Listen to Pilot Light

Saturday, December 7, 2013

The November Challenge & its aftermath

So I wrote about taking on the challenge to write a 50,000 word draft of a novel in the month of November and it went fairly well. I wound up getting about 62,000 words done. That sounds like a lot, except that as it sits, and ferments, I know it needs a lot of work. It will be a lot longer when I'm done, which ain't bad. (THE SUN ALSO RISES is 68,000 words and it is shortish). I imagine it will come in around 90,000 words by the time I put in all the thoughts that I skipped, skimmed and otherwise didn't get in in their entirety (ever since I finished they've been bugging me to get them in in their entirety, the buggers).

I have lots of notes. Lots to do, and the ideas are still buzzing about like annoying insects (although all insects that buzz are not annoying. In Cambodia I grew very fond of buzzing dragonflies, because they eat other buzzing things). The ideas develop. It's a process, I tell myself (I should listen to myself more than I do). Trust in the process.

So it was an interesting experiment. I succeeded at the ostensible goal of stringing together more than 50,000 words of a story, but it isn't exactly a draft yet. The whole plot is there, but not the whole story.

Stay tuned.

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