Well, it's that NaNo time of year again and as I won't have as much time for NaNo this year as I did last year, I've chosen to finish last year's book instead of starting the sequel like I planned.

So the aim this year is the standard 50,000 words but I didn't write anything on days 1 and 2 which wasn't a great start :P

But I'm off the mark now, albeit now behind schedule.

Word Count Target: 5,000
Current Word Count: 1,814

Well, I went through a lot of titles during the month of NaNoWriMo and I never settled on any one of them. I haven't started writing the book again yet but my mind is heading that way and the latest title I have thought of I think makes it sound classy, if somewhat misleading as to where it's set. How to people like the title:
Les Mort-Vivants

????? Any good?

Well, it's been a while but with my major cross-stitch project about to finish, I'll be picking the zombie novel back up!

Word count currently stands at 77,312 and I reckon the end will probably be at about the 100k mark.

Encouragement and comments very very welcome. And any preference on the title and/or new title suggestions also much appreciated!

I made it! After 27 days of relentless novelling I have managed to acheive 75,000 words! I rewarded myself with some puzzling time and a beer here in Budapest and I feel happy with the world now :)

Shame my story doesn't feel like it's near the finish yet :/




New Word Count Target: 62,500
Current Word Count: 72,249

Today has been a much better writing day. I got up early enough that by writing before and after breakfast, I managed to get nearly a thousand words under my belt before the day started. Not much different to yesterday where I had managed just over 800 though. The difference today was that we finished with Romania at about 2pm and headed for the airport for the 4pm flight. Although I didn't do any writing whilst waiting or when on the plane, the difference was that I wasn't tired when I arrived at the hotel in Budapest, and it was only 6pm. Great! Decided to meet for dinner at 8pm so that gave me two solid hours of writing to plough through!!
Naturally, by the time I finished procrastinating, I actually had about 45 mins of solid writing to plough through but when I wasn't tired and I was raring to go, that was a good 45 mins. Coupled with writing a little more after the meal and I have managed to write a nice 2605 words today. Meaning I'm now less than 2500 words away from my massive 75k target!!!

I'd love to be able to say that one more day of writing will round off my story nicely and I'll have finished my book in a nice 75k package, but sadly not. The time has come where I'm going to have to start skipping chapters to get to the end before November is up. The problem with that is that I don't know how my characters are going to progress in the meantime until I've written their story, so I can't just pop into the future and write an ending as I need the characters' journeys to be able to know their destination.

This could be tricky!

New Word Count Target: 65,000
Current Word Count: 72,608

Well, as expected before I left, I have suffered from a lack of time here in Romania.
I practically put matchsticks in my eyes to keep me awake long enough to reach 70k and it was a hard slog to get there. I managed it though, although it's well below my usual daily word count at only 1772.

I'm travelling to Budapest from Bucharest today so I'm hoping to get more written, but the flight is only about an hour and they're serving some food in that time as well so I'm not sure how much time I'll have.

New Word Count Target: 62,500
Current Word Count: 70,003

An awful lot of travelling today but surprisingly little time in that to be able to write. Very disappointing.

I couldn't connect to the internet at the hotel and, determined not to ruin my perfect looking chart in a slightly OCD way I had Tim log onto my NaNo account from home and update my word count! Despite being tired and working late, I still managed a word count hitting 2500! (2512 to be precise)

New Word Count Target: 60,000
Current Word Count: 68,231

Today was a very busy day, from finishing off my soft toy for an Operation: Sleeper Cell mission, having Jo round to take photos for the missions, cooking 3 shepherd's pies for Tim for while I'm away, cooking a roast and packing, I'm amazined I managed to fulfil my word count!

By 4:30pm I had finished the shepherd's pies and it was all my willpower to shut myself away for 2 hours until I'd written 2500 words (or 2516 as I actually managed) but I did it. All in one sitting which is madness for me. I never manage more than 1000-1500 in one sitting normally. I don't think I've ever written that much in one sitting before, and as always when you have a lot to do, the time ran away and two hours felt more like twenty minutes, but I did it. Phew.

