Search the Community

I finished NaNoWriMo! I’m a winner! I feel really happy and accomplished and proud of myself and very happy. Look, I got a certificate and everything! Of course, this doesn’t mean that the novel is finished. Far from it. I’ve mostly finished all the chapters, and mostly done it the way I planned. But this is just a rough draft. Currently, the sequel to Nemesis (the proper title of which will be decided at a later date) is a collection of loose scenes, it feels like. That’s not to say that there isn’t an ongoing story arc and red thread, but It feels very episodic, and there are bits missing to tie the story together. It’s also full of errors (not so much the spelling and grammar kind as the continuity kind), and it’s very bare bones; I’ve written dialogue and the bare minimum of necessary description, and the language is simple and direct. Now comes the bit I like. Now comes the edit. I will read through everything that I’ve written, changing things as I go, fixing everything that doesn’t make sense, adding flourish to the language and detail to the settings, address the needs of characters who were overlooked (Chas needs more lines; Chas is funny). In the coming months, I’ll likely read through this thing a dozen times before I deem it worthy to even be seen by a beta reader. A lot of authors hate the edit. I love it. Just writing was very stressful to me (and I didn’t quite manage to do it; I kept going back, adding bits and taking bits out of what I’d already written), it isn’t the way I usually work. I always edit while I write. Now I get to take this lumpy, crippled piece of fiction and polish it and turn it into art. This is the bit that I enjoy the most. This is the part of writing that I truly love. This is the fun part.

When I write a short story, I usually sit down and write until I'm done. Then I go back, revise, edit, remove stuff, add stuff, read it out loud to myself, fix every minor thing in the dialogue, and then, when I'm happy with it, I'll send it to a beta or an editor, or both. That is my process. When I write a novel, I can't just write until I'm done. I'll write a chapter, go back and read it, polish it, add stuff and take stuff out. Then I'll move on and write the next bit, and maybe do some research for some detail or another (and I need everything to be correct, so my research is meticulous), go back, reread, polish, add stuff, take stuff out. I fact, nearly half my word-count often comes in the editing process, because my rough draft is very stark, often just dialogue and a few tags, the bare minimum of detail and internal monologue so that I know what's going on. I add descriptions, embellish my language, fill out my characters' thoughts and actions, on the first rewrite. When you do NaNoWriMo, you're not supposed to do that. You're just supposed to sit down and write. I have a really hard time doing that. If I manage 2000 words in a day, it's often because I went back and reread and added stuff to previous chapters. At the moment I'm only a tiny bit behind, and I should be caught up by this evening, but I'm not really doing this the NaNoWriMo way. It'll be interesting to see if I make it in the end.

I've been meaning to do NaNoWriMo for years, but I never got around to it. November always seems to be a bad month for me. So when I heard about Camp NaNoWriMo this year, I decided this was my chance. So, in April, I finished and rewrote Nemesis. And I won! I'm sort of giddy and very pleased with myself right now.

*sips tea for throat* What happened during November? Well. I wrote a lot. Okay so let's break it down. I was keeping pretty good on keeping on track with the base amount of words. I did a lot of small things to get started and I continued a few older things that I've been wanting to play with. A list: A Santa Needs a Mate story - 31 chapters in length. I'll post it when I'm done with it. Obscurity: A Morally Grey Harry Potter story. I need to reread the first 20 chapters to take notes and fill out information but I'm working on it. Never a Spare: A What If Harry Potter story. I did some filler chapters for the first arc of this story. A Naruto Time Travel fic. No idea where I'm going with this. Another Naruto fanfic. I know where I'm going with this one. Yep, I focused on a lot of fanfiction. I've been rewriting Bad Dog, which is a Comedy-Horror fiction that is book 1 in a series. I had issues with it, but now I'm doing better with it so I kind of haven't been focusing on the fanfic the way my mind wants me to. Fanfiction is a happy place for me mentally since I don't have to build a world for my characters. So outside of the writing, what happened? I was sick for most of the month. It was come and go for the cold but it was there. The first week was all about the shopping for things. That was fun. Really. The second week was foggy and I spent most of it wording very slowly with one or two days of good words. Week 3 was wonderful and I hit my word count hard and fast. The last week was all about thanksgiving prep and relaxing. I did enjoy my day of turkey though. It was delicious and relaxing. I am now hopefully able to get away from real life and spend some time on playing catch up with some stories and other people. ❤️ Hugs and loves all of you! Also, yes, I won! I hit 50K on the 27th between making bread and skinning yams.

Is anyone going to tackle NaNoWriMo this year? I'm considering it, since I have a student intern till mid December, so I'll have time during the day to work on it. Any suggestions from those who have participated in the past?

I couldn't find a thread for this anywhere, so I'll start! This year I've joined the NaNoWriMo, anyone else? I need to add buddies to feel loved and worth something *grin* Also, place your widget here!