Writing and Research:Letting One Interfere with the Other

Started Nano on Sunday but at the moment I'm a bit behind on the word count. I started doing a bit more research about the London rookeries (dreadful housing areas) and the music halls. The trouble with research is that it's addictive and before you know it, you've eaten up your actual writing time. While the research has given me a bit more of a clear idea going forward, it will mean that I'll spend the next couple of days catching up if I want to finish the first draft by the end of the month.

The main character is called Ellie, and in this first book of what I intend to be a series, she loses her father. Whenever she ends up in a troublesome situation a character called the cracksman, turns up and rescues her. He first turns up when she is almost abducted when she is ten years old by one of the many human traffickers that abounded in nineteenth century London. The cracksman has ties to her past that she is not yet aware of, but these will become clear as the book progresses as eventually, they team up together. His back-story is that he's been seconded from the military into the very secret service that had been part of London's ruling class certainly since the time of Elizabeth the first. More on this as the month progresses.

Getting Ready for the Word Mining

In just over 12 hours the fun of NanoWrimo begins. I'm aiming for more than the required 50,000, as I hope to have a rough first draft of my Victorian novel. This year is the first time since 2006 that I've written a full outline - I say full, many of the scenes are no more than a sentence or two at the moment. I'm also starting to look at a cover for the second Lambeth Croak novel, which I plan to have up on Amazon by the end of November.

Changing

I've decided to change my publication options for the nano novel and plan to send off queries and a synopsis to traditional publishers, starting in December. I should be working on getting more into the outline this afternoon, instead I'm meeting with some of the people from my writing group for a half term jolly. If you don't already belong to a writing group, now is the time to start thinking about either finding one or setting one up. The feedback and sense of camaraderie you get in a good group just can't be beaten.

Cast of Characters

I plan to take the time tomorrow to post something about the characters in this new novel, not just for readers, but to get a better feel for them myself. The main character, Ellie, has been living in my head for a couple of years, so it will be fun to see how she deals with some of the challenges I've set for her in the book. Hope you all have a great day and a flying start to NanoWrimo.