Category: Tasting The Peach

Creative Writing, Motivation, NaNoWriMo 2014, Tasting The Peach

Writing A Book In A Month: The Final Countdown…

Christina Hollis
Worth Every Minute…

The alarm’s just gone off for NaNoWriMo 2014. That’s it: the deadline was midnight on 30th November, no excuses.  If you’ve read Writing A Book In A Month, Parts One, Two, Three And Four, this is the big reveal. 

I put off reading through the whole of my NaNoWriMo project, Tasting The Peach until the last possible moment, in case I had a crisis of confidence and didn’t submit it. I was relieved to see the story all hung together (although there are some big gaps I’ll have to fill in during second, and subsequent, drafts). My characters mostly turned out the way I hoped they would, although as they came to life for me they developed and grew in ways I hadn’t expected. 

I sent Tasting The Peach for validation on 29th of November, and my total word count was logged at 55,295 by NaNoWriMo central. I’ve printed out my personalised Winner’s Certificate, and now I feel wrung out and quite honestly, a bit emotional. What am I going to do, now all the pressure to finish is off? Read on, to find out…

Coming Soon…

NaNoWriMo is an invaluable hub and resource for writers. You’ll find mentors, tips and pep talks, shoulders to cry on and writing buddies to help you celebrate. It doesn’t matter whether you’re starting out, or an old hand who’s trying something new. Everybody learns from the experience, and has a good time in the process. For an investment of around £6, I got a month’s writing retreat right here in my office, but away from all other artistic distractions. It gave me the chance to dedicate an exclusive block of time to a project I’ve always had to sideline through pressure of other work. Sometimes you have to say “No” to requests. That’s always hard, but being able to say “Sorry, I’m doing NaNoWriMo this year!” made it a bit easier. 

The NaNoWriMo writing marathon each November is an international event that keeps on growing, but maintaining the site and networks takes money. They rely on donations, so read the testimonials here, then make a resolution to join NaNoWriMo 2015.

So, what’s next? Tomorrow I start a new WIP, but that’s quite literally another story. Or rather, two! I’ll be writing about this next project in a series of blogs called The Birth Of A Book. If you want to follow the roller-coaster ride all the way from basic idea to publication, click the “Subscribe To My Blog” button, at the top right hand side of this page.

To keep up with the progress of my next big release, His Majesty’s Secret Passion, please visit my Facebook Author page here, and click on the “like” button. 

Creative Writing, NaNoWriMo 2014, Tasting The Peach

Writing A Book In A Month, Part Four…

Christina Hollis

NaNoWriMo 2014 attracts corporate supporters as well as donations from writers. One of these, Webucator, approached writers for their insights into the creative writing process. I’m delighted to get people interested in trying something I’ve enjoyed all my life, so here’s an extended version of the interview I gave to them:


I’ve written for pleasure all my life, and became a full-time writer in my late twenties. Before that, I worked in finance, then marketing, and finished up in the technical library of a gas-turbine (aero engine) manufacturer. Nobody who read my jet-fighter manuals was interested in happy endings, and the atmosphere wasn’t good. Reading was my way of escaping, and I wanted to share that pleasure with others by putting my own stories into words. My wonderful OH offered to support me for one year to see if I could earn my living from writing and luckily, I found I could.

My goals haven’t really changed since I began my writing career. I always want to write the best books I can, which help readers to get away from it all for a while. I write about complex men and independent women thrown together in difficult situations, who develop an understanding as they grow toward a satisfying conclusion. Their happy-ever-after is as good for me, as it is for my characters.    

Coming Soon, From Wild Rose Press
I’m very lucky to enjoy writing romance, which is a popular genre. You can find a list of my available titles here, my next book, His Majesty’s Secret Passion, is being published soon by Wild Rose Press, and I’ve also got more titles scheduled for publication in 2015. Of course there’s also my NaNoWriMo project, Tasting The Peach. This is a thriller, which is a completely new departure for me so it’s a work-in-progress in every sense of the word. Joining up for NaNoWriMo 2014 allowed me to concentrate for one full month on producing the first draft. I’m only formulating the first draft, so there’s still some way to go, but I already know Tasting The Peach won’t have a conventional happy ending. I’ll be posting updates here on my blog about its progress. You can keep in touch by subscribing, using the button above.

I’m lucky in that writing makes me a decent living, but in any case I can’t stop. Sad, but true! As well as romance, I’ve written a lot of non-fiction articles for national magazines. Nature writing has always been  my first love, and I’m still trying to capture the passing seasons with the skill of a Roger Deakin, T.H White or H.E Bates.

My advice to any young person who wants a career as a writer is to find a conventional job that’ll pay your bills and give you a grounding in life, but which still allows you time to write after-hours. You’ll never produce your best work if you’re worrying about making money from it, and you need some life experience before you join a profession whose members spend 90% of their time shut away from reality—you only have to look at politicians in Westminster (with the notable exception of Lord Moynihan, here) to see where that sort of insularity leads! 

Read as widely as you can, and in genres other than your own speciality. Don’t just enjoy the story: analyse it, see how the author and editor have made it work. Then apply that insight to your own, original work. Most importantly of all, always write from your heart—readers soon spot insincerity, and they hate it. 

