Natalie Allan

Just to wish you all a Happy New Year!

Don’t get too drunk tonight while I’m sitting home working on 3rd draft/re-writes. And if you do, have one for me

Village of Vampires Revisions

Thanks to Christmas, the third draft of Village of Vampires has been mildly pushed back. This is rather annoying as the first half of the third draft currently sits with a beta reader and second half is yet to be written. I’m currently on Chapter thirteen of twenty-two and there’s an epilogue so I’m not that far away from finishing now.

I estimate this draft will be complete on 16th Jan 2010, then one more round of revisions will take me through the final line edits. Overall, the manuscript should be complete on Valentine’s day. The following week will take me through drafting a sparklier version of the synopsis I already have, and then I’ll be drafting a query letter for submission to literary agents.

Here’s some pictures of the manuscript and plotting chart which is 3 feet long (scroll to the bottom of post to see my Christmas presents ):

Village of Vampires, 2nd draft, side view

Village of Vampires, 2nd draft, cover page

Village of Vampires, plot chart, 3ft long

Village of Vampires, 3ft plot chart, all filled out

And, I couldn’t leave you without showing you my new toys!

When my husband asked me what I wanted for Christmas, we came across a big problem. Usually he buys me chocolates and candles. For a start, I’m on a diet so I wouldn’t be eating the chocolates, and I have so many candles I could keep the planet warm through the next ice age. My candles are probably the root cause of global warming.

So, this year, I decided it was time to mix things up a bit. I asked for a tattoo (which will last forever unlike chocolate and candles), a new guitar,  a keyboard, and a cd of my favorite band HIM. Santa delivered me all these things along with Jack Skellington (Nightmare Before Christmas) poster and a really cool book: “Queen Victoria: Demon Hunter”.

Here’s some pics of my Christmas presents. I was dead excited when Santa delivered all of these and especially so because we had sort-of white Christmas:

My new tattoo

Jack Skellington sits proudly above my writing area

My shiny new Encore Strat-type in Sunburst (also came with a new amp too!)

My shiny new Yamaha full-size keyboard

And because I couldn't resist blessing you with a picture, this is "Wes" my old Westfield Strat-type guitar (and also my first love when it comes to musical instruments). Wes is as much part of the family as is my dog, and will always have a special place in my heart. Although we love to hate each other...

Well, that’s it for this post. I will all my readers  a prosperous 2010! Happy New Year guys!

NaNowriMo

So I did it. Throughout November, I wrote my novel “Village of Vampires” which totalled 95,000 words. In 30 days, that’s pretty fantastic. I did the 2nd draft in 9 days and found my many plot holes that need attention. I began the 3rd draft (a full re-write) on December 10th the rather fantastical hope of finishing by Christmas Eve.

Not a chance in hell of meeting that deadline.

It’s now the 18th December and I’m only 34,000 words in. That means there’s 60,ooo to go before this edit is complete. And I don’t think I have a dog’s dick of a chance I’m going to pull that off in 7 days. I mean, yeah, I am a novel writing machine but 60,ooo words in 7 days is like asking the Pope to become a Satanist. Seriously.

As for time, I seem to be doing ok. The presents are wrapped, the dinner is bought and the cards are written. However, I’m yet to put the decorations up or post any of those written cards.

I have a to-do list as long as my arm. Ok, that might be an understatement since I have very short arms. But still. My to-do list is probably as long as a well-built Scandinavian man is tall. I have letters I’m still to send, Christmas preparations to be completed, the website to design, and visitors to be had. Not to mention the daily chores and dog walking that cannot be left undone.

Yet here I am blogging.

And so, my dreams of completing the third draft by the 24th are too fat fetched.

Once this draft is done, it’s time for a read through and a final draft before I pass it onto my beta readers in January and then a final draft depending on their comments.

I hope to begin drafting my submission in February, and begin querying this novel in March. Just in time for the HIM concert I am long anticipating.

So back to the writing it is…