It's off on the work travelling tomorrow and I hope I can manage many many words in my travelling - though the opposite could well happen of course :/

I may not be able to blog every day when I'm staying in hotels but I'll do my best, even if it's just to quickly update on the word count.

New word count target: 57,500
Current word count: 65,719

First thing I did this morning was sit and write 1000 words. It took me an hour and a half to write that much which is longer than usual for me as I usually write about 500 words in half an hour on average. I then sat on that total all day as the motivation to write had completely left me. By about half past seven I still had the tea to make and I was just about resigning myself to having only had a 1000 word day.
Laura though managed to persuade me that I could rattle off at least another 500 words once I'd finished watching Merlin and I'd eaten... once I shut myself away with the laptop and a determination to hit that word count once again, I managed to emerge an hour later on a word count total for the day of 2503! Hurrah!!!! Thanks Laura!

New word count target: 55,000
Current word count: 63,203

It has struck me today that the way I've planned my story to end can't really happen at the moment and I haven't built in the means to the end into what's happened so far in the book.
I wanted the book to end with a face-off of my motley crew against my villain.  I haven't mentioned my villain once yet and my characters haven't looked into who has been responsible at all.
Maybe I should make a sequel which goes into all that as I'm fnding that my story is going to be pretty long (compared to the nano 50k target) without that element.  Maybe my hero's current aim of saving his family should be the end of my story this time...  the sequal could then have them finding the man responsible which would kind of make sense.  It depends on how long I want to keep writing post-November really!
I thought I'd sufficienty planned out the general story before I started but I haven't really thought about how my ex-cop hero would know who the villain was to go after him!

Decisions, decisions...


New word count target:  52,500
Current word count:       60,700

After bouncing between three different sets of characters in three different chapters for a few days, I finally nailed all three of them!  hurrah!
I can move on with my chapters in order again now.

I've picked up my new character Joe again for my next chapter, I'm curious as to what he's doing and where he's going  :)

I also wrote a great scene into my book today - something I've never seen in a zombie movie but was so gross I'd love to see it made in a film  :P

New word count target:  50,000
Current word count:       58,097

The temptation once you hit 50k is to relax and drop off the wordcount.  Especially when you're 3 days head of your 75k target and you spend the evening off at aquafit!

I haven't succumbed to the temptation though and I have steadfastly still been hitting my 2500 minimum words, which I'm actually even more proud of myself for than the feat of hitting 50k in just 17 days.

Today I've written nothing but my new character Joe and his escape from the zombie attacked prison which was fun and it was nice to delve into a new character.


New word count target:  47,500
Current word count:       55,341

Now I'm over the 50k hill I've gone a little crazy today - I started (and didn't finish) three different chapters, all from different viewpoints.  One of them being the introduction of a new character I planned before I started writing - Joe Wheeler, a conman in gaol when the zombies attack the prison.... I have no knowledge to base my prison writing on but. meh, I'll do my best!

This excerpt is from the end of Chapter Twelve:

The Reverend barely had time to glance around him for the door, which he saw to his right with the trolley and Tommy close to it, when he felt a hard grip on his shoulder and the sick woman bearing down upon him.  His instincts took over then and he kicked the woman in the stomach which knocked her back a little, at which point he then dropped the girl gently to the floor, used both hands on the plank and all his strength to hit the sick woman around the head with the wood.  The sound it made was the horrible sound of a skull crushing and a neck breaking.  The woman fell to the floor and the Reverend scooped the girl up once more; she had burst into tears at some point but he only just noticed now.  They started to move towards the door when the Reverend felt a hand grip his ankle.  He looked down and the woman was there, with part of her head caved in, unable to stand but still animated enough to be holding on to him.

New word count target:  45,000
Current word count:       52,591

Woohoo!!!!!  I'm a winner baby!!!!   50,000 words, I am officially awesome today!

/me bows



New word count target:  42,500
Current word count:       50,024!

