November Conclusion

First of all, apologies for not posting during the entire month. The reason is pretty obvious – I was putting all of my creative energy into finishing NaNoWriMo. And when I wasn’t doing that, I was either doing my masters, trying to keep up with work/social life, and getting ill. Fantastic time to get ill really (but I have medicine from my wonderful doctor now so it should start getting better).

First of all, the big news. I won – I wrote 50,000 words in the month. Yay!

However, this year was really difficult. As you can see, for most of the month I was actually behind where I should have been, and although I caught up at the end, it was difficult to get the words down on the page. Also, the novel I said I was going to write – The Blood Within? That’s didn’t really happen. I got about 10K down on it, and then it just stalled. I couldn’t seem to get it out of my head and onto the page.

So I swapped projects, choosing something which I knew I could get out of my head and write down. It’s probably never going to see the light of day, but it got me writing.

This was actually the first year where I doubted that I could make the 50K. Giving that I’ve been overachieving for a few years now, that was a pretty scary thought. But, I have to remember, that I was doing a lot this year. And actually, managing the 50,000 words alongside everything else that I was doing? Not a bad feat.

So how is the other stuff doing? Well we’ve started the dissertation preparation module in my master’s course, which has me internally screaming every time I have to think about it, but I do think I have an idea for what I want to do, which is a really good start. And I’m mostly on top of that work, which is good.

Work is…well, at least it’s nearly Christmas.

Social life is good, and the tabletop games I’m playing in continue to be excellent. Actually, I’ve been invited to play in a new one that’ll be starting up next year and i’m super excited for that.

The LIFE BOSS hit pretty hard this month. That’s been on and off terrible, but I am getting it sorted out, slowly, but getting there. Stress is a big thing for me at the moment, but I plan on spending December taking things a little easier, and the 365K club comes to a close at the end of the year, so that’s another thing I can take off my plate. That’s actually going pretty well, and I’m sure you’ll hear about that before the end of the year.

So yeah, November was hard, but I am glad that I did it, and I’m super glad that it’s over. December is going to be getting things back on track, back on a steady progress level, rather than the frantic pace it’s been for November. And next year in November, I’ll have finished my degree, so there’ll be more time and brain space for writing epic amounts in a month.

I hope that if you did NaNoWriMo, that the month was rewarding for you, whether you hit the goal or not.

NaNoWriMo 2016 Novel

Okay, so after that marathon post, whittling it down to six, asking everyone I knew for their opinions, getting it down to three, and then spending an inordinate amount of time deliberating over the choice until I realised I’d spent two hours researching one thing on the internet for one of the books and decided that was a level of involvement that meant I should probably write it, I have finally decided which book I shall be writing for NaNoWriMo!

The Blood Within

Dhamphir’s are bad. Everyone know this. What no one can remember is why.

In the centuries since the vampire’s wiped out their half blood cousins, all of the supernatural creatures that roam the earth and the realms beyond have forgotten about them. Even the long lived vampires, the ones who could make them, the ones who killed them, they’ve lost the knowledge to the passage of time.

So when a new Dhampir is born, no one’s quite sure what to do. The most obvious answer is to kill it, but that seems like a waste. Vampires get their powers from the blood of the humans, so what about the blood of a half human, half vampire? Well, that must be a potent thing indeed.

Locked away and raised in isolation, waiting for the time without knowing when, the young Dhamphir has no idea about the herself, her powers, or the outside world. But the outside world knows about her, and it’s grown tired of the millennium long reign of the vampires. Maybe, just maybe, if they can fake her death and pull off a rescue, then they can give her a chance to grow up, a chance to grow into whatever it was that the vampires feared so much.

Of course, there was a time when everyone feared them, and for good reason. They just can’t remember why.

If you don’t recognise that title as being from the master list, that’s because it was called ‘Ghost’ down there. But since Ghost is the nickname of the main character and the book doesn’t actually involve ghosts at all, I thought it needed a change. That’s what I spent two hours on – trying to find an alternative name for the novel. And given I spent that much time finding the new title, I figured that’s probably involved enough to spend the month writing the novel.

