Hi! Any London writers here?

I did NaNoWriMo twice, years ago.  I've thought about doing it this year, but it probably won't happen.  I'll have to see how things go with school.

Maybe around the beginning of September when people start arriving for school, we can plan some sort of meetup?  I hope to be in London around the end of August.

I've been considering doing NaNoWriMo for the last few years, but I haven't done it because I just don't think I'd have time to get the words written. My writing has been slow for the past few months and I'm barely managing 5,000 words in a month, let alone 50,000!

I've done it before and I think the furthest I got was about 38,000 words. It's surprising how much you can write in a month, though, I wouldn't have thought I could churn out even that much. I like NaNo because it's just so...crazy. Everyone knows the writing will be crap, so the point is just to get it out there and you can worry about polishing later. (An acquaintance of mine is rewriting his NaNo from last year, in fact.)

Of course, I've been contemplating all day what I'd write about, and I have a vague hint of a story idea but nothing remotely fleshed out/interesting. Sigh.

I've been tempted to do the NaNo but most of the time I get too busy with edits or the like. The word count isn't the issue as most times I can knock out about 3k in about an hours time. For now I'm concentrated on polishing this new manuscript and working on my query letters and synopsis. Then it is off to the agents they go

Maybe if I can get those out on time I'll try NaNo this year, if not I'll still be writing anyway. Need to finish up a series for my publisher or they tend to glare at me!

I've been writing fiction regularly for about 5 years - mostly modern/romance/chick-lit style stuff. I would love to publish a novel one day, but I'm not sure I can write something worthy of publishing (I don't usually admit it, but I actually write online fanfiction, so I'm a bit nervous to try to write a proper original novel)

I'm in the same FF closet, so you're not alone.   

I've been contemplating returning to Uni to get a degree and coincidentally have just recently decided to apply for next year's term to get a BA in English and Screen Studies.  I have loads of ideas for original stories, it's just sitting down to express them, or let them run their course. 

If I were in or near London, I'd ask to join, but I'm too far away.  I hope the writing group gets up and running!

I have been thinking about writing a novella. A young lady is put in the position where she must have someone killed and she hires this mysterious handsome assassin, who turns out to be a vampire. She of course falls for him. He is tormented by his dark deeds.

Pure crap really but vampires are hot now and I don't think anyone has approached the subject from the assassin angle....

But thinking the whole vampire thing may have peaked out a bit.....

I have been thinking about writing a novella. A young lady is put in the position where she must have someone killed and she hires this mysterious handsome assassin, who turns out to be a vampire. She of course falls for him. He is tormented by his dark deeds.

Pure crap really but vampires are hot now and I don't think anyone has approached the subject from the assassin angle....

But thinking the whole vampire thing may have peaked out a bit.....

Aw, you never know until you actually write it out.  Sometimes you just need to write it out to see how it goes.  Sometimes it changes from your original thought as you write it.

Speaking of Vampires being hot right now:  http://comics.com/get_fuzzy/2010-08-11/     And they've been more or less daily since then.

"Tabbitha slept fitfully. The sheer white curtains of the balcony door billowed into the room on the soft Parisian breeze. The moonlight fell upon her soft cheek and the gentle movement of her breasts. Something stirred. Or did it? Was this a dream, another episode in her nightly festival of doubt? She thought of Atlanta, of the life she left behind, and then abruptly of Sergei, the Russian oligarch who had stolen her family's honor, and to whom she had sworn a terrible revenge – death.

But there again, that sound. The soft rub of shoe on tile. She looked then, and he was there. There with the moonlight, with the spire of Notre Dame behind him, heaven and hell intertwined - as pale and thin as Michelangelo's David. Could this be Bram, her hired vampire assassin? Her breasts heaved suddenly, a feeling of terror deep within her soul, but mingled with a feeling she had long ago locked tightly away, desire." 

But thinking the whole vampire thing may have peaked out a bit.....

It depends on how quickly you get that novella out there, but yes, you've possibly missed the peak. However, that shouldn't stop you from writing anything! There's always been a market for vampire stories - it's just that the market is a lot bigger (and younger) at the moment than it used to be!
From what I've heard, the next big craze is going to be angels. (I know... vampires to angels ) Still wondering about that one, but I did hear it straight from a top marketing exec at Random House. We'll see if she's right.

I've heard angels/demons are being overdone as well. Many of the agents I follow on twitter have been swamped. I don't think they know what they want now, save something new and fresh. I'm about to start querying again on a new MS I just finished and fingers are crossed it is a new enough concept to get one.