As you might have noticed, if you have been reading my blog,
it's been over a month since I last posted. I should never wait that long
again. The entire month of November went by with only a single post. Of course
I have lots of reasons. I went out of town for a week. I hosted Thanksgiving
for twenty-five relatives and friends. I had my birthday to celebrate. Life in
general was busy. And of course, November is National Novel Writing Month, and
I was trying to get my word count in and novel written. So because of all the
distractions, I wrote in huge stairsteps...words, then nothing for days, words,
then nothing for days...yes it went like that. Until the last few days when I
realized it was crunch time.
Please, someone remind me to never, ever , EVER attempt to
finish a novel like that again. In order to get my word count, I had about three
hours of sleep in the last 48 hours, and I ended up writing pure narrative of
my story just so I could get it done.
Sad, and perhaps fudging a bit, because I knew it would take
a ton of editing. But I made the 50,000 words, then I slept for 12 hours
straight. And the good thing was, I woke up with the ending in my head and
logical fill-ins for plot holes. So perhaps the narrative was a good idea. It
just came a month too late to be helpful with putting the story in novel form.
I procrastinated and paid the price. And learned my lesson.
I also learned about my writing style, at least about novel preparation. I
think of myself as a pantser, with a basic idea in my head, and then I just
write. However, this month I spent way too much time trying to research parts of my novel, because I admit I don't
know all that much about quantum mechanics/theory. So perhaps deep inside, I do
need to plan, or at least get the research out of the way before I start
writing.
It was especially painful to have to finish that way,
because I really loved the idea of my novel, and I think this one could go
somewhere. I didn't do the poor thing justice. It deserved so much more than
what I managed to throw at it in November.
So my goal, now written and published on this blog, open for
all the world to read (although the number of actual readers is slightly
smaller than the whole world), um, where was I? Oh yes, my goal is to finish
the ending, and to edit all that narrative, and to continue editing until I
have something I feel is good enough to pass around to my trusted writer
friends for input should they want to even read it. Then I will work on it some
more, and later this spring I will publish it. And print it out on CreateSpace
for my five free copies.
And see where it takes me.
Now I've put it all down in writing, so it will really be
difficult to neglect this piece of work. No matter what happens with my
finished novel, I at least want to hold it in my hands, declare it completed,
and go on to the next project. That will be my reward.
Happy Writing!
