Virtual NaNo Party

[wyld_dandelyon]

I have always been dismayed that NaNoWriMo is in November. Even the best November is not the month I would choose, if the choosing were up to me, for this endeavor.

And this year's Windycon was absolutely fantastic, deserving of all of my attention (and getting it). Which meant no words. But I should have been able to catch up.

Unfortunately, the rest of November was...frustrating. Too many days at home with no heat, with time spent trying to get the boiler fixed and time spent with fingers too cold to type well. Too many days with My Angel too sick with a virus to even stay up and watch TV, so I couldn't rely on her even for stuff like laundry and dinner. Too many days when I was feeling under the weather and unable to focus. I kept sitting at the computer and falling asleep, not only during my usual most-creative time (after 10 pm) but in the early- and mid-evening too.

I console myself that I took care of my family and my health, my home and my job, and that those things have to come first, but I don't feel very consoled.

On the other hand, I find that I really think this is a novel worth finishing. I'm very pleased with what I wrote last year upon re-reading it, and I think I'll be just as pleased with what I've written so far this year when I come back to it. It's not perfect, but it's still a first draft, and (frustratingly) an incomplete first draft at that. First drafts are never perfect.

I also now have a notebook full of notes to help me keep track of the supporting characters and all the extras.

But I don't have the shiny finished first draft I wanted.

So this is my Pity Party. Stop by and brag about your successes, whine about your failures, or just share some virtual munchies! And feel free to bring your monkeys along.

And tomorrow I'll go back to filling blank screens with meaningful (and hopefully entertaining) pixels, if I have time in between efforts to find a more permanent solution to my heating woes. But if not tomorrow--soon!

Comments

[pocketnaomi.livejournal.com]

*pulls up a chair with an ottoman, and offers hot cider*

I don't have the slightest trace of a novel and I didn't try. Someday maybe I will. OTOH I do have a new poem (not very good, but it's a start), a few ideas for other poem which might turn out better, and a child whose school I fought to a creative solution to her special needs as an exceptionally gifted child who was being bored to death. And my partner and I worked some things out that are making it a lot easier for us not to fight as often. So I consider it a pretty satisfying November.

[wyld-dandelyon.livejournal.com]

Welcome! Fighting for your kid is a good thing. And so is poetry!

[stryck.livejournal.com]

I'm also frustrated at NaNoWriMo being in November. November is when the stress dials up at work and the end of year extra effort starts.

Between work and baby this year, I didn't even have time to read your posted efforts. :( I have an idea for a novel and the first few pages sitting around, waiting for when I have time.

[wyld-dandelyon.livejournal.com]

Last year I kept putting off reading Shadow Unit until I was not feeling up to doing creative work. Come to think of it, I'm behind on reading that again.

I wish you could pick which month to do it in, and still at least use their cool graphs and things.

[stryck.livejournal.com]

What month would you pick? May, maybe? I usually have more spare time around then..

[wyld-dandelyon.livejournal.com]

I was thinking the dead of winter. January, February or March. May is planting season here; July if a summer month.

[stryck.livejournal.com]

If it weren't for the fact that February is so short, it'd be a decent month for me to try. Because I work for a mortgage company, December and January are both jam-packed with work. July, too. (New Jersey's property taxes are due every three months, and that's always a heavy month.)

[wyld-dandelyon.livejournal.com]

The word count per day difference for February isn't really that much different. And I suppose if we were to do such a thing, we could start two days into January to make the challenge equal to November's.

[rowyn]

I didn't even manage to get together an outline that I actually like for the novel I wanted to finish writing (that was my "successful" nanonovel for 2007). *sigh*

[wyld-dandelyon.livejournal.com]

Have some chocolate? Or how about gluten- and corn-free spicy ginger cookies?

Perhaps in analyzing why you don't like what you came up with, you can fix it.

[ellenmillion.livejournal.com]

I won I won I won!

*ahem* *breaks out the consolation booze*

This is my first win since starting it in 2001 and trying every year since. Using it as a coping method for a car accident was greatly helpful.

[wyld-dandelyon.livejournal.com]

Congratulations!

I'll have some of that chocolate liqueur, please.

[kelkyag]

I was not trying to write, but I was trying to prep for the open house at pottery studio. The last glaze firing before the open house was loaded yesterday. Five of my glazed bowls were in the firing queue and did not make it into the kiln. If there's a next time, I need to be a little more ahead of the game.

[wyld-dandelyon.livejournal.com]

Oh, how frustrating!

[tigertoy.livejournal.com]

I've enjoyed what you posted of Clockwork Dragon and I hope you will keep working on it.

I never considered trying NaNo this year because I knew my November was far too crazy. I'm toying with the idea of declaring December, which is a yawning empty pit of despair for me, to be my personal novel writing month.

[wyld-dandelyon.livejournal.com]

Go for it! I'll cheer you on.

I guess I should figure out whether people are interested in me continuing to share Clockwork Dragon.

[(Anonymous)]

thanks amigo! great post!.

[(Anonymous)]

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[(Anonymous)]

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