And I have so many ideas about it. It’s going to be a huge melting pot of every supernatural creature I can think of, so I get to go make huge long lists of all of those and what powers they might have, because it’s very relevant to the plot. The main character is also going to be interesting to write for reasons I don’t quite want to say because it gives away a lot. Either way, it’s going to be a lot of fun.

And of course the other novels don’t go away just because I’m not writing them. Heck, if I get bored of The Blood Within, or even finish it, then I might explore writing another project. I hope to do much the same as I did last year, giving a weekly update of my progress on the novel and not entirely abandon this blog during November, so I’ll let you know how things are going.

NaNoWriMo 2016 Preparation

October is here! And what does that mean? Countdown to NaNoWriMo!

I mean, there are obviously things going on in October, but for the moment, at least for today, I am concentrating on National Novel Writing Month and the preparation work that comes with it.

So far I’ve logged onto the website, spruced up my author profile, made two different word count spreadsheets, posted on the forums and donated, getting my usual halo around my profile. At least one of the reasons I keep that particular profile picture is because the halo looks really good on it. Also adorable Toothless.

What I haven’t done, which is probably an important part of the process, is choose which novel I am going to write this year.

I’m a classic NaNoer (at least i am this year) so I pick a new novel and write a first draft during this month. That, and having a break from my older projects might help me to go back to them later. Theoretically. But unlike other years, I’ve been thinking a lot about editing and polishing up those older novels I’ve already written, so as of yet, none of the new ideas have jumped out at me.

Novels I currently have on the go: Archmage, Eidetic, Mechanic Awakening, Quiet Poison, Black Dawn.

Black Dawn’s a bit of weird one. I did technically write it for my first ever NaNoWriMo. But that was six years ago now, and it’s terrible, so it’s being restarted. And I’ve not quite gotten around to restarting it properly. I’ve got the first, like, three pages? Okay, the first 5K. So, I’m not sure how much that counts as a current project. However, I know that I have worked on it before, and I kind of want to do something fresh. I think if nothing else gets chosen, I’ll fall back on this, but I would like to do something completely new.

Looking at my writing page, it says I have the current ideas:

• Court of Ice
• Supernatural
• Fading Shifts
• Chaos Mage
• Shadow Rock
• Blank Charm
• DNA Key
• Crossing Realms

In the solid ideas categories are Court of Ice, DNA Key. Slightly less solid would be Fading Shifts, Shadow rock, Blank Charm and Crossing Realms. Supernatural is…complicated and I can’t actually remember what Chaos Mage is, so I’d have to find my notes…okay, so it’s that, but that’s like three lines and not enough to go on. So the first six might be potential ideas.

Having found my master ideas list, there’s a few on there – Pirate, Traitor, Thief of Memories, Fallen Fae, Blood Mage, a dragon idea or two. Blimey, even more in my google docs folder – Firebird, Of Those in Shadow, Ghost, that other project I don’t even have a name for yet. So more potential ideas.

Of course, having an abundance of ideas can be only slightly less complicated than having no ideas at all. Okay, so, I’m going to write out all these ideas, and see which ones I like, and which ones I don’t. Get ready, this is a long list.

Court of Ice – Magic has been outlawed, but when  pressure rises in the south with the threat of a revival of the old ways, Adriana, lady in waiting to the princess, has some choices to make. High politics and intrigue, slight game of throne feel with more magic.

Fading Shifts – Out of all of there races, shapeshifters are the most rare, having been declining in numbers for centuries. But now, the other races are starting to feel the same effects, and are finally taking an interest. But considering there are only three shifters still left, can they find out what’s going on before the race goes completely extinct?

Shadow Rock – Ashley is the heir to the Throne of Darkness, something that hasn’t been up for grabs in four generations. With people trying to take it for themselves from all direction, from murder to marriage, she runs away from it, all the way to America to do what she wants to do. But is it far enough?

