Tag Archives: Writing

November 10, 2010

NaNoWriMo – 10 days in

Filed under: Writing — Tags: , , , — PD Martin @ 10:42 am

This year I decided to sign up for NaNoWriMo – National Novel Writing Month. If you haven’t heard of this before, basically the idea is to write a novel (well, 50,000 words) in the month of November.

Of course, most crime fiction novels come in at around 100,000 words, but still, 50,000 words in one month is an impressive achievement and obviously half a novel in a month is mighty fine too!

It’s the first time I’ve ever done it, although last year I saw lots of status updates on Facebook about it and decided I was too late to sign up. This year, despite knowing the first five days of November were out for me, I decided to give it a go. Especially given the first book in my new series could do with the major kick start of 50,000 words!

So far, I’m not exactly prolific — 10 days in I’ve written just over 5,000 words of the new novel, giving me a total of over 41,000 words for Hit and Run (working title). Still, it’s nice to know that there are lots of other people sitting at their computers tapping away.

And I guess that’s the point of NaNoWriMo – to bring together writers around the world to inspire us all to dedicate time and space to our writing, even if only for one month.

I’ll let you know how I go at the end of November!

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July 25, 2009

Event madness

Filed under: Writing — Tags: , , , , — PD Martin @ 5:02 am

It’s event madness for me at the moment (plus editing of course).

Last Friday night I was in Foster for an author talk, and then headed back on Saturday to catch some other authors talking about their books and work at The Crime and Justice Festival. In the end, I only went to two sessions – one on the criminal mind (right up my alley) and one on being an undercover cop in the mafia. Really enjoyed both and was dying to see more on Sunday, but decided I should focus on editing.

I’ve got a few other events coming up:

August will be busy! But for now, I must focus on edits…10 days until my deadline – ahhh!!!

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July 10, 2009

First week of editing

Filed under: Kiss of Death,Writing — Tags: , , , , — PD Martin @ 4:57 am

This week has been devoted to editing – and looking after my daughter of course!

I’ve completed an initial pass of the first 140 pages of Kiss of Death, but decided I needed to stop and go back to the start to begin work on some of the bigger picture elements my editor suggested. And that’s what I started today, plus I’ve got most of the weekend set aside for editing.

To date, I’ve made all the minor edits to the first half of the book, plus made some of the bigger changes as I’ve gone through each chapter. For example, I’ve moved the questioning of two people to about sixty pages earlier than in the original draft and I’ve added in a sex scene! Some of you may have seen my posts on Facebook about the sex scene.

Like Wednesday’s post:
Had to stop writing today in the middle of a sex scene and I feel strangely unfulfilled.
That got a few comments

And Thursday’s post:
Sex scene done…moving on with other edits now. But I’m sure they won’t be as exciting. :)

More about the editing process next week and if you want updates via Facebook, please go to www.facebook.com/pages/PD-Martin/52563435424

Kiss of Death is the fifth book in the Sophie series, and it will be released first in Australia on 1 January 2010.

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July 3, 2009

Sophie’s back!

Filed under: Kiss of Death,Writing — Tags: , , , , , — PD Martin @ 4:55 am

Another action-packed week. First off, Fan Mail is now available in the US and Canada! Find out more here:
www.pdmartin.com.au/menu.aspx?mID=3&nID=22

This week I also sent the first three chapters (and the only chapters in existence) of a new book to my agent. It’s not crime fiction, but if she likes it she’ll try to find a publisher for it. Fingers crossed!

This week Sophie also came home – back from my Aussie editor at Pan Macmillan. The editing process is quite a lengthy one, from my first submission in mid June to its 1 January 2010 release date (Australia and New Zealand only).

During this first editorial stage, my editor and publisher give me detailed feedback on the characters, plot and structure of Kiss of Death. So, what sorts of things do they suggest?

Some examples of recommendations for this book include:

  • Creating more tension between Sophie and some of the other characters
  • Adding an additional murder/body
  • Splitting the investigative team in two directions, with Sophie exploring one angle and the police (LAPD) another

Of course, I can’t give you too many details because that might give things away – and I hate spoilers!

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June 19, 2009

Getting the words onto the page

Filed under: Writing — Tags: , — PD Martin @ 4:50 am

A couple of weeks ago I was on a panel for the Emerging Writers’ Festival
(EWF) here in Melbourne.

The topic was Just write Dammit! and the brief was to discuss our
writing techniques.

The other panellists were:

  • Victoria Carless – a playwright who also works in fiction, film and feature writing.
  • Andrew Hutchinson – award-winning author of Rohypnol.
  • Tiggy Johnson – poet and short story writer.

During my 10 minutes I talked a little about my writing routine. Although I
have to fit writing in with my 2yro, compared to many other authors I’ve got it easy. I rarely stare at a blank page for more than a few minutes. I don’t
agonize over a sentence for hours. And I’m not particularly prone to
procrastination. Of course it’s still hard work, but I do have the ability to
just sit down and write. 

The panel got me thinking – why do I find it easy to get words on a page?
It’s probably partly related to my genre – crime fiction books tend to be
page-turners and I think the writing process somehow reflects this. You read it fast, we write it fast. I can also thank my 10+ years of working as a corporate writer. I’ve always written to deadlines and always had to simply sit down and write. While short corporate writing pieces are very different to a 100,000-word book, the pattern of behaviour is ingrained.

After initially feeling that my writing process should be at least a little
more torturous, I’ve now decided I’m extremely happy and grateful that it’s
not!

For more information about the EWF, please visit their website.

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