I win

Well, I’m done the NaNoWriMo challenge and completed a 50,000 word novel in the month of November! I finished last night around 10:30 and it was unexpectedly a bit of a let-down. I guess I hadn’t really thought through what finishing would be like. I hadn’t expected to end my novel word count somewhere in the middle of page 47 rather than at the end of the story, but I overestimated how many words I would need to write the ending and so I had to go back and fill in description and details and a few more scenes in order to get to 50,000. It was brutal.

So when I hit 50,000 last night, and nothing happened, I was suddenly a bit sad. This tremendous amount of work didn’t end with a bang, with confetti or trumpet fanfares or banners. It ended with me putting up this nifty little graphic on my facebook and going to bed.

I don’t know what I’m going to do with all this free time all of a sudden. I guess it means now I can actually read all those books that have been waiting patiently on my shelf. I’ll be back to blogging, though I’m not sure how much we’ll blog while we’re in Germany (16 days till we fly!). And eventually I will start editing, but right now I’m done. I know what’s wrong with it and there’s plenty wrong with it, but it will get there. And maybe someday in spring I’ll even think about sending an excerpt to some small Canadian presses so that I can get a start on collecting my fair share of rejection slips. YAY!

From the Archives

I’m procrastinating a little on getting started with my writing today . . . maybe has something to do with this being the first day I’m behind, due to a totally worthwhile and awesome double-date last night with John and Sarah. Also maybe has something to do with the fact that I need to step off the map for awhile before I can get back to my outline because there are a whole bunch of missing pieces to fill in. Scary!

Anyway . . . I was browsing through my old version of this novel – 81,000 words. I didn’t even realize I had written that much the last time. It’s a totally different story now. Anyway . . . I found this poem in there and thought I’d put it up because I like the atmosphere it captures.

when we would walk
do you remember the night breezes?
the tiny flowers along the path
I never picked them, once you put one in my hair.

when we would walk
and whispers fit better in the wood stillness
do you remember the footstep echoes on the bridges?
we’d stop and stare into the water, watching the cloud reflections.

when we would walk
do you remember what we talked?
the subjects covering the ground like fallen leaves
too many to count, too old to pick up again

when we would walk
in the night, only your strong lean hand to catch me
do you remember the trains going by?
you wanted to catch one and ride away. I – I wanted you to stay.

when we would walk
the haunting whistles in the mist
do you remember all the times we kissed?

Ok – back to that daunting task of whittling through 3,000 words today.