters and I was transported to the sunny climes of Greece where the story was set. 

Then I received a much appreciated email with suggestions for edits and changes to my first novel, with the offer to read the final draft when I'd finished. The words of each new scene or re-write were added to my word count but much of the time I was substituting words or amending scenes which didn't add any more to the total. Even though my focus changed unexpectedly during NaNo, I still think it was a very valuable few weeks. Novel number one is hopefully much sharper and I shall return to my second novel in the new year.

Are you a NaNoWriMo 2016 winner? If so, huge congratulations! I can remember the feeling when I achieved my goal two years ago. If you didn't, what positives can you draw from participating? I'd love to read your comments. 

On the short story front, this week I was pleased to learn that my entry, 'The Bag Lady', was shortlisted in the Erewash Open Short Story Competition. 

Thank you for reading my blog. You may also follow me on Twitter @JanBayLit and on Jan Baynham Writer Facebook page.