Monday, November 30, 2009

50,076 Words


Well, here it is, just hours before the end of November 2009, and I've crossed the finish line. I'd like to say it was a great experience, but honestly this year was tough. When I did NaNoWriMo in 2008, I had a blast the entire time. Sure I got behind, but the story was such fun to write. This year I struggled through nearly the whole thing, and in the end I'm not sure whether it has any value or not. Sure I think there are some good points to it, my son said it was more "mysterious" than the first Noah Zarc book, which is what I was going for. But in the end I'm not sure it had any clear direction. But that is not what NaNo is about. It is about sitting your butt in the chair and typing, and that I did. If you take a look at my word graph, you'll see I really struggled in the middle. About day 16 is when my son told me he'd help me get going again by reading what I had written. So that got me moving. But by thanksgiving I really had to kick it into high gear, writing 10,000 words in only two days. When all is said and done, I am really surprised how easy it is to crank the words out. I just may have to go back to the drawing board, or keyboard, to figure out how to make those words form a story worth reading.

5 comments:

Susan Kaye Quinn said...

That graph does NOT show a "stall" in the middle - for that I will refer you to MY NaNo graph! :)

Hey, I came over because I'm on a live chat RIGHT NOW with Ginger Clark, agent at Curtis Brown for MG - and she's answering questions! I thought you might want to register/check it out/ask a question: http://editorunleashed.com/forum/showthread.php?p=25949&posted=1#post25949

D. Robert Pease said...

Okay, you win. Your stall was a bit more dramatic than mine. But so was your rise from the ashes. Good job Susan, sounds like you had a blast.

Thanks for the heads up about Ginger Clark on editorunleased.com I took a look at the conversation, and it sounds like a good one. She is definitely on my list of agents. I'm back to finishing up Noah Zarc book one, and plan on beginning submissions soon.

I still wish I could comment on your blog, but am as of a couple days ago unable to. You have some good stuff on there. Keep it up.

Susan Kaye Quinn said...

I'm bummed you can't comment, but I am having a lot of fun with the blog. Thanks!

I'm finishing up some edits on Byrne Risk and hope to be sending that to you in the next week (I know, just in time for the Christmas rush!). Then I'll be diving into my agent research. I've heard querying at Christmas time is not such a great idea - because everyone is busy? Have you heard this?

D. Robert Pease said...

What I don't understand is we both use Blogger. It is quite possible it is a FireFox thing, or a Mac thing but it really bugs me.

I can't wait to read your story. Christmas might be tough, or maybe it'll be easier to read it with time off from working.

As to contacting agents, during the holidays, yes I've heard it can be a harder time, but it seems like agents always end with, "But don't let that stop you. Query when you are ready, not when you think we are." Probably because they don't want to see their inboxes empty for a month. Although from the sounds of most of them that would be a welcome change.

BTW, I'd be happy to send you my spreadsheet with my agents in it. Since we are targeting the same type of agent. I'm up to a bit over 30 of them.

Stuart said...

A very late congrats! I've yet to even come close to 50K in a month.

This comment brought to you by the verification word: bedale :)