It’s over. I did it. Book number five, my NaNo novel, is finished. The T-shirt has been ordered, the winner’s certificate printed out and hung in my office. It’s some of the worst angst-ridden crap I’ve ever written, but at least it 50,000 words of angst-ridden crap so that makes me an official 2011 winner.
And let me tell you, November this year was a bitch. All novels and their deadlines aside, work was tough, the kids were tough, the holidays with family were even tough (I seem to recall my mom waking me up on Thanksgiving by saying, “Don’t be a diva just because you’re a published author now,”…as I slept on her couch. I think all published authors have to sleep on their parents couches at some point or another, but divas we are not.)
The sad thing is now that NaNo is over, there’s nothing to do but start another one, hopefully one with a smaller body count. (I told you November was a bitch…at one point, an entire town is slaughtered. All of them. Even the pets.)
Maybe this time I’ll write a nice, pleasant, Austen-esque novel about men with noble titles and love gone wrong and snobby British aristocracy who couldn’t possible lower themselves by marrying badly, even if it was to save the entire from being slaughtered by ruffian outlaws who lined everyone up for a mass execution as a warning to the other towns not to mess with them. Oh wait, that was so last November.
Lorca Damon 
Maybe your crippled mom’s comment had something to do with complaints about the noise her walker makes when she hobbles into the room….That sort of thing could give someone the totally mistaken impression you are a diva. When you admit to the slaughter of 1000s of people, don’t be surprised if people think maybe your panties are a little.. um..too tight. Looking forward to that nice love story, aristocracy thing.
Wait. Let me get my fucking violin for the “your mom is on a walker” story. And I’ve checked, the walker is a scam. She only uses it to jump in line at the DMV. I, for one, am not falling for it. You should have seen her tote that stupid walker to the Black Friday sales at midnight, like anyone stupid enough to shop in the dark is going to be nice enough to let her jump in line. Sheesh.
Congratulations, Lorca. I knew you were loving it and even if your novel is not too great– which I doubt– just writing at that pace is something every writer should try.
And you were blooging along the way. I’m impressed!
I did it last year and I did it this year too. This year I had floods and all kinds of problems to deal with but writing with a deadline pushed all of that crap to the back of my brain.
I did it last year, too, and it’s weird. For my first year, the book literally felt like it wrote itself. When I would have to get up and do something else, I would be irritated that life was taking me away from my book!!! This year was a little more forced and I got behind on my word count from time to time, but always managed to catch up on the weekends.
Funny story: my daughter asked me one Saturday how great it would be if I was a full-time writer. I said, “Are you kidding me??? Is THIS what you think EVERY DAY should be like? My butt glued to this chair in front of a computer???” She found it amusing. I did not.
What is this sleep of which you speak???
Actually, the experiment last month is by design. It’s meant to get us in the habit of daily deadlines for writing. I knew all along November would be a mental wasteland as I focused everything on the book. Fun, huh???
Heavens! Didn’t you just do one of these for blog posting last month? …not sleepin’ much are ya? 😉
Congrats! One of my close friends was doing it for the first time this year and I’ve been following his word counts, he’s sooo close.
One of the cruelest things ever invented is that horrible little word count doohicky on the NaNo page. I had to check it a hundred times a day, and I’M the one who updated it for myself! Like someone is sneaking into my account and changing that number? Then I’d find myself writing for thirty minutes, updating my word count, writing some more, updating again…it was horrible. But thanks!!! :~)
Congratulations! Great accomplishment!
Thank you! I’ll be posting a few tidbits about the book, including my acknowledgements blog post…you wouldn’t BELIEVE the help I got with my book in terms of research. Thanks!
Congratulations Lorca! I am so happy for you. It is awesome being a NaNo winner. Good luck with editing!
Cheers,
Ardee-ann
Thank you so much! Despite my whining post, it was actually very fun. I rarely get the chance to kill people and I’ve NEVER gotten to kill so many at one time. It was quite fun. And your novel is… where?
My novel is limping along suffering from some kind of malaise and will not see the finish line this November but it will see the finish line sometime. I am rather fond of my MC and her friends.
Slowly ambling,
Ardee-ann