Another November gone (almost,) another NaNoWriMo East of Eden release novel…completed!
(Not even close.)
Okay, but I got the furthest I ever have: just shy of 24,000 words. (Out of 50k, of course, so not even halfway, Peter.)
Shut up.
So I entered this month with one simple rule: not to care if my story sucked. This helped, because I didn’t have the winner of a plot that I did last year. Unfortunately, like last year, my “complete” outline for the novel lacked much substance in the middle, and when I arrived to this area I surveyed the massive amounts of suck and said “I’m not wading into that. Not with these shoes.” Aaaaaand…we’re done!
In 2006 the problem was just bad planning. The beginning of the novel was okay, but not really worthy of the cool idea I had. The middle portion, as planned out as it was, looked to just be…boring. So I abandoned it. This year the novel flew by at first, with the opening chapters more impressive than last year – more action, less exposition – even though the core of the novel was weaker. In fact, it flew by so quickly that a couple weeks in I ran into the middle of the book and realized that I’d planned very little for it, meaning I now had to fill for about 20,000 words. Not fun.
Some Wrimo novelists taking filling to heart, transcribing random dreams that book editors would slash completely or even having their characters sing long songs for no reasons (like “99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall) and putting every word into print. It’s a damned good way of reaching your goal, and it’s not technically
considered cheating. I can just never bring myself to do it. As much as I told myself going in this year that I would write even if my novel sucked – and would worry about quantity over quality (since that’s what post-editing is for) – putting in filler is just too wrong for me.
So even if I could write 8000+ words a day for three straight days – two of which I will spend subbing – I don’t know that I would have the motivation. The story is cute and has its moments, and if I’m randomly inspired maybe I’ll revisit it someday. (You can visit it today after downloading it at the bottom of this post.) But there just isn’t enough there for me to care at the moment.
The One and Only I’m set for next year though – well, save the existence of a plot, though while typing this the beginnings of one seeped into the corners of my brain. Yay. Anyway, next year I’ll plan like I did in ‘06, only I’ll overplan: I’m going to make sure not only will my beginning rock your socks as well as several of your long-sleeved T’s, but my middle will be substantive and fun instead of a minefield waiting to derail me.
I would say that it would also help if I motivate myself to write more early on, but I’m not sure how true that is. There were two or three days early on that I didn’t write, but if I did I would have just come to the middle sooner, and no matter how much time was allotted me I’m not sure if I would have wanted to tackle it. I’ll say this: I didn’t get bored with my novel like I did several times a few years ago. I was, instead, frustrated with my lack of ability to get it done, and that motivates me for next year. 2008 is when I’ll finally get that 50,000th word, plus a few more. I’ve got a whole year to come up with my plot.
You can email me my plot at pstork@gmail.com.