That is, I have finished the first draft of my first complete novel. And I won for National Novel Writing Month and I have the gif graphic file and PDF certificate to prove it. It felt right and natural to spend time each day writing in my notebooks and crafting my story. It also felt more natural than writing a short story, a form of the writing arts often used to teach aspiring writers, but one I find exceedingly difficult to do well. It felt so good to write a novel that I think I can no longer put myself out there as a "reluctant writer." How can I call myself reluctant when I spent two hours a day writing for over a whole month?
An aternative to shutting down this blog is to put my name out there like other writers I know, with my name in the name of the URL, for example. Even though I would not miss the text of my blog so much -- I have archives -- I would miss are my "Typelists." I keep kept careful track of books that that I've read and books that I'm currently reading. For now, I'll try publishing the occassional post to Facebook
The next step, according to Chris Baty's book, No Plot? No Problem!: A Low-Stress, High-Velocity Guide to Writing a Novel in 30 Days, is for me to read my own novel and decide if I want to invest a year in editing it, caring for it, polishing it. This, I plan to do in January, after the holiday craziness. If I proceed with my first novel, the very next step will be to transcribe it from paper to digital.
For so many years, I've had the occassional chapter or two, the false starts, the short stories. In conclusion, I absolutely love having an actual novel to deal with!
Nancy -- sad to say, I haven't checked your blog recently, but you crossed my mind and I came right here to see if you finished.
Congratulations! It is four weeks late, but good wishes don't get stale even when they are left out too long.
Was writing the title the easiest or hardest part of the writing process?
It also crosses my mind, does an author write a dedication only upon publication, or does it come even before the idea for the novel?
Anyway, I'm glad to hear you persevered, and I can't wait to attend your book signing in Austin.
Posted by: Jim Battle | January 2, 2009 at 11:00 PM