NaNo 2011

Another November comes to close and so ends NaNoWriMo 2010.  I greet December once more a winner, just as I did for the first time last year.  And like last year, the end of November does not mark the end of my novel's drafting journey.  In finishing NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), I ground out roughly a third of Render's draft zero.  Looking at the scenes ahead to draft I assume it's going to take around another 50k to finish out this book.

There was an unparalleled thrill to finishing NaNo last year.  It was the first time in my life that I had ever written that much in such a short amount of time.  It was a high.  Less than a month later, I finished draft zero of Shatter on Christmas Eve '09.  I doubt I'll finish Render that soon.  There's a lot I've learned about the writing process over the last year and my style of drafting now is drastically different than it was at the beginning of November '09.  I have every confidence that the revising stage will look very different this time around, because last time I had to smooth out the first 40k words of Shatter written over a six year period to mesh with the voice of the remaining 80k of the original draft.  This resulted in me pitching entire sections and rewriting them, cutting 25k words and adding 30k to the original word count before the cuts.  I won't have that problem this time.  Render has had a much shorter shelf life than Shatter did.  In large part to NaNo and the discipline it taught me of writing every day and how to make a habit of writing.

I wish I could say that this NaNo experience was as thrilling and exciting as the first, but frankly it was not.  Because this is year two and this is book two -- my sophomore novel.  I think it wasn't as exciting because I am so firmly entrancing in the Middle of drafting.  Not just the Middle of this draft, but I'm in the Middle of a trilogy as well.  This is the slogging through sludge portion of drafting.  And let me tell ya, folks.  It just ain't pretty.  I've been sick most of November and trying to get this much drafting down plus keep up with my commitments for my day job has been an accomplished through sheer force of will and tea.  A lot of tea.  But in the end, I'm happy that I finished NaNo this year again.  I'm glad I got so much progress in the draft, even though it doesn't feel like it at all.  And my Magic 8 Ball says that "All signs point to yes" regarding the possibility of me participating in NaNo again next year.  It's a good program that gives writers the kick in the daydream they need to actually finish something.

So, I bid the Office of Letters and Lights adieu for another year and close down Scrivener.  Until tomorrow.