Blank Charm – It was only a little something she picked up from a curiosity shop on holiday, but ever since she found that bracelet, strange things keep happening to her, and these people won’t stop following her, but she has no idea if their friend or foe, or even human. As if Kelly didn’t have enough shit to deal with right now.

DNA Key – In the future, everything is controlled by DNA, food allowances, leisure entitlements, even access into buildings. Kaeleigh’s father, an genius scientist, created a master key – something that will allow anyone to get into anywhere, get anything they want. But he’s just been murdered, and now the attention’s on her – does she have the key to finding the key?

Crossing Realms – You might think that the multiverse would be filled with thousands upon thousands of realms, all just overlapping each other, not quite touching. But no, there’s five. Just five, and they’re meant to be quite spread out. So when they edges of the realms start touching, it’s quite a shock, and quite the disturbance to reality as it’s known. Five people, a champion from each of the realms, have a chance to fix what it is that’s going wrong. But there are only five of them, and it’s quite a big task.

Pirate – Meg turned her back on her family and friends ten years ago, but now they need her and her power. The only thing is, she gave up her power when she left, and really doesn’t want to see anyone from her old life

Traitor – Tess has been labelled as a traitor to the crown, why? Because she’s the same as the king – an ancient born again. She and He don’t want anything to do with each other, but the souls that reside inside them want different things, pushing and pulling against each other, whether they want to or not.

Thief of Memories – After losing everything, including her memories, Lara stole everything that she could, including a heart she probably shouldn’t have.

Fallen Fae – Falen doesn’t mind human as much as other Fae, but her refusal to bow completely to the traditions of the court get her banished, and now she has to turn to people that although she doesn’t mind, she doesn’t fully understand or trust.

Blood Mage – Francesca is the daughter of the most powerful blood mage ever, and almost as powerful a blood mage in her own right. The problem is, she’s a rebellious, attention-seeking teen, and does the one thing that she knows will annoy her father more than anything – join up with the army trying to take him down.

Unbounded – A very typical novel where dragon riders ride dragons in protection of the realm. Except one dragon hatches without bonding to a rider, from there’s it’s an uphill struggle to survive, and prove that dragons aren’t just beasts of burdens for the humans to control.

Firebird – An ancient cycle of death, rebirth, a family of hunter fighting agaisnt the forces of darkness. Unfortunately, their souls don’t get to pass on to the afterlife when they die, and the current family is very tired of hearing so many voices all the time. But there might be a chance, to break the cycle forever, with the power of the youngest of the line – the power of wind and flame, the power of the phoenix, the power over rebirth.

Of Those in Shadow – There are acceptable magics, and then there are those that are not. That is the proper way of things, and every person of an educated nature knows this. But Hailey’s spent her entire life being proper, and it always end up with her being overshadowed by her twin Harper. So maybe, just maybe, she can find something that she’s better at, something that she can do that her twin can’t. Even if it isn’t proper, and even if the consequences could get her killed, or worse.

Ghost – Dhampir’s are bad, the older they get, the worse it is. Although no one, not even the long lived vampires, can remember precisely why. So when a Dhampir is born, she’s sequestered away, brought up in isolation, ready for the day when the reigning family can kill her and reabsorb the power back into the line. Except, with help from those disillusioned with the royals, she fakes her death an escapes. Maybe, away from them, the world can find out why exactly the dhampir’s are considered so horrific. If it doesn’t backfire on them first that is…

AS YET UNTITLED – In this world, everyone had that one special creature waiting for them, that one special bond that you search for. And once you’ve found it, that when the adventure really begins. Abigail hasn’t yet found her special bond, but she doesn’t want to let that stop her adventure, and joins up with a group of other teenagers who have recently found their own bonded. In between escapades and travelling, it starts to look like things might not be as they appear on the surface – what is it that Abby is hiding so desperately from the rest of them?

As of yet, writing those out, none of them have yet jumped out at me. There’s a few I think that would be more suitable to write than others, but no decisions as of yet. I think I might sit and stew on it for a while. Worst comes to the worst, I can be a geek and roll a d20 to see which one I write!

