Hey all! Been awhile since I checked in. I took down Patreon for now. I’ve been a bit stressed between writing novels, working for GERM, and working at taekwondo. So I got overwhelmed. I picked a bad month to try and start the campaign.
It will come back once I feel a little more steady on my feet.
Anyway, the reason we’re here! We’re in the last hour and a half of writing time for Camp NaNoWriMo for the central US timezone. Am I writing now? No. I finished about a half hour ago or so. Not only did I get my writing goal complete (40,000 in the month), but I completed the project I was working on.
Though I keep having this urge to add a sequel hook when I intend for this to be a standalone novel.
But I have a REALLY GREAT sequel hook.
Decisions, decisions…
So obviously Camp NaNoWriMo went well for me. I hope it went for all of you.
I guess I’m feeling a little out of sorts about finishing this novel. I started this novel in 2012, following my grandmother’s death. I stopped working on it for November 2012 because NaNoWriMo and that seemed to be the stamp of death for it. I was terribly blocked and burned out following NaNo 2012 because I tried to write the wrong novel at the wrong time and was overall really depressed and anxious.
I can’t remember when I started working on it again, but I decided to pick it up between projects. I got some done, you know, just a little here and there. Including one scene that makes me laugh out loud whenever I read it.
It got shelved again.
And then a friend asked me to cover Camp NaNoWriMo for GERM and I wound up signing up to participate. I decided I’d use this novel because well, I wanted to finish it. I think it has an interesting story. now I realize I need to revise a bunch of things and make a few things more apparent and I don’t like the primary antagonist’s name anymore
But actually finishing the project has me a little down. Finishing a novel always makes me feel a little down anyway. It’s the end of a very long journey and the start of an even longer one (the editing process). But I always feel a bit sad that my characters are done telling me their story for the first time. Maybe that’s why I want to add the sequel hook – its another 1k-2k words with my characters before I have to let go.
Anyway. I’m going to let the draft decompress for a week or so, then get to revising a few chapters, then send it to my beta readers.
~LL
Rants from a Starving Writer 