Today I was exhausted.  So exhausted I feel on the brink of illness, so writing has been a real struggle.

I've forced myself though and I managed 2,866 words so I got to where I wanted to be still and I'm still ahead of target.

On Friday at work whilst I was sat at 38,661 words, Dana challenged me to hit the 50k on Monday (tomorrow).  I laughed at this concept at the time as 11.5k seemed like far too much to achieve in 3 days, but a concerted effort on Friday before hitting the pubs and making sure I've kept my act together over the weekend means that 50k is now so close I can taste it.  3287 more words to hit that landmark number, the milestone, the target.  3287 more words to become an official winner!

One last push ot get me there but the energy levels are fallling, the plot is getting trickier and every word is harder to squeeze out.  I don't know how much longer I can keep this pace up for but I'm going to keep on at my target as I don't know how much I'll be able to write when I'm away with work from a week tomorrow.

New word count target:  40,000
Current word count:       46,713

It's halfway day!!   Today, thousands of NaNoers struggle to try and make it to a massive 25,000 words by the end of the day.  Frankly if they've made it to 20,000 by the end of the weekend then they've done a fantastic job and they're well on course to becoming winners.

Today also marks the end of Week Two which is notoriously the tricky week when you spent the first week inventing characters and fun things to do to them but then you find you need to fit that together into something which has a tangible plot!

Happily, I'm a long way past that 25,000 word target by the end of today.  Almost 20,000 words ahead of that target in fact!   I went to a write-in at a Camden pub today which was interesting.  There was something like 25 people there and I was happy to say I had the highest wordcount - 42k as it stood at the time (though someone was very close with 40k!).  I didn't find the time very productive though as there were too many people talking which stopped me from concentrating a lot of the time - I had to put in placeholders for a few things and write them properly when I got home.  I didn't leave the pub till I'd not only completed my word count but topped that up to 43k as well with some more written once I got home.  That meant the overall word count today was pretty good and I finally managed to work out how my chapter 13 and chapter 14 were going to cross over which made me very happy!  I've picked up some children along the way though which makes me less happy - children are awkward, you can't just dispose of them the same way you can normal characters.

I'm having a little downtime now as I realised just how exhausted I've made myself recently - I dind't even have the energy to cook risotto for tea!  :(

New word count target:  37,500
Current word count:       43,847

Mega short post as I'm back from Suzy's birthday drinks and rather drunk!

I made a concerted effort to write lots of words this morning as I knew I was going out tonight and I managed a whopping 2380 words by the time I started work this morning!!!!
I then managed to write some more after work before heading towards the alcohol and racked up a total of 3,944 words - so close to 4k!!

More importantly, I broke the 40k barrier.   In normal NaNo terms this is now the home straight, the bit where the whole story comes together and it's oh so easy.  In my book though, the action is just revving up!   I'm 2 days ahead of  my 75,000 word target though and I'm still really pleased to be writing it every day  :)

Can I get a whoop whoop?

New word count target:  35,000
Current word count:       40,225

Phew, long day.  I had a birthday card for my friend to finish making, which just the finishing of took all evening!  I wanted to get some words written tonight as I'm out for her birthday tomorrow night - no usual commute home leaves me worried I won't hit the usual word count tomorrow.  I have a cushion of course but it isn't a very large one, well, not large enough I don't think!

Anyway, today I incorporated Jo's request from this blog for a zombie cat.

Here it is, from Chapter Twelve:

He wasn’t feeling peace now though; he was jumpy at any sound or any tiny movement at the corner of his vision.  There was one moment when Bill jumped and swung the plank around wildly, almost hitting Robbie with it as he did so.  When they identified the source of the noise that had startled him, it turned out it was only a cat.  As the other two walked off, the Reverend looked a bit closer at the cat and saw it had a big gash out of the side of it, like it had been bitten by a much larger animal.  The eyes looked strange as well, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on why; they were yellow like you would expect a cat’s eyes to be but they weren’t the usual attentive and alert eyes you usually see peering out at the world.  They way it moved was the strangest thing about this cat though.  It didn’t strut along with perfect balance like cats usually do, it was more of a plod than the strut and it certainly didn’t demonstrate good balance as it wobbled as it walked a few times, the tail dragging along the floor instead of weaving around creating balance where there was none.  The Reverend put this cat’s strange behaviour down to the fact it had obviously been injured and he caught up to his other two companions, praying for the cat a speedy recovery.

