Don't know if anyone remembers, but back at the beginning of the month I was pimping National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo. Write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days, and you win. Fail to do so, and you earn only the mockery of your peers and a feeling of encroaching mortality.
Well, with almost a day to spare, my novel Toward Eternity reached its unnatural end, at 51969 words, 276903 characters, 4844 words, 177 pages of A4 double-spaced 12-point Courier. It's not 100% done, because there's still a placeholder for a character history early in the story. But it's complete enough to stand on its own merits or lack of them, and it's over 50,000 words of prose fiction, written while having a job and what passes for a life in these parts. And I'm tired, and I want a beer.
I'm in two minds about how good it is. Sometimes I think it's probably pretty bad. Most of the time I think it's more likely that it's utterly abysmal. But at least I wrote it, and it's certainly more original than the last big writing project I was involved in (a joint-written fantasy trilogy that would have made Weiss and Hickman choke to death on lawsuits and then spin in their graves). I certainly couldn't sit down and read it myself right now - I'm sick to death of it after 30 days of pain and suffering. If anyone else feels the need to, it's available for download on my website. I won't be posting it in any 'recommend me a good book' threads, though.
For anyone who thought about entering NaNoWriMo this year and didn't, you missed out. It was great fun, and a learning experience. I can firmly recommend it to everyone who likes writing and even more so to everyone who thinks they might like writing if they weren't so bad at it and so unmotivated. Bad unmotivated people is what half of NaNoWriMo seems to be about.
So, anyway. Huzzah for me and my novel. And yes, I think I will have that beer now, thanks.
Well, with almost a day to spare, my novel Toward Eternity reached its unnatural end, at 51969 words, 276903 characters, 4844 words, 177 pages of A4 double-spaced 12-point Courier. It's not 100% done, because there's still a placeholder for a character history early in the story. But it's complete enough to stand on its own merits or lack of them, and it's over 50,000 words of prose fiction, written while having a job and what passes for a life in these parts. And I'm tired, and I want a beer.
I'm in two minds about how good it is. Sometimes I think it's probably pretty bad. Most of the time I think it's more likely that it's utterly abysmal. But at least I wrote it, and it's certainly more original than the last big writing project I was involved in (a joint-written fantasy trilogy that would have made Weiss and Hickman choke to death on lawsuits and then spin in their graves). I certainly couldn't sit down and read it myself right now - I'm sick to death of it after 30 days of pain and suffering. If anyone else feels the need to, it's available for download on my website. I won't be posting it in any 'recommend me a good book' threads, though.
For anyone who thought about entering NaNoWriMo this year and didn't, you missed out. It was great fun, and a learning experience. I can firmly recommend it to everyone who likes writing and even more so to everyone who thinks they might like writing if they weren't so bad at it and so unmotivated. Bad unmotivated people is what half of NaNoWriMo seems to be about.
So, anyway. Huzzah for me and my novel. And yes, I think I will have that beer now, thanks.