NaNoWriMo 2015 – Week 4

Tomorrow (okay, today if you count midnight as the change between days, but I’m more of a measure days by when you sleep kind of girl) is the last day of NaNoWriMo.

How have I done? Not badly. I’ve just hit 73K, which means that it’s only 2,000 more words until 75K. That would be nice to end on. I started this month aiming for 100K, but given the stress and the masters and everything else that has been going on, I’m not going to be too disappointed with 75K

Well, I’m trying to tell myself that. I know that I could have done better, but this month hasn’t been smooth sailing for me. Ups and a lot of downs, illness, exhaustion, balancing acts between trying to do too many things. Hopefully, Decemeber will be less stress.

Also, you know, I haven’t finished the novel. Not by a long shot. So, although I have 75K under my belt, what I am also hoping I now have is some sort of routine, where I can come home and continue to chip away at at this novel until it’s done, although at a slower pace than NaNoWriMo I think.

We’ll call it a win, because that’s what it is. I just need to convince my brain to smile about it, because writing more than you had at the beginning of the month is what NaNo is all about in my opinion, and I’ve certainly done that.

So, for this final instalment, I’ll talk about my actual writing process. My actual decisions when I come to write novels.

Plotter vs Panster? Pantser. All the way. For Eidetic this year I had a word document with names for the important characters, and a timeline of big events. And that’s a lot of planning for me, mainly I did that because I was having trouble with the order that things were meant to go in. I really do prefer just opening up a blank screen and getting on with things. And yes, I have tried to plan in the past. A couple of different methods, it’s just not worked for me. So the ideas brew in my head, and when I’m ready, or they’re ready, I open up at the document and start typing.

Chronological vs out-of-order? You know, I always thought I would be the latter. Indeed, my first NaNoWriMo I did do out of order. However, ever since then, I’ve been chronological. My last four NaNoWiMo’s, including this year’s have all been chronological. I think it allows for development, both of the novel, the characters, and of me as I write, although stuff like that can always be fixed in editing. I think if I ever got stuck on a particular part, I would skip it, write the bit I knew what was happening with, and then come back to fill it in. That hasn’t happened yet, but it’s something I could easily see myself doing.

Character vs Plot? ……bit of both? No, actually, I would say plot. I start with plot and work my characters into plot. However, I am very aware that a good book only works with good characters, so I do make sure that my characters have personality, and traits, and aren’t one dimensional, and they develop as thing go along. But, I do start with the plot, and I tend to know what people are doing before I know how they go about it, or how they react to things.

Morning Lark vs Night Owl? Night Owl, I always prefer staying up late to getting up early, it’s just how I work. Naturally, I go to sleep at 3am and wake up at midday, I’ve tested this. Although, one of the writing groups I’m in shared this very interesting infographic about authors productivity and waking times. Turns out, quite a lot of writers are morning larks.

So basically, it can be summed up, as I will sit down, late at night, on the sofa, on my laptop, something playing in the background (tonight it’s QI), open up the writing software and just start typing. That’s how I write.

I hope that those of you who have been doing NaNoWriMo as well ahave validated or are close to it, and if not, then I am sure that you have more right now that you had at the start of the month!

 

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Also, congratulation to this blog – Five Years Old today! It’s been through some changes, but I think it’s only gotten better, I certainly like it now more than ever ^.^

NaNoWriMo 2015 – Week 3

*Large exhale of air*

It could be going better. Also, could be going a lot worse.

I’m on…65.5K so over the last week I’ve written about 16K. So week 1 was 30K, week 2 got 19K and this week got 16K. Slowing down, and although there is often a bit of a last hurrah during week 4, I am not sure if that will happen for me.

I think that unless something drastic happens and I get a huge wave of productivity (which, you know, could happen) I am unlikely to reach my original goal of 100K. I think at this point I’ll set minimum at 75K, and anything over that will be nice. I mean, I should definitely be able to get another 10K over the next week, and there’s a touch over a week left, and at current speed, 15K seems likely for the week, but we’ll just have to see.

