NaNoWriMo update #4: done and dusted!

Holy shit. Oh my god. It’s finished. As of RIGHT NOW, Lament for a Toy Factory (formerly known as The Man Machine but I couldn’t think of a better name) is done and dusted. It’s been one hell of a ride.

I don’t think I’ve fully realised it yet. I’m still jittery, the way I am when I’m trying to get enough words written before bedtime. I think I’ll understand that I’m free after I’ve spent a few hours watching movies or playing games – whatever I do when I’m not bashing out a 50K word novel in a month.

A few end-of-the-line challenges reared their ugly heads over the last week. Firstly, I honestly thought I was going to have to scramble for more words. I had about 7K words left to go and a pretty clear idea of what I wanted to happen between where I was and the end… the only problem was fleshing it out. Luckily, writing it out ended up giving me more than enough words – see above!

My second challenge (and this will probably bug me until I actually go back and edit the damn novel) was trying to remember what I had written. Honestly, it’s been a blur. I didn’t remember what I had written 10K words ago, let alone 20K, let alone 30K… you get the drift. As a result, I think I managed to tie up all the loose ends. I think the characters did what they had to do. I’ll have to go through and read it all to make sure.

Which leads me to a challenge I haven’t tackled yet – the editing stage. I’m dreading this. The last time I participated in NNWM it took me about three years before I willed myself to read my novel again (it’s actually not bad). This time, I’m going to edit it sooner than that – I want to claim my free book copies from Createspace, dammit!

But honestly, after this crazy, stressful period, during which I’ve been moody and cranky (apologies to my folks and to J), I’d probably do it again. Eventually. I’m very interested in tackling The Kernel’s NaNoWriWee (National Novel Writing Weekend) next January, in which folks will have to write a novel in 30 hours. To be honest, I prefer this concept a lot more – I think it would help me keep the overarching story in focus. I’ve got an idea I’d like to try writing too.

But for now, congratulations to everyone who participated and made it through as well! See you next NaNoWriMo… or maybe the one after that. Or the one after that. Repeat ad nauseum…