New word count target:  32,500
Current word count:       36,281

Today I took the decision to change the aim of the NaNo month for me.  I'm storming the word count so much, that I think I need to change the word count target to something more challenging to really push myself.

Therefore, Daisy's NaNoWroMo aim is to write a 75,000 word novel in a month!!!!!

All target's I list from now on will be updated for this new target so please wish me luck in this even more huge undertaking!!

New word count target:  30,000
Current word count:       33,645

Is it really only Day 11?  I'm feeling a little exhausted from writing to be honest.  I decided to write a chapter from a new character's perspective today to keep things fresher for me, and presumably for 'the reader' as well.  That's an interesting concept of 'the reader' as inevitably any readers of this novel are going to be friends and family, and so all will be biased to like it which is nice.  But also, people who know me reading a book I wrote, it feels a bit like they're seeing a level of me that would otherwise stay completely hidden.  A side that I don't even necessarily know myself.
Last year I really surprised myself when my bad buy ended up a lot darker than I ever planned or expected him to be and I was physically shaken after I wrote a 3000 word rape scene.  What did that say about me?  What other hidden sides are there to me that would only come out through writing a work of fiction?  Does writing a novel at such a rapid pace force out more of me that I would otherwise show or does the relentless wordcount requirement mean I pretend to be someone else to write so furiously?

Anyway, the novel.  All I worked on today was Chapter Ten, which takes the point of view of a vicar in Peterborough.  He's a vicar who hasn't had a completely traditional background though, but that hasn't been revealed yet ;)

Excerpt from Chapter Ten:

At about twenty to nine, a young man dressed in a suit burst through the doors of the church.  His suit had been ripped and his left shoulder was covered in blood as his left arm hung limply at his side.  The packed church gasped as he came through the door clumsily, followed by a strong gust of wind which blew a scattering of leaves into the church as well.

The man came into the church a few paces and then fell to his knees on the cold, stone floor.  He put his right hand down on the floor in front of him to take his weight and he cried out in pain and anguish.

Word count target:  18,333
Current word count: 31,018

Today... I rock!!

I had written about 1500 words by the time I got to work, 2500 by the time I got home and then I went off to my local write-in.  It was so nice meeting other people doing NaNo as well, AND they're really local which is great!

Lots of chatting and a few words later and wouldn't you know it, I've written over 4000 words in one day!   I have 11.5k word cushion on the intented target now!

So many words, I can hardly write this blog, so do forgive me for this being a short and sweet (but very jubilent) entry!

I ROCK!!!


Word count target:  16,667
Current word count: 28,231

Well, the write-in was a complete failure.  I arrived at 2:15 to find that there was some bloke with an electric guitar crooning with a bunch of people sat round watching him.  There was someone with a cashbox guarding the entrance with a sign asking for £3 'donation' for the music.  I peering inside and saw no-one with a laptop and didn't fancy trying to write through the sound of the strangled melodies of one man and his dog and so I turned around and went home.  *sigh*

I forced myself to hibernate in the bedroom whilst I tried my own solo write-in at home and eventually managed to hit the 24k word count I was aiming for today!  w00t!

I haven't posted an excerpt in a while so here is the start of Chapter Eight:

Finsbury Park station stood in front of them with every available space approaching the station filled with people.  Everyone seemed to be shouting at each other and pushing each other, although this wasn’t helping the crowd at all.  People were scared and they needed to feel like they were doing something; it was the helplessness of the situation which led to people squabbling with the person next to them for no reason at all.

