Chaos Attraction

The NaNo Novel and How It Went

2007-12-11, 10:41 p.m.

(Okay, so it took me a long time to post this...but after the NaNo party, I really should, eh?)

So, this year's NaNo novel was finished the earliest ever this year- November 20.

I owe this win to:
(a) 2 all-day Sunday write-ins
(b) 1 all-day Vets Day write-in.

I had three 5000+ word days there, which helped a lot. I also tried to write every day this year (something I generally don't do, I tend to write a lot and then skip 3 days, repeat repeat repeat), which I mostly succeeded at until around mid-month.

I decided to rewrite the "novel that I'm going to write all year" that I tried doing awhile back and then flaked out on. I think I have to be a "planner" writer rather than a "pantser," as me writing by the seat of my pants = I ran out of stuff I thought of and now don't know what to do and I stop. So this year I planned the whole thing out (and even started a little planning of the next one).

The weird thing about this was that not only did I not overwrite the plot (by which I mean, have a plot that goes way over 50,000 words) this year...I underwrote it. I hit "The End" for what I'd plotted for this one at just over 43k.

"Argh" does not even begin to summarize that feeling- hence why I ended up not writing for a weekend in the middle. So I had to pull some crap out of my ass and insert some scenes, some of which work better than others.

As per my usual, once I finished the novel, I lost all interest in doing much of anything else for like a week, and lost my momentum after Thanksgiving. I tried going to the last local write-in on the final Tuesday to force myself to work on my short story, and barely managed to end the sucker. Revise? Hah. Didn't.

Also as per usual, I want to go work on stuff again, but December shoots that one in the foot but good, even if my schedule has nicely cleared out this month. December is always National Finish Crafts Month for me.

I hate that loss of momentum thing.

I am also really frightened of editing. They talk about the Inner Editor in NaNo, but mine generally isn't too interested in working with me. Other people, sure, I can point out what's wrong just fine. When it comes to me, however...uh, I'm going to have to be the one that FIXES the major plot problems, and I generally don't know HOW. Then I get stymied (see above as to what happens when I don't know what to say), and I stop. I attempted National Novel Editing Month in March one year and flaked after about an hour or two.

I need to edit this one, I really do. I don't want to be a total flake about it and never do anything with it again. I just...don't know what the hell to do about the major issues that aren't like, change the typo and delete some sentences.

This is scary.


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