CWA Debut Dagger 2009 Competition

For those of you who enjoy writing crime related fiction, you might be interested to learn about the Crime Writers Association Debut Dagger 2009 competition.

The 2009 Debut Dagger Competition runs from 1^st November ‘08 – 7^th February ‘09. All you need to do is send in the opening chapter(s) – up to 3000 words – and a short synopsis of your proposed crime novel, and you could become a published crime writer.

Winning the Debut Dagger doesn’t guarantee you’ll get published. But it does mean your work will be seen by leading agents and top editors, who have signed up over a dozen winners as well as shortlisted Debut Dagger competitors.

The Debut Dagger is open to anyone who has not yet had a novel published commercially. First prize is £500 plus two free tickets to the prestigious CWA Dagger Awards and night’s stay for two in a top London hotel.

All shortlisted entrants will receive a generous selection of crime novels and professional assessments of their entries, and will also be invited to the Dagger Awards.

Go here to find out more about how to enter.

Why am I doing NaNoWriMo?

I’m almost at the midpoint of NaNoWriMo, or rather I need to be by the end of today which means a write of 3000 words to get up to the 25,000 words to be on target.

I am, however, starting to question why I am actually doing this.  Which asks the question, I guess, why anyone should bother doing NaNoWriMo in the first place?  The general idea is to simply get people to write, write and write some more. It asks writers to turn off the internal editor and just get something novel sized written.

And for what? It’s not like there is any great prize at the end of it.

Self-satisfaction? Kudos from others? To give the writer a first draft to work with and edit into something for submission at some point in the future?

And this is where I am struggling now.  I don’t need the self satisfaction or kudos for completing a novel length manuscript. I’ve done it before, so I know I can do it. The story I chose to write is one I am sure I will do nothing with after. Maybe this was my mistake? Maybe I should have gone for one of the novels I have on the backburner and want to do something more serious with?

I am also putting off other writing projects simply to do NaNowriMo; other projects which actually may be more beneficial for longer term writing aims.

So, again, I am left wondering why am I actually doing it?  What am I gaining? And more crucially, what may I be losing out on as a result?

I guess part of me hates to quit anything. Another part of me is also drawn to the character I am writing about.  I’d hate to leave him where I have – I’ve kind of developed that fatal author-parental type relationship with my character.

So I will slog on today.

But if I don’t hit that 25,000 word mark by the end of the day then I have decided that is the time to draw a line under NaNoWriMo.

Twisted Successes

I am delighted to say that, in amongst all the NaNoWriMo insanity, I have had a couple of writing competition successes over at Twisted Tales.

My short story The Fathers Sack Race, where a separated husband and wife come face to face at their son’s school sports day, won the ‘Amazing Race’ story challenge.

Even more excitingly, my story Closure, which is set against the horrors of the genocide that went on in the civil war of the former Yugoslavia, won the Twisted Tales Story of the Month for October 2008.

Right, now that shameless self-promotion is out of my system, I shall get back to NaNoWriMo!