Brian, Jed and Amber approached the crowd, exhausted from so much walking and desperate to know they were doing something to get out of London.  Before they really knew it, they were in the midst of the crowd, though how they became completely surrounded by people Brian wasn’t quite sure.  Feeling a little trapped, he eyed the people around his suspiciously; none of them looked ill so Brian surmised they were safe here, and in actual fact this was probably a time when there was indeed safety in numbers, a statement he didn’t usually agree with due to the stupidity of ‘people’ contrary to the intelligence of a ‘person’.

Word count target:  15,000
Current word count: 24,056

Well, not a good start to the day as I woke up with a hangover (can't think why).  I did have an excellent night last night though.  Unfortunately I didn't gain any inspiration or insights for the story during my night of drunken gossip and dancing but I think I needed to let my hair down as I've been working pretty hard on this book so far (as evidenced by my awesome word count total!)

20,000 words whizzed past today though we did stop for a chat when I dozed off at my laptop when I was trying to write earlier.

Brian just picked up some weaponry so I'm hoping things will hot up soon, though it's still going to be the following day for my hero before the zombies reanimate and start devouring human flesh!

I'm going to my very first NaNo write-in tomorrow.  I've no idea if it will work for my or not so I'm going to give it a try (and conveniently go for lunch at Jo's place first, so my lack of socialising except for fri & sat nights and the gym will be broken sneakily hehehe)

Word count target:  13,333
Current word count: 21,396

Quick post today as I'm currently getting ready for a girl's night out!   A well deserved night out I feel after I have once again surpassed 2,500 words!!

I felt quite strange today as I have handed over my manuscript to Dana, Seb, Mitesh AND Michelle in the office :/   It's a first draft and it's only half way through Chapter Six at the point of handing over.  This could make or break my morale...

Anyway, I'm off to party now!


Word count target:  11,667
Current word count: 18,870

I've managed to reach 2500 words again today but I was falling asleep on the train on the way home so I can't guarantee the quality there!!  Ah well, that's what the editing process is for isn't it  ;)

Gemma has just been watching the progress of the 'plague' in Edinburgh...

Gemma turned to look at the television as well and couldn’t believe what she was seeing.  The ticker at the bottom of the screen was reporting very bad news.

BREAKING NEWS: Mystery illness hits Edinburgh and London.  Medical experts baffled by the results.  Police state deliberate attack hasn’t been ruled out.

 

The pictures were showing the scenes from a helicopter in Edinburgh.  Gemma gasped as she saw how many people surrounded the obviously full hospital, with every inch of ground filled with bodies and abandoned cars.

Word count target:  10000
Current word count: 16285

Today I sailed past 12,500 words, an important landmark as that is a quarter of the 50,000 word count!

Chapter four finished fairly undramatically, although a new charater called Amber did make her introduction, with a scream!  She's female, annoying and unplanned so I don't fancy her chances  ;)

I had gym tonight so less words written than I would have liked as all the words have come from the commute today but I've still managed over 2500  :)

Word count target:    8333
Current word count: 13751

I usually post at the end of the day, giving myself a big pat on the back for doing so well, so expect another entry (or an edit to this one if I can see how to do that) by the end of the day as I'll be watching 10,000 words fly past me on the way home tonight as I currently stand at 9,267 words!

I just had to share that I was so wrapped up thinking about my novel as I got off the train this morning that I tried to beep through the barriers using my work pass.... then when I got to work, someone asked me how I am and I really had to think as to what my plan was to get out of London before the zombies re-animated as to how I actually am, before remembering that's not me it's happening to and had to decide that I am, in fact, good.

I don't care if the novel I write ends up being crap because it's only day four but the zombies have arrived and I'm LOVING writing this book!

Excerpt from the very end of Chapter Three:

The camera on the helicopter started to zoom in as there was a wave of fast movement spreading through the crowd.  When the camera was close enough to see what was happening, it was worse than anything Brian could have ever prepared himself to see.  The pale, lifeless bodies of the sick were all beginning to stand and were grabbing the healthy people around them and biting flesh from their bodies.   The people were so tightly packed in that they didn’t have a chance against them as the sick surrounding them on the ground all began to rise and attack.