Finally, don’t forget to subscribe to my blog (by clicking on the box, top right above) to get my tip sheet of  hints for the career writer.
Marcher Chapter, NaNoWriMo, RNA, Tasting The Peach

Writing A Book In A Month, Part Three…

Christina Hollis

My writing got derailed by vital admin this week, but my NaNoWriMo word count’s risen—although in fits and starts.

I’ve written here and here about how I’ve been helped by creative workshops organised by the Marcher Chapter of the Romantic Novelists’ Association. The most recent one helped me refine the first ten pages of a new project, Tasting The Peach. I’m now turning this embryo into the initial draft of a full-length novel, using National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) 2014 to spur me on. NaNoWriMo relies on donations, and as I write this they’ve raised $1,034,544.78 so far this year. You can click on the figure to contribute, and help support the organisation.

By Monday morning, 17th November, I’d reached a word count of 33,629. The NaNoWriMo website has a load of exciting data, which makes it just right for an obsessive like me. When I update my daily word count, it calculates my average, and from that how long it will take me to reach the 50,000 word target. As the deadline of 30th November gets closer, the stress increases. My daily average is 1865 now, but I had a bit of a slump midweek.

I’ve never written a crime novel before, but it didn’t me take long to work out they are books which are best written backwards. I started on November 1st with my two main characters fully formed in my mind, but only a vague idea of what was going to happen to them. I opened a file, called it Chapter One, and started to type.

I managed to keep my butterfly mind pinned on DI Josh Miller’s unravelling of the conspiracy behind a politician’s murder, but the plot twists were coming as much as a shock to me as they were to him. Who knew a bacon roll would play such a pivotal…well, role? I didn’t, and I’m supposed to be the all-seeing author. I needed to step back and take a long view of where this book was heading. The trouble was, all I could see was the NaNoWriMo cut-off point of 30th November, hurtling toward me.  

Then, courtesy of the publisher Wild Rose Press, I was given the perfect excuse to take a break from working on Tasting The Peach.  The galley proofs for my next release, His Majesty’s Secret Passion, arrived. Concentrating on checking everything was perfect before my new book goes to print gave me the change of pace I needed. My daily word count for NaNoWriMo suffered, but by working late and early each day I squeezed in some forward planning on motivations and motives for Tasting The Peach, too.  This allowed me to catch up, once the proofs were checked. I’m now back on target for NaNoWriMo—just about!

If you’re working on your own NaNoWriMo project, how are you getting on? If you’d like to keep up to date with the progress of my next release, His Majesty’s Secret Passion, just visit my new author page over on Facebook, and hit the “like” button.

Marcher Chapter, NaNoWriMo, RNA, Scrivener, Tasting The Peach

Writing A Book In A Month, Part Two…

Christina Hollis
http://media.iwm.org.uk/iwm/mediaLib//138/media-138613/large.jpg
H.M.Bateman, via Wikimedia Commons

…including The Woman Who Said No To A Launch Party, Nibbling Is The Thief Of Time, and Creative Accounting, NaNoWriMo Style…

Last week I told you how I’d signed up for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) 2014, to give me the perfect excuse to shove all other work aside and concentrate on a new project I’ve been thinking about for ages, but never managed to do much about.

You can read about how I joined here. Once I’d signed up, I became part of the NaNoWriMo community. Although it originated in the US, there are now members worldwide and where there are writers, a support group soon follows. My local NaNoWriMo chapter invited me to a grand launch party in Cheltenham, on Hallowe’en. The idea was to round off a social meet with a countdown to midnight. Then the writing would start. I was Trick or Treating elsewhere, so sadly had to refuse but I can’t think I’d have got any writing done. I can’t wait to start my project (working title, Tasting The Peach), but I need to get right into the zone before I can write. Complete silence and a total absence of crisps, drinks and nibbles is my recipe for writing productivity (Coo, what a diva! Ed.)  My office is in a part of the house furthest away from the kitchen. I have to shut myself off from everyone and everything, and well away from every distraction (especially food).

I hope everyone got off to a good start with their NaNoWriMo projects. I sat down at my desk at 6:30am on 1st November, and opened a new Scrivener file to begin. You can read about the amazing help (and enjoyable hindrance) Scrivener can be to any writing project here. To write a book in a month is a tough challenge. It takes an average of one thousand, six hundred and sixty seven words every single day to hot the 50K target. That’s pretty relentless. NaNoWriMo offers all sorts of help and support, but I started with a shortcut of my own. As well as uploading the character files and background research I did in preparation for November 1st, I cut and pasted in the opening of my embryo novel, which was worked up for the most recent creative workshop organised by the Marcher Chapter of the Romantic Novelists’ Association. It was only a few pages, but it was better than siting down to a blank page.

At the end of each day, NaNoWriMo participants log the number of words they’ve written. No way was I going to claim I’d written nearly five thousand words in one day—and on a Saturday, at that! Apart from anything else, my word count would fall off a cliff on November 2nd, so I ignored my uploaded figure, and entered the words I actually wrote on the day.

So as at the start of Monday, 3rd November my total word-count is 6,129, although I’ve only written a daily average of 1,700 words.

My NaNoWriMo efforts are likely to be derailed as I’ve had some very exiting news. To be among the first to find out what it is, mail me at christinahollis(at)hotmail.co.uk. As an incentive, I’ll include an extract from Tasting The Peach.

PS: Don’t forget to change (at) to @ in my email address.