It's NaNoEdMo!

To a lot of NaNoWriMo participants (affectionately called WriMos), December is unofficially National Novel Editing Month (NaNoEdMo). What this means is that you print off your huge pile of paper containing your huge pile of words. The you get a red pen, take a deep breath, and see if you've managed to write anything at all good, or if it's only good for kindling. Ahhhhhhhh, editing.

I began reading my novel on Wednesday evening, and the 10 pages I read were pretty good. I read another 35 on the plane, and they were pretty good. I'm up to page 109, and while there have been some typos, some threads I know I left hanging, and a couple of sentences that desperately needed reworking, it is *dare I say it* pretty darn good!

OK, let me say that I don't consider that pride. First of all, when you write nearly 90,000 words in 23 days and don't read a single word of it while you're going, you honestly have no idea if it's horrible, wonderful, or mediocre. You hope it's at least good enough to be worth the effort to edit, but you're afraid it's just total garbage. Starting to read it was, literally, terrifying!

This was my view yesterday morning before I got to work editing. How can you not be calm looking at that??

So here's my (surprising) thoughts half way through:

* I actually put together a cohesive story. As much as I grumbled about all the research in October, that really paid off.

* So far my people have really good dialogue, and sound different from each other. A little disclaimer here - I used to get paid to rewrite other people's dialogue, so that is my strong suit. Still, it's hard, and I haven't done it in years, so it's a nice surprise.

* My characters aren't one dimensional cut outs. Writing adventure, there's not a lot of room for background information, but I think they seem pretty fleshed out, not Mary Jane's (overly perfect).

* It appears... and I'm halfway through, so this one might be wrong... but it appears that I have managed to write an adventure that is interesting and exciting without killing vast numbers of people (I don't kill anybody), blowing up historic landmarks, or breaking too many laws. And without very much cussing. Or sex. (All of that might disqualify me from calling it "adventure" these days!)

Yes, it needs work. I'm going to finish editing and fix all the obvious things, add the couple of chapters I realized I forgot, and then print it out again. I told my daughter she could read it when she was done with the semester, so this first draft edit will be completed by Dec 17... I'm willing to let some of you read it, so let me know if you're interested!  Probably only a handful at this stage, but I will be wanting some feedback. I think.

Enjoy your weekend everyone! And thanks so much for all your support in November. It was great having a whole bunch of cheerleaders!

Basically I just love skies!

The end of NaNoWriMo 2011

Today is the last day of NaNoWriMo 2011. There are many thousands of people out there right now frantically writing away, knowing they have to have their books validated by midnight to "win." It's been fun going on the forums today and seeing lots of purple "winner" ribbons popping up everywhere. I'm a little bummed (only a little!) that I finished early and am not joining in the last-day revelry.

So what did I learn in November? A lot, actually:

*  I can set a difficult goal and accomplish it.
*  I can write 4000-6000 words a day and survive (although it makes me very tired!).
*  I actually am creative!
*  There are a lot of people out there who are crazy, too.
*  I have great kids who were amazing cheerleaders all month.

*  I can plan a week's worth of dinners and stick to the menu. (This is actually a biggie!)
*  Outlines aren't all bad.

There is probably more. I know my husband learned that it wasn't the big pain in the behind he was afraid it was going to be, so hopefully he'll be a little more excited about it in 2012.

All in all, I am enormously thankful to Chris Baty and www.nanowrimo.org for the whole thing, and I really had a blast. Now for the editing... I'm kind of afraid of that part, but even if it's complete garbage, I still wrote 88,651 words in 23 days, and that's awesome!

NaNoWriMo - Winner! (And the book is done!)

I technically "won" NaNoWriMo on Nov 12 when I went past 50,000 words. But today was both the first day the validator was available, so I could upload my manuscript and have the words verified by the site for the win, and also the day I FINISHED THE NOVEL!

THE END. DONE.

whew.

I haven't read it yet. It came in at 88,651 words, which is a little over 253 paperback pages. On Dec 1, I will print it off and begin the first edit. I'll let you know how bad or good it is then... It's a crapshoot, you know!

But I am so proud of myself for getting it done; so thankful for my family for putting up with it; and especially grateful to my kids, who were my biggest cheerleaders. It was an amazing experience, and something I had no idea I could do. Even if it's bad, I wrote almost 90,000 words in 23 days (I took 2 days off, and 2 days I only wrote 1000 words). And that is freaking amazing!

Very happy with it, and loved the experience.

NaNoWriMo is almost here!

Call me crazy. Go ahead. It's ok...

Did you do it? Good.

Ok, so we've got that out of the way. And now... National Novel Writing Month. November. Every year. Except I had never heard of it until this spring, so now I'm committed. 50,000 words in 30 days of writing insanity - that's the minimum to "win". Theoretically you could write song lyrics, leave out contractions, have deaf characters that keep asking for things to be repeated. But [call me crazy again] I'm writing a novel. And I'm aiming for 100,000 words. With a plot.

Yeah. 3 days from now, it starts. One of two things will happen (ok, one of an incalculable multitude of things) - either I'll completely freak out and end up with 50,000 words of complete garbage (which is totally possible). Or I'll get a reasonably respectable first draft done.

Or I'll pretend to have amnesia and ignore November altogether.

This is me ignoring November. Because aside from NaNoWriMo, November is cold. So I might ignore it.

Nah. I'm going to get 50,000 words written, at the very least. That's my commitment to myself. My plan, my crazy goal, is to actually produce something worth editing and showing other people. Without losing my mind, yelling and flapping my arms around too much, and still performing at least basic personal hygiene and mom/wife functions (like making sure I have milk for the coffee and some cold beer...).

Heck, maybe I'll be so flush with creative energy I'll post all kinds of new recipes and witty blog posts, exercise every day, and take up knitting. OK, not knitting. But maybe I'll have a month of energy, which would be awesome (unless it is followed by a month of lethargy in December, which would be very not good...).

In short, I have NO IDEA what's going to happen. I know I'm excited. I'm nervous. I'm confident. I'm terrified. Whatever happens, it's going to be a heck of a month! I hope you'll be along for the ride... and that I have enough mental energy to post about it!

This is "our" owl. He looks smart. Even when he seems to be sleeping, he's watching. And his eyes are freaky. There's no reason he's on this blog, except this is what I see out the window of the sunroom sometimes, and that's where I write. So maybe he'll be there to inspire me... Or freak me out with his eyes.