EDIT:
It's now the end of the day and I stormed well past the 10,000 word barrier and went right on through to 11,000.  And to think, this time last year I was only just hearing what NaNoWriMo is!

Word count target:    6667
Current word count: 11215

Wow, I'm on fire.  Just over 3000 words today!  And I'd written nearly half of that by the time I arrived at Moorgate station this morning.

I've just finished Chapter Three with our hero seeing pictures on the news of the first zombies in Edinburgh while the sick are filling London around him.

He now knows he needs to get out of London and he knows he needs to get moving FAST!


Word count target:  5000
Current word count: 8205

Well as NaNo has started on a weekend this year, I thought I'd better try and get a decent amount of words under my belt to start me off with a bang.  I've managed that so there's hope for the book  :)

Yesterday I finished Chapter One and introduced Brian Maloney (who I have probably already misspelt as Brain a few times) with his dull security job and unfulfilled ambitions.
Today, I finished Chapter Two, in which our hero Brian starts to hear of a mystery illness which started off in Edinburgh but then seems to be striking down members of staff in the supermarket he works in.

Excerpt from Chapter Two:

They loaded up Jake and they had just picked him up when the shutters at the large main entrance suddenly shook with a monstrously loud noise; someone was shaking and hitting the shutters.

‘Aaarrrrgghh’ came the noise from whoever was outside.  The group had all jumped at the sudden, unexpected noise and Nigel had nearly dropped his side of the stretcher holding Jake.

‘What’s that?’ Nigel asked with a quiver in his voice.

‘Can someone go and find out while we keep on moving Jake?’ Brian asked, addressing the whole group.  Everyone just looked back at him without moving a muscle. ‘Someone?  Anyone?’ he asked again.

‘Erm… why don’t you go and look?’ piped up one of the back room boys.

‘Fine’ said Brian, putting the stretcher down.  ‘There’s nothing to be worried about, the rest of us are all ok aren’t we?’  He walked over to the shutter which was still shaking and banging.

‘Aaarrrrgghh’ he heard again from the other side of the shutters.

‘Hello?’ he called out through the shutters.

‘Aaarrrrgghh’ came the reply.

‘Is someone there?  We’ve had to close the store’ Brian called out through the shutter again.

‘Aaarrrrgghh’ came the reply again.  ‘Why are you closed?  I need some medicine for my wife!’  The group in the store breathed an audible sigh of relief though Brian didn’t understand what they could have been expecting that they could be scared of; it was obviously someone who wanted to come in.


Word count target:  3333
Current word count: 5108

Here we are, it has arrived.  The magical journey has started.

I was at a Hallowe'en party at Toby & Clare's house when the clock struck midnight and NaNoWriMo began.   I sat with the group as I finally allowed my vague idea for a first line take form on the page and that was it, 30 minutes after midnight, my book had begun.

By the time I went to sleep I had the first paragraph written, all 128 words of it.  Not a lot but reassuring as I drifted off to sleep that I had made a start, I no longer had a blank page in front of me.

By the time I write this (approx 7pm) I have already finished the first chapter and made a start on the second one.  I've actually put it down just before my main character hears the first tiny bit of news which will of course become the zombie outbreak.

As a note, I have a list of possible titles for my novel which I can't decide between, and so every day will have a different title.  If you like any one in particular, leave me a comment to let me know!

Day One, meet Brian Maloney.  He's an ex-cop stuck in a dead end job.  His girlfriend left him and he barely speaks to anyone anymore.  He thinks his life is going to always consist of the same day repeated over and over.... he's wrong!

Word count target:  1667
Current word count: 2262

It's now the last day before the rollercoaster ride that is NaNoWriMo begins...

I've got my character biographies for my main hero and my villain (yes it's a zombie novel but it has a villain)

I've got a an idea of who my main band of heroes is going to consist of (with names!)

I've got an idea of how the book is going to start.