What I know is unlikely to happen, is penning ‘The End’ on the novel. I reached the halfway point of the novel, the bit where I write ‘8 years later’ at 64K, so only just. And this means that unless I feel like doubling the word count in the next week (roughly, the two halves are relatively equal in my head, but you never quite know until you get it out onto paper) it’s going to have to continue after November. However, this is probably a good thing, I need to get back into the habit of writing every day, or almost every day, and having a project I want to finish is good for that. I am certainly not going to abandon it after November like I did a previous years (Archmage got picked up eventually, but only during the next year’s NaNo).

Hopefully if I pick away at it during December/January (Christmas is going to be a big interruption, much like Thanksgiving is for my american peers) I’ll get it finished within the next couple of months, although I will be taking it at an easier pace than NaNo. I have things which I have put on hold for this month which will come back on board in December, and I have all my other work as well.

Which brings me onto my writing process portion for this week – writing time.

I am not a marathon writer. I cannot sit down for hours at a time and devote myself to a task, it just isn’t how I work.

Instead, I am a sprinter, or piecemeal worker. Or…some other word I can’t think of right now, it is late in the evening, forgive me. Basically, my attention can only focus on one task for so long, so I do one thing for ten minutes, and then swap tasks, doing a different thing for ten minutes. Then maybe I’ll have a five minute break of checking social media, ro listening to music, and then I’ll go back to the first task for ten minutes.

Yes, it’s a bit pick and mix, but that’s how I work, and this is tried and tested over many years. Occasionally, I can get more than twenty minutes out of my attention span, but hitting that kind of grove is rare for me, and I am far more likely to do ten/fifteen minutes of a thing, go do something else, come back to it, another ten/fifteen minutes, off again.

Sprinting and word wars work wonder for me when trying to boost my word counts. Admittedly, I haven’t been doing many word wars against other people this month, I keep seeming to forget about the OA chatroom, but there is an entire twitter account for NaNoSprints and I love using that to help me write.

Short, sharp bursts. Today I was actually experimenting with one minute sprints. Really hard, really fast typing for a minute, then a minute off, then again, then off. Worked really well, managed to get 500 words in not too much time at all.

However, right now, I am feeling the lure of bed more than the lure of some more sprinting. How is everyone else doing with writing? Got any good projects on the go? Any exciting events? My most exciting event is that I killed my MC’s father, and she kind of orchestrated the whole thing.

NaNoWriMo 2015 – Week 2

Apologies for not sticking to schedule, I was trying desperately to get to 50K last night, you know, the point at which I should be at. Yeah, I missed it by a bit. Only a bit though, I’m at 49K as of right now. Which is fine, totally catch-up-able. But, still, technically behind.

On day 7 I was on 30K, on day 14 I am on 49K. So, as you can see, I’ve definitely slowed down. They say week 2 is the hardest week, and this year I think I agree with that. It’s definitely been harder than week 1. The only good thing I that I’ve hit a bit of the story where I know pretty much what is going to happen. And I’m not quite halfway yet, so I know that there are going to be enough words in this novel to get me to 100K, no problem. I just have to sit down and actually write them. I think at this point, I’ll be calling week 3 a success if I can keep up with where I should be with my words. That means 3,333 words a day (plus an extra 1,000 of catch up), which should be fine, I know I can write that much in a day. Heck, in week 1 I was easily doing 5K a day, I just need to find that rhythm again. Or, at least, a similar one where I don’t spend an entire Saturday re-reading my favourite webcomic because he hasn’t given us a new update in over a week. Saturday was not productive, I have to admit.

I have, at least, taken all those tasks and things that I was doing and prioritised them. So now I have work, the masters degree, nanowrimo and on Fridays my allocated social time for my D&D group. I can’t give up D&D, it’s just too good to give up. But, streamlining what I get up to has meant that I am more relaxed, and hopefully this will eventually translate into more words.

