NaNoWriMo 2012

What the hell is NaNoWriMo? It’s a fun acronym for the National Novel Writing Month. What the hell is National Novel Writing Month? It’s a month-long marathon in which you dedicate yourself to writing 50,000 words in 30 days. Yes, 30 days, one month and at the end you have a novel. Well, probably more accurately, a rough first draft. That’s roughly 1,700 words a day. It might seem like a lot at first, but you’ll get used to writing that much in no time.

How does one accomplish such a goal? Sit down somewhere comfortable and type. Reach 1,700 words. Repeat until you reach 50,000 words.

Signing up for this event is easy. Go to http://nanowrimo.org/en/dashboard and register. Next, tell your family, friends, co-workers that you’re embarking on this perilous journey. This notification swerves two goals: to get their buy in for the amount of time you’ll need to write each day and to use them as motivation (you don’t want to lose face in front of your family or friends, do you? Get back to your seat and finish your 1,700 words.)

Above all though, have fun with NaNoWriMo. Are you always telling someone that you have this great idea for a story or a novel? Now’s the time to put this great idea to the test. Sit down and write about it.

Don’t go back and re-write, don’t worry if it’ll suck (it will suck, it’s a first draft), experiment, go down tangents, explore your idea and have fun.

Another goal of NaNoWriMo in my opinion is to get you into the habit of writing 1,700 words a day. If you want to be a professional writer, you’d better get used to that number on a daily basis.

In 2011, NaNoWriMo had over 250,000 participants, but only 14% crossed that 50,000 word finish line. Can you do it? Can you become a novelist by the end of November? See you at the finish line!

Hit the 50k mark on Endless Night

I just pushed ahead of the 50,000 work mark on my novel, Endless Night. It's not quite the 90,000 goal that I set out to accomplish, but I'm happy with having reached 50,000. I've been finding it hard to write on the novel and feel that I've been thinking about it way too much and need a break from it.

NaNoWriMo is fast approaching and I need to set aside some time for preparation, characters, rough outline, and some log lines. Looking forward to the challenge. Taking a stab at the Young Adult market with this one, so we'll see what happens. Stay tuned.

My Favourite Horror Movies

Favourite Horror Movies (in alphabetically order):

• Alien
• The Legend of Hell House  (1973)
• Thirteen Ghosts (remake – 2001)
• Grave Encounters
• Session 9
• The Cabin in the Woods
• The Descent
• The Exorcist
• The Last Exorcism
• The Ring
• The Shining

My Favourite John Carpenter Movies

My Favourite John Carpenter Movies:

1. The Thing
2. In the Mouth of Madness
3. Halloween
4. Prince of Darkness
5. The Fog

My Favourite Zombie Movies

My Favourite Zombie Movies (in alphabetical order):

• 28 Days Later
• Dawn of the Dead (1978/1990)
• Day of the Dead (1985)
• Dead Snow
• Night of the Living Dead (1968)
• Rec
• Zombie (1979) also known as Zombi 2

Favourite Horror Movies - A Countdown

As a horror writer, I'm often asked what are my favourite horror movies. As with everything, that list changes  over the years. Also, that list has grown, in fact so much, I thought I'd try to split my recommendations into 4 parts:

1. Favourite Horror Comedies
2. Favourite Zombie Movies
3. Favourite John Carpenter Movies
4. Favourite Horror Movies

So I'll start off listing my Favourite Horror Comedies (in alphabetical order):

• Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein
• Army of Darkness
• Return of the Living Dead 
• Shawn of the Dead
• Tucker And Dale Vs. Evil

I'll post the rest of my lists over the next week. So go out and enjoy some Horror flicks!

The Bitter Sting of Rejection...

Today I received a rejection of my submission, Prometheus Undead, to the Dead North Anthology. I'm disappointed. I thought I had a really good shot at this anthology.

One of the more disappointing things, and this applies to a lot of other publishers out there, is that they're very vague about why the story was rejected. In my case, "Sadly, this doesn't find our needs." However, I have sent a quick reply, thanking them and wishing them good luck on the anthology, but also asking them why my story was rejected. I know there are a lot of submissions to these themed anthologies, but I think if someone takes the time to write a 4,000+ story, the least an editor can do is explain in a sentence or two why it was rejected. I'd like to know if there's something I can do to improve the story or my writing, or to find out if there were too many similar stories that were already part of the anthology.

To their credit, they replied with the explanation that it didn't grab them. So, now it's time for me to perhaps look at the story's opening and find a way to get things going a bit faster, to clear a bit of the clutter out and get to the story.

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Last Friday, I also received a letter telling me my Endless Night novel proposal was rejected by the city of Toronto Arts Council. I wasn't really surprised as these awards usual stir clear of genre fiction.

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On a positive front, my first draft of Endless Night has pushed passed the halfway mark at 45,000 words.