I've got laptop ready, a kick-off meet up to go to tomorrow and a Hallowe'en party in York tonight to get me into the mood.

Lastly, I've got a 2 hr train journey to York today to come up with the last ideas and to try and think of a good ending (something I was lacking last year and therefore I have an unfinished (but longer than 50,000 words) novel lying around just waiting for a good ending).

I'm going to aim for the novel to actually be about 50,000 words this time as well, instead of being about halfway through the story when I reach 50,000 like I was last year.

Wish me luck!!

Wow, is it really only 2 days to go?

Today I pretty much settled on my zombies being classic shambling zombies.  I couldn't write a zombie novel any other way when it comes to the crunch.  I mean you think zombie and you see the vacant look, the dragging foot and you hear the telltale "Uuurrrggh"   I was really excited at the thought of writing running zombies, but they just wouldn't feel like zombies to me then.  There is something terrifying about the slow but eternally relentless approach of the shambling zombie...  It's inevitable that you will be ripped apart...eventually.

I have debated how I should spell "uuurrrgggh" but I think that is my final spelling.  I never thought I'd have to spend days thinking about how to spell a zombie noise... strange but it feels like I was meant to do this.

I've also been thinking about what weapons can come to hand to your average person when facing a zombie.  Could even a newspaper be turned into a weapon, enough just to slow down a zombie to allow escape?

If you've ever wanted to see a particular ordinary item used as a weapon in a zombie attack, please leave a comment!!

Three days to go and today has mostly been about names.   I've been creating a list of random character names so that I can grab one whenever a new character presents itself in my story - a lesson I learnt from last year that I'm really not very good at thinking up names under pressure.  I then end up putting in placeholders for their names and it throws me off my flow a bit.   So this year I'm armed.

I've already got my main character names which I'll hold off revealing for now.   If anyone has a good (or cheesy) character name they'd like to see in it, leave me a comment  :)

I'm still debating shambling zombies versus running ones....   the drama of the running zombies is second to none really, and given that my zombies will be caused by a virus then it makes sense that they could move fast.   The purist in me wants the slow shamble of impending doom though (and easy escapes for my characters)   I also wonder how good I'm actually going to be at writing the drama of a heart-pounding chase escaping from running zombies....  :/

Today I've been trying to be organised by doing some research before I start writing.

Things I've researched today included:
Prisons between London and Newcastle
Nearest Gun store and Hardware store to Camden
Terminology in the clergy
How trains work and how to drive them.   I haven't found about about the how to drive them part yet though

More successfully I've been brainstorming (or should that be braaaaains-storming) names, for characters I've already thought of and a list of random names to pick from for all the characters I haven't thought of yet - I hate having to use placeholders in the text instead of names; it makes it much less natural to write.

I still can't decide if my zombies should run or shamble though.....  Any opinions welcome!

So I'm going to try this blogging malarky for NaNoWriMo this year.  Maybe it'll help keep me sane throughout the month of madness.  Maybe I'll be the only person who reads it.  Maybe I'll get to like this blogging thing or maybe I'll find it just isn't for me.

Let's find out!

So far I'm gathering ideas and filling myself with zombie media in preparation for my first attempt at a zombie novel.  Zombie tv, zombie movies, zombie board games and unfortunately  a failed attempt at a zombie walk as it was tipping down yesterday when it was on.

The big question I'm faced with at the moment is if my zombies will run or shamble....  running zombies much more scary but I want to have my novel be tongue in cheek and I can't help but think that only shambling zombies going "Uuuurrgh" can feature in such a book.

I'm also worried that my descriptions of zombies won't be able to portray the horror accurately, or that I'm to quickly run out of ways of describing zombies...

I achieved one thing today anyway.... my main hero and my evil mastermind now both have names - Brian Maloney and Charles Willoughby.   I like them.    I need to name all the characters I know about before it starts though as I never have time once I'm writing to come up with names, at least I learnt that last year :)

Any ideas anyone has that they've always wanted to see in a zombie story, please leave a comment!