Light at the End of the NaNo Tunnel!

 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!