winning – Aspiring

NYC Midnight Short Story Challenge 2020

I wrote a thing. It’s not a particularly good thing all told.

So I mentioned last year that I was entering the NYCMidnight.com Short Story Challenge for 2020. I paid my entry fee back last year and waited for the start to see what my criteria for the 2,500 word first round would be.

Hot damn, did I get a challenge. Historical fiction was the genre, something I’ve considered writing but never actually done, but okay – then the subject had to be a water shortage. Fine I can work with that, that’s great. Then the challenging bit, it has to include a character that’s a lumberjack – which turned out to be pretty limiting.

So, it’s just about a week later. I’ve written something, but it meets the criteria. It was actually fun, went with a story of revenge, of a man literally playing god in the American Mid-West in the 19th Century.

I hit word count to, exactly. There’s no minimum required, but when I edited it down a little, I cam in at bang on 2,500 words.

Once entry has closed, and everything’s confirmed as entered (after three or four days), I’ll post the story up here. For now, just want to revel in completing the first challenge, and hope for a second. Hope the second is a little easier for me.

NaNoWriMo 2019: My Final Challenge

It’s day 30, I had just finished an epic short story yesterday and needed something new to write for my final day (complete the 30 day writing streak).

So in the NaNoWriMo Yorkshire region, we have our own series of WOTD, with two options presented every day, an easy option, and a challenging option.

So what better final challenge for my 30th day straight of writing? Use them all in a single short story. It seems a sufficiently difficult challenge, but I know others have done it before.

Here are the words that must be included:

Crowd	Crow	Alternate
Liminal	Abate	Hegemony
Frame	Snarl	Drive
Obstreperous	Vulpeculated	Charette
Deliberate	Boot	Cup
Internecine	Superfluous	Rime
Genius	Core	Cross
Paradigm	Salutary	Gallimaufry
Bunch	Wound	Rest
Suborn	Nadir	Umbrage
Burn	Kit	Save
Immolate	Pernicious	Sempiternal
Game	shot	Run
Gelid	diffuse	Caissons
Slate	Wear	Crown
Congeries	Succour	Limn
Shift	Chart	Deed
Campestral	Meretricious	Saponification
Miss	Pore	Book
Paroxysm	Jejune	Zenith

And so, I set out with a shaky idea for a story, and have spent a few hours today writing it, it was slow going – people are clearly not speaking plain English, and in some places it’s a little forced. However, it is done. Complete. Challenge done.

And now I’m going to share it – it is unedited, served a purpose, and missed the mark of my original intention, (was going to make it feel like an 80’s comedy, and it went in a whole other direction, and I forgot the funny). But this is proof, that all those words can fit into a single story, (and warning it’s 5.282 words long):

NaNoWriMo 2019: I Drink From the Goblet of Victory!

Erm… so yes. I won. 5 days, I achieved the challenge I set myself. I’ve beaten my best over time by 5 days.

I win.

I’m a little giddy, and excitced, and over the moon. I don’t mean to be a dick, because I do realise how stupid a 5 day NaNoWriMo is, but I also needed this challenge.

And for the hard work I’ve earned this:

My gin goblet of victory, a healthy measure of Malfy’s Sicilian Blood Orange gin, and tonic, with ice. But please do drink responsibly.

I was going to look up some author’s cocktails, and celebrate that way – but There was nothing I fancied, so I did my own thing instead. Been saving this gin for a while, and it is lovely. If you are drinking, drink responsibly, and from my experience, writing drunk “to get through writer’s block”, or for “inspiration” rarely actually works.

So anyway, I’ve not been this happy and excited in a long long time, so I’m not going to say anything meaningful, other than thanks to the NaNoYorkshire goes, who’s regular sprints, kind and support words have brought me to where I am.

I’ve just said I’ll never do this again… but four days is only 12,500 words, I could manage that, though NaNo does start on a Sunday next year , so that’d be three days off work. Will see – I’ll admit five days was a tough hall, and actually tiring.

