I did it. 50,000 words (well, 50,303, if you want to be precise about it) in 28 days. I am officially a Novelist, at least according to the NaNoWriMo folks. It wasn't pretty toward the end--I concluded the novel a few hours ago, but it was only 48,000 words long, so I've been scramling for those last 2,000 for a while.
There is also the fact that the vast majority of what I've written is total crap that will have to be discarded, or at least substantially rewritten, before I am willing to let anyone--and that includes my husband, who knows the risks he incurs by mocking me--read it. The chunks of it are completely out of order. The prologue doesn't fit with what happens at the end.
But I'm taking comfort in what one of the real (i.e., published) novelists said in one of the e-mail pep talks that got sent out: Writing the first draft of a novel is like carving a huge hunk of granite out of a quarry wall. It's only the first step--you still have to shape the huge block of stone into a sculpture. That's what revising and editing are for.
Next month.
Congratulations to the new novelist! I can't even imagine doing that. It really is a great accomplishment, Kirsten. Go you!
Posted by: Erin | December 02, 2008 at 04:04 PM
But how awesome is it that you finished!!! I could never even get as much as a sentence out of my head! That's one huge accomplishment, Kirsten!
Posted by: Cheryl (momstitches) | December 03, 2008 at 03:52 PM
Wow - a great accomplishment by any standard. I've always wanted to try being a "real" writer (I'm a tech writer by profession) but I think I'm too scared witless that I'll such eggs at it to give it a real try.
Posted by: JenJen | January 06, 2009 at 09:28 AM