Virtual NaNo Party

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!

Virtual NaNo Party

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!