So yes, I won. Yes I’m super happy. No I’m not done, the story itself needs finishing, there’s a couple of chapters missing that need filling in, and a lot of detailing work to get to a finished 1st draft. So plenty more words to add to that total yet.

And if you want to see someone that looks ridiculously happy, and exciting and barely able to string a thought together, (even forgetting to put an Hawaiian shirt on, even though that’s a thing he does for every video) – here’s my terrible but hugely happy Vlog for today:

And just because these are for social media and I have done 5 days in a row 😀

Happy writing everyone, no matter what time you do it in, or even if you don’t quite make it to the end of the month with 50k, be proud. You’re doing so much better than those that didn’t bother starting.

Tell your story your way.

My oh my, well it has been a long time…

My last post here was the 31st October, just getting ready for NaNoWriMo 2013. I’d had the ambitious aim of finishing in twenty four hours, but alas, I was a bit ill – quite a bit ill actually, and it waylaid me. Still, I managed a day ten win, so I’m still proud and happy.

A lot has happened in the past eight months, in November I started a new job. A very busy, stressful, demanding, and satisfying job. Lots of travel at the beginning of the year for work, (I’ve racked up something like twenty nights in hotels this year so far). In January I had to move from my home of over a decade, but I now have a two bedroom back to back all to my lonesome, and it’s nice, if a little too quiet at times. Both new and old friends have been coming and going, each bringing those indelible marks onto my life, the little changes, the memories, the lessons not to be forgotten.

This is just a synopsis though, you’ll have to wait twenty years for the biography, because all that life stuff isn’t what this blog is for. No, this is blog is for the writing. If I were to look at my life and say what label I would most like to be identified with, it would be ‘Writer’.

Of course writers write. Being published, even read, that’s irrelevant. Writers write. That’s the only thing that defines a writer. I write stories, that’s me. Despite everything going on, I’ve actually been doing that. Had a few false starts, that are now doomed to the dusty and neglected corner of my mind labeled “For future use”, but there’s one that’s fast forming a story that I’m quite proud of. It’s post apocalyptic zombie stuff, so hardly original, and somewhat dated with the zombie fetishism rapidly vanishing from fashion, but I’m enjoying writing it, and it has clever touches.

I’ve been reading a lot too, I’m practically devouring novels at the moment, but it’s helping me form my ideas for NaNoWriMo 2014. A nice big epic story to achieve my highest November word count yet, and of course another attempt at the one day 50k.

What else is happening? Well the post apocalyptic zombie novel should be finished this month. This July I’m banning myself from social media, (I don’t count blogging), no TV binges on Netflix, LoveFilm, et al, just four hours a week to watch films, healthy diet, exercise, chores being done, and the rest of my free time being taken up with writing and reading. I’m going to be highly productive this month, starting with finally updating here.

Will be pulling more interesting stuff together as well, rather than just recaps of my life, (because there’s enough replays around with this World Cup nonsense).

So watch this space.

Daily Flash Fiction Challenge 30: Shooting Stars

This is the 30th in a series of 365 Flash Fiction stories I’m writing. You can find out more about the challenge here.

Shooting Stars, by Jonathan L. Lawrence, 31st December 2012

Word count: 602

Theme: holidays, disasters, time of your life, winning

The story:

Travel the world they said.

See amazing sights. Experience new things.

Yeah, right!

George was currently digging through a pile of mud looking for a key. It had been one disaster after another, repeatedly.

So far he’d been arrested in France, apparently he looked just like a French thief, it was two days, and heavy leaning by the consulate, before they were finally convinced his Britishness wasn’t feigned.

In Italy he’d tripped over a rug in Vatican city, knocking over a lamp in the process, which set fire to a wall hanging, which turned out to be three hundred and eight seven years old. Again, he was arrested, but finally they had to acknowledge that the cleaners hadn’t put the rug back properly the morning of the incident.

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