Perpetual Ruminations

Thursday

Wow, what a great feeling. I finished my novel for NaNoWriMo tonight. I ended up writing 73351 words with the notes and outline. I have 19 chapters and may end up with 20 after I edit it. I took four days off during the period of writing, so I actually wrote it a bit sooner, but for practicality I'm going with todays date which makes one novel in three weeks. Unedited of course.

What makes this even more exciting is it is my first novel and my first attempt at NaNo, and I not only made it to the fifty thousand words needed in one month, but exceeded them by nearly another half a novel, and did it in three weeks instead of four. What a rush. I do have to say, writing this much has it's pains, too. I actually hurt from typing. My neck and shoulders are tight, and my arms ache. I did set myself in a good posture so I don't have sore wrists and other problems.

I plan on keeping a copy of h this for my own reminder that I can do it. I want to save a copy just as it came out, rough and crude though it may be. I also think I will try and edit this out and see how it goes. The main thing is I didn't cheat in any way.

It was a last minute decision to even do the challenge of NaNo two days before it started. the next day I put some thought into what I wanted to write and came up with an idea. It was based on the idea I had for a short story about two people meeting on the shore while camping. I didn't have much more than that, so it worked good for this challenge. On November first, I wrote out a brief outline on paper at work.

After I got home I took that and added some more ideas, situations, and how I wanted it to end. I also made a few notes for the story. That was it for day one, notes and outline made up just over two thousand words. Day two I started the novel and on the twenty-first I finished it. I stll have to upload the last few chapters to ZoHo and then do an official count for the NaNo site. It won't have the notes and outline, so I figure the final count of the novel itself will be just over seventy grand. I also want to write a prologue for the story which will put it right back up to the count with notes and outline.

I should be in bed sleeping, but I'm too excited over completing this challenge, so one more brandy to celebrate, then it's off to bed. Tomorrow I'm up at three in the morning, then off to work for another day. After, I hope to get it uploaded and counted, then it's nap time.