Under a Gibbous Moon

Sorry about the lack of updates through the month of November but NaNoWriMo really kicked my ass this year.

I did manage to hit 50,000 words again this year but it was a push near the end. I did basically the last half of the novel in the last week. I was totally unprepared this year which was kind of sad because I had the basic idea planned for most of the year but then I decided I didn’t like it and started prep on another, decided I didn’t like that one, and then went back and reworked my original idea into something different. Come November 1st, I didn’t even know how the novel was going to start.

I spent hours of precious writing time just doing the research that I needed to do the actual writing. It was not a pretty sight. My browser would have so many tabs open that it was difficult to actually click on them.

So now that it’s finally December I can go back to doing other things with my free time  than just writing.

Still, it was worth it.

It finally arrived in the mail. Wait, I should probably go back a step.

Everyone who completed their NaNoWriMo novel back in November was given a free print copy by createspace.com (Amazon’s publishing arm). I finally got around to doing the final edit and submitting it to printed. The process was much faster than the 27 March date they gave me, but I’m not complaining.

Anyway, here it is:

The cover, so glossy!

The spine, a full 233 pages thick

Even though its not really “published” it is still neat to be able to physically hold a book that I wrote. It shall have a revered and holy place on my book shelf.

OK, I’m done now.

Finally, after a long, long, long, long, long time, I have finished the final edit of my 2009 National Novel Writing Month Novel. There is one joy to going back and editing something long after the fact, you realize exactly how much it stinks.

Truly, though, that was the point of the exercise. Well, not so much to write a crappy novel as to just write one at all. I, like many others, get caught up in whether or not the writing or the plot and whatnot is good enough that we never actually getting around to writing anything.

It’s not the worst thing that I’ve ever read but it’ll never be a classic. So here, for your enjoyment, is my novel.

Last night, I finally managed to break through the 50K barrier. For my efforts I got that nifty little badge to place on my blog. A bit gaudy but it won’t stay up there forever.

Despite the win, my novel is still not done yet. I have yet to finish the first edit. Then after that, it will need more further polishing before I will consider it done, maybe by the end of December. After I am satisfied with it I will be putting it up here as a CC licensed download.

Now that I’m not spending all my time on it, I can finally catch up on current events and actually do some more blogging.

Well the novel is finished. At least it is finished in the sense that I have reached “The End” (and no, I did not actually write that). Unfortunately I am at 44,778 words.

What this means is that I now have some serious padding to do. I mean editing, yes editing I like the sound of that better. As long as I can “edit” another 350 words or so into each scene I should be home free. And with a mere 5 days left to write. So much for sleeping.