On the other hand, I currently have a stomach bug. Waking up on a Monday morning with three hours sleep under your belt because your stomach kept you doubled-over a bowl all night is not on my list of fun things I want to do, nor is it on the best ways to start a week. I am at work despite it, but it’s not fun, and I have the feeling that as soon as I get home after work today, I will be falling asleep immediately, which although probably good for me, is not going to be the most productive activity.

So, moving onto my writing process. Today I am going to look at place.

Everyone has a place in which they like to write, whether that be coffee shops, a study, or outside in some weird little nook in the woods. Me? I have a study. Or the sofa, depending on how creature comforts I am feeling.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My study is good because in there I can listen to music whilst I write, or just shut the door and tune everything else out. It’s my space, and I have filled it with dragons, books, and other things that I like, and often I can achieve the sprints, the actual blocks of time put into my work, whilst sitting there. Admittedly, I sometimes do have the chromebook to the side, playing whatever tv series or movie I happen to be into at that time as background noise. This is never something that I haven’t already seen, since the point is not for me to actually watch the thing, but rather to have noise on in the background. I find it hard to write in silence.

Hence, by other writing place – the sofa (and yes, the dragon soft toy lives there). The sofa is great when I want to be warm. I don’t have that great a circulation, so when I am at my desk I tend to wear fingerless gloves (well you can’t type in mittens or regular gloves without distinct effort, so I go for the in-between of keeping the majority of my hands warm, whilst still being able to type at a reasonable speed) but if I am on the sofa then I can roll myself up in the spare duvet that lives on there, or one of numerous blankets, and keep myself warm all over. I’ll use my chromebook on the sofa, and inevitably the TV will be only playing something that I can vaguely watch/listen to without paying all that much attention. That, or the partner will be playing a game. Fallout 4 came out last week, and the living room currently looks like a mini explosion because he took a week off to play it. Not that I blame him, and having a game that I am only mildly interested in is pretty good from the writing background noise standpoint.

So those are my two places. Very familiar, require no travelling, and a bonus I can be wearing my pyjama’s the whole time. I do attend write ins, and I have written in a coffee shop before, but I don’t think it’s really my thing. Maybe I’ll give the library a go at some point, but right now, the sofa is calling to me.

How is every else doing for NaNoWriMo? Ahead? Slightly behind like me? Way behind and panicking (you can do it, just don’t give up!)

NaNoWriMo 2015 – Week 1

Wow, I have a lot going on.

Probably too much, if I am being honest. I word 30 hours a week, I’m doing a master degree and have been given my third assignment (when the other two are not yet complete), this novel, and I am trying to keep up with my social life and support my boyfriend in running a game. One of them is going to give (if I am honest, the game is probably going, and the social life gets cut back at lot for November). We’ll have to see, but I can feeling myself getting more and more stressed, only saved by some good friends and generous applications of hugs.

I got off to a good start with NaNoWriMo, and at the end of day 7 I am at 30K. However, I have been slowing down, and I didn’t manage that 10K day one that I was aiming for. But, having said that, it was still a good first week.

My rhythm seems to have been a bit disrupted by…something. Not sure what, but I sped to 27K, and then really just slowed. This weekend has been really busy, I had to work Saturday (really hate Saturday shifts) and Sunday was IoD, so a full day of gaming (having just completed the game, I can now say, that I have packed it in, that was my last game as a ref, and I am so happy to not have that stress anymore), more than half of which I was intrinsically involved in, so couldn’t not go.

But, still got a lot of time to go. I’m pretty sure I’ll make it to 50K. Don’t know if I’ll get to my goal of 100K. It would be nice, and hopefully by just sitting down for an hour each day I’ll climb over that wall.

So, now that I’ve told you a bit about the actual words I’ve put down, I thought I would share with you my process.

