Yes, well, it is done, anyway

[dreaminghope]

"She's unconscious again!" I called out. OK, I probably screeched a little.

Russ chuckled. He didn't have to look up from WoW or ask me what I was talking about: I would yell this out every couple of days, so he knew what was going on. He laughed every time, as was expected of him.

I've been off LJ for the better part of a month now, doing the NaNoWriMo (oh, and working insane hours, and playing too much on Swap-Bot, and trying to prepare for the holiday season… the usual, but more so). Let me know if I missed anything un-miss-able.

I don't really like this novel I've just finished writing. It is done – I have the 50,000 words* and the official winner's certificate – but it is not a likable story. Nor is it a very "Melissa-like" story. If you’ve been reading me for any length of time, you’ll probably recognize how un-me-like the story is, as it features, in no particular order: cannibalism (where no one dies), four deaths (three of them violent; no one is eaten), lots of drug use (mostly involuntary), torture, and a main character with a nasty habit of falling or being rendered unconscious at the end of most major scenes.

Between exclamations of "she’s unconscious!", I would whinge** about how much I disliked my plot and my characters and everything to do with the whole novel, and Russ would ask me why I don't just stop then (already; yeesh). I didn't really have a good answer to that. I guess it is testament to just how stubborn I am that the story got done.

The lesson in this: don't stand between me and my goals.

*I have 50,046 words, including "the end". There’s nothing like doing the bare minimum...

**I picked up "whinge" from The Brit at work, and it is now my word-to-overuse of choice.

Comments

[edableme.livejournal.com]

Congratulations on finishing your latest novel!(is it three now?)

Well my journal was filled with the ups and downs of an unmedicated me. Now I am medicated. There is one request that would appreciate you having a look at:

I need some help on December 8th if you can.

[dreamhope.livejournal.com]

I can help on December 8th! No problem. I'll show up at 8 PM, unless your time needs change. You can listen to me panic about Elaine's party the next night.

[edableme.livejournal.com]

Sounds good. I have Thursday off if you need me to do anything for the party give me a call.

Welcome back.

[east-gone-west.livejournal.com]

Welcome back! I was starting to miss your posts on my "friends' page. :)

Now its Yule Tide maddness eh?!

Re: Welcome back.

[dreamhope.livejournal.com]

Yule madness, indeed! And my sister is getting married on a cruise boat the week before Christmas, so I'm trying to get someone trained to do my job while I'm gone and doing all the pre-wedding stuff: a bachelorette party, a wedding shower, etc.

It has been a crazy November, and the first half of December's looking much the same. I'm really looking to laying in a lawn chair watching the sea go by.

[cinnamonsqueak.livejournal.com]

I never sent mine in for the "official certificate" meh, I did it and thats good enough for me.

~hugs~ you seem to have much the sam issue Cragi did. He doesn't like his book either cause its too serious.

but I bet it'll be fabulous

[dreamhope.livejournal.com]

The certificate is kind of fun, but not really necessary for me either. I was already registered, so I just did the official word count thing too.

I think "fabulous" will be an over-statement no matter what.

I got your book and I will try to get to reading it soon.

We did it!

[artcarheather.livejournal.com]

yeah, you're done! Now go burn it.








(OK now if there is some part of it that you can't bear to lose start there)

[dreamhope.livejournal.com]

Now go burn it.

Tempting...

I'm going to wait awhile before looking at it again, to see if anything is salvageable.

[fruitkakechevy.livejournal.com]

Welcome back, and yay for goal-completion!

[dreamhope.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[catnip-dreamz.livejournal.com]

***I don't really like this novel I've just finished writing.***

More congratulations are due you then, I'd say.

I find it's much harder to stick with something that I don't like rather than something that I'm writing that I have warm fuzzy feelings about.

And I'd say there's a pretty good chance that you're your own worst critic. So just put the novel aside for a bit and revisit it later. It may surprise you how good it is especially considering the fact that the main goal, from what I understand, was to just get something out there.

First drafts, as a general rule, tend to suck but I've got a feeling that you'll be able to mine it for nuggets of brilliance.

Congrats again!

[dreamhope.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

I am definitely my own worst critic, especially right after finishing a novel so quickly. At this point, I am so sick of it all that I am definitely not thinking about what might be good about it. There's probably some nuggets in there, once I've recovered enough to see them. Maybe in the New Year I'll be ready to have another look at it.

[rythos42.livejournal.com]

Congratulations, Mel :). When you had 32,000 word at my 40,000 I was getting worried for you, but I'm glad you picked it up and kept going.

I do like my novel. But...as I was writing it I realized that it really needed another 20-30-40,000 words of back story before the events that were happening could really be considered plausible. So what I have instead is the very end of a story. My outline has many notes on what needs to be done to make it better. And yeah, as part of that I was left thinking "Why am I doing this?" many times through out the month (and meaning "Why is my character doing this?") and then having to discover that reason and write it down in my outline, having no chance to go back and fill it in.

[dreamhope.livejournal.com]

It was hard to keep myself motivated some days. I started a couple of days late and had to take a few days off too, due to illness and exhaustion. Still, I am very stubborn.

I understand about the background info frustration you were experiencing. Since I wasn't convinced that I would ever be bothering to revise this novel into something more publishable, I was freed from that. I would just make my characters do things and assume there was a reason that I just hadn't written down.

[edableme.livejournal.com]

I am very intrigued by your story. If you don't mid I would like to read it over Christmas break- give me a break from all the finance and read some gore instead...

[dreamhope.livejournal.com]

It isn't really very gory (despite my above summary), but I will try to remember to send it to you when I get home tonight so you can read at your leisure.