Wednesday, December 1, 2010

The Jig is Up :: NaNoWriMo 2010 Recap & Results

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Power corrupts, but without power it's too dark to see... or something like that.  At any rate, lack of power is bad for the life of your laptop battery.

I regret to inform you that I did not succeed at completing a 50,000 word novel in a month. Part of it was repeated storms that shook the Puget Sound region and knocked out power to my home for days on end.  If the month of November taught me one thing, it's that I'm not cut out for the quill pen and gaslight style of writing.  Don't get me wrong, I love pens and I've written out about half of the Howard Carter stories longhand as it is.  And I'd be happy with a typewriter, but not by candlelight and not with food spoiling in the fridge and a thousand-thousand other worries associated with freak storms and power outages...

In short this was not a month conducive to quiet contemplation of the antics of boys, robots and mad scientists.

I have enough words here and there written about Howard Carter to have cobbled together enough of a draft to hit the magic number and get my "NaNoWriMo Winner" badge, but it wouldn't be a novel, it would be a pastiche of different ideas, many of which didn't work.  There are those who say the wordcount is all, but I disagree.  The goal was to write a novel.  If it was all about hitting wordcounts, I could've transcribed the dictionary and hit the mark easily enough.

I came here to tell a story and that is what I am going to do.

Howard Carter shall continue until he's done with me and I'm done with him.  As I am a man of my word, I shall continue to write his current adventure and post updates as I finish each chapter.

So no, I did not finish NaNoWriMo in high style.  Earnest congratulations go out to those who managed it.  This is no small thing, writing 50,000 words in thirty days.  And though I didn't "win" I refuse to mourn either the rainout or the loss of a single game in what is - in the end - a long season.

Get updates, notices on new chapters, bonus material and more on my Facebook Author's Page!  And stay tuned for more Howard Carter Saves the World!


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2 comments:

  1. HHDecember 2, 2010 at 5:49 AM

    I didn't "win" either, but haven't given up on my novella. I quite agree that you can't write a (quality) novel in one month, but the exercise does help to kickstart the process. Hope you do something great with what you started :)

    ...and go team CoWbCo!! (Co-Written by Coffee) *flaunts her non-prescriptive English*

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  2. Eternal ApprenticeDecember 3, 2010 at 11:34 PM

    CoWbCo!

    Thanks for that, if I ever write an autobiography, I'll have to use that as the title. If nothing else, you inspired that new header and icon picture for the blog.

    I'm glad to hear you say you're planning to continue on. I'm always curious about what people do if they didn't make it. A lot of folks I've asked tell me they chuck it in a drawer and plan to 'get back to it someday'. I think that would drive me batty, knowing it was in the drawer, taunting me.

    (shudder) That's a horror movie I couldn't sit through "The Unfinished Manuscript of DOOM!"

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