Today is technology. This year, I am writing through an online software called Novlr. It’s something I discovered in it’s really early stages and I’ve been backing it (the kickstarter didn’t fund, but they continued at it anyway, just slower) for a while. I really like it, I mean I’ve discovered bugs, but I’ve been with it since alpha, and they are really good at picking up the reports. The main software is really good now, and they’ve been adding in lots and lots of features. You can now have multiple books, they have statistics pages (including a NaNoWriMo word count!), and a really minimalist UI, so you just focus on the words on the page. I’m not trying to sell it to you, just highlight why I like it and have decided to write my novel in there this year.

The particularly big reason I’m using it is that’s it’s online cloud based, so as long as I have an internet connection, I can write to it from any computer. And it has an offline mode, which blends seamlessly back into online mode when it reconnects. Cloud software is really, really good in my opinion. And I have the option to back it up to Google Drive, so everything is backed up without me doing anything 🙂

So, cloud software means that I can write on any computer. Which means work, desktop, and chromebook are all viable options. I prefer my chromebook out of all of these of course. I mean, it can’t do much, but it does internet really well, and really fast, it’s small, and light, and I can stick stickers all over it.

I’ve got a lot of NaNoWriMo stickers, and that isn’t even all of them. I like stickers. And I do like to advertise that I’m a writer.

So that’s my combination this year – Novlr + Chromebook (at least when I’m not at work).

How is everyone else doing? Both fellow NaNo writers and those of you who don’t spend November in a frenzy.

NaNo Prep Month 2015

I did it! I chose my novel!

Okay, when I say choose, I mean I put up the five ideas I was thinking about on facebook, and 8/10 of my friends pointed at one in particular.

So, drum roll please. This year I have decided to write….

Eidetic!

Yes, I am finally going to be writing the entire novel about Sage, the Labyrinths (mazes!) and her family. I’m looking forward to it! And the insanity of trying to balance work, masters degree, nano, and sanity.

The End

And that’s it. November is finished and over with. No more NaNoWriMo for another year. Well, I say that. There are camps. And I did it. I managed to accomplish my dream goal of penning ‘the end’. I managed to finish the first draft of a novel, from beginning to end, in a month.

Of course, it’s not really the end, is it?

Just the end of step one.

The thing is, I feel good about this novel. Good in a way other writing hasn’t made me felt. I feel confident it in, I think it’s a complete first draft, not chapter missing, no sections skipped. That draft is finished, and, in my opinion, some of my best work. Good enough to send a copy to my boyfriend, which I have never done with a novel before. Never have I ever sent it to someone else. The other novel I had finished is in editing, but is still classed as my eyes only. It’s in a bit a shamble at the moment, that’s what the editing is for.

And I downloaded the free eBook called “The End, Now What?” by Steven Spatz which is available on the NaNo site, and I am avidly drinking it in as he talks about the next steps from having a manuscript, to getting it out there in the big wide world.

And you know what? This is the one.

Maybe not the one that is going to be a best seller. Maybe not the one which is going to make my name as an author. But It is the first book which I feel confident in to take to the next step. There is of course going to be some editing, but then I shall be looking towards the big wide world of publishing (I’m pretty sure I want to try going down the traditional route with publishers), with my little book in hand, seeing if anyone wants to take a chance on me and my novel.

It’s scary. But it’s exciting. I can already feel the little knot of anticipation building up in my stomach, even just writing this.

Of course, I am as of yet unpublished, so if anyone feels like giving an aspirational person some hints, tips, or advice that would be welcome.

What did other people get up to in November? And big plans for December? (Mine involve a lot of editing, I can tell you that. And Christmas shopping of course.)

WINNER!

Okay, so there are still two days left, and I haven’t technically written the end yet, but I hit 100K. And I called that good for a validation point 😀

Hopefully, in December, things will stop being as hectic, and I’ll be able to keep this blog up to date. Of course, there is christmas, so we’ll have to see. But I haven’t forgotten all you you, my lovely readers! Thank you for bearing with me (or without me, as the case actually is) during this month of extreme novelling.

Anyone else celebrating a NaNo victory? Or any sort of victory at all?