Writing Competition

Over at The Cult of Me blog Michael Brookes hosts a monthly writing competition where you write a 500 word piece based on the image of the month. It’s a great way to get the creative mind ticking!

I was very surprised to find my entry for August 2013, Simplicity, won second prize! Check out the winning entries here.

And while you’re over there why not take a peek at September’s competition page and have a go for yourself? You deserve a break from your novel to try something a bit different, 500 words is the perfect length for an afternoon project. So what are you waiting for? Have a go now!

Epic (2013) Film Review

Title: Epic
UK release: 22^nd May 2013
Running time: 102 minutes
Genre: Animation/Adventure/Family
Rating: U
Cast: Amanda Seyfried (Mary Katherine),  Josh Hutcherson (Nod), Colin Farrell (Ronin), Beyonce Knowles (Queen Tara), Steven Tyler (Nim Galuu), Jason Sudeikis (Bomba), Pitbull (Bufo)
Director: Chris Wedge
Writers: Tom J. Astle, Matt Ember, James V. Hart, William Joyce, Daniel Shere
3D option? Yes

The Liability (2013) Film Review

Title: The Liability
UK release date: 17th May 2013
Running time: 82 minutes
Rating: 15
Genre: Thriller/Action
Cast: Jack O’Connell (Adam), Tim Roth (Roy), Peter Mullan (Peter), Talulah Riley (Girl)
Director: Craig Viveiros
Writer: John Wrathall
3D option? No

Camp Nanowrimo

Camp Nanowrimo are holding a novel writing month in April this year, so I’ve gone ahead and signed myself up!

I’m going to be using the 50k word goal as encouragement to get current projects finished. I want to see the end of Dark Light book 1 so i can start getting to the editing phase of it! Though I do have an idea for a young teen book that I also want to get written during April. It’s short (planned at ~36k) so I should hopefully be able to get that written in addition to Dark Light.

My original plan for Dark Light was to make it a novella about 40-50k words, but now I’m wondering if I should try to up the wordcount a bit to make it a proper full length novel. I need to see how many words it ends up and what more could be added.

Good luck to anyone starting Nanowrimo tomorrow! I’m going to try for a 50k day and get as much written as possible tomorrow!

NaNoWriMo Looms Ever Nearer

As the title not-so-subtly hints, NaNoWriMo 2012 is fast approaching. this Thursday begins 30 days of furious writing as thousands of people try to get a minimum of 50,000 words written by midnight November 30th.

I’ve managed to complete two NaNos now so I’m being a bit more risky and aiming for 75,000 words. I also wanted very much to do 50kday which is to aim for 50,000 words on the 1st November, but sadly I’m working and I have writing class in the evening so I’ll be lucky to even get 50 words written! My 50kday will be on Sunday 4th November, where I’ll try to write as much as I can though I’m under no illusions that I’ll get anywhere near 50,000!

I thought I’d plotted enough for my NaNo novel, but I now find myself unhappy with the main villain, so I’m overhauling her. I’m also trying to flesh out my characters a bit to get them ready for writing.

Good luck to everyone participating!