NaNoWriMo

And a decision on monetisation

This week sees the beginning of NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month, to the uninitiated. As I described it to one (frankly horrified) friend, it’s a challenge to write an entire novel in a month. Well, 50,000 words of one. And this year I have decided to participate. As regular readers will know, my complete novel A Quartz Storm is out with beta readers and I have spent a chunk of time in October looking into the querying process. And the stars have aligned and I have minimal commitments during November. So I’m going for it.

I’m sharing this with you now because accountability will probably help me actually stick with my goal. I’m realistically going for 40k, rather than 50k, because that’s still a big increase on my usual writing speed, and that should get the bulk of the novel written. This is one that I’ve been playing with in my mind for a long time now so, with luck, it will come together relatively smoothly.

The book I have in mind is the first of a cozy fantasy mystery series starring an accidental detective, Amelia Ampersand. Drawing inspiration from a whole range of female detectives, such as Jessica Fletcher and Miss Marple, Amelia is a lovable klutz who has been living rent-free in my head for the past year or so. This book, tentatively titled The Faerie Cake Killer, is set in a quaint English village of indeterminate location and time period, near to the border with Fae. Peaceful, right up until the murder. I can’t wait to put this onto paper. 

I would be writing this book regardless of NaNoWriMo, but I hope that taking part in this international event will give me the motivation to get the first draft done quickly, ready to be tidied up in the following months, whilst I’m querying A Quartz Storm. I’m excited to get started! 

The other decision I have made is to turn on paid subscriptions for this Substack. I’ve been toying with this for a little while, not because I think I’m going to make vast swathes of money from this, but because I’ve read in a few places that Substack boosts the signal of newsletters that have monetisation turned on, and I would like to increase my reach. For most of you, this won’t mean anything at all. The same content will be available to free and paid subscribers for the foreseeable future. But for anyone who has made a pledge, I think Substack will reach out and ask if you still wish to financially support my writing - please don’t feel obliged! And to all my readers - thank you for being here on my journey. Your support, likes, comments, shares - they all mean the world to me and I appreciate each and every one of you.