50,161 Day 31, 50 minutes before midnight

[lobelia321]

Wow.

I have done it.

I have written a novel in a month.

I have written 50,161 words. This is an estimate. 35,408 words are word counted by my computer programme. 14,753 is my ball park count of my long-hand. But I am fairly sure that I have hit the 50,000 word finish line target.

I feel very, very good.

I also feel very strange.

I have lots of thoughts about this whole venture which thoughts I will pen tomorrow or the days after. I am also distracted still by thoughts of online deaths; this has tempered the last 1 1/2 days of typing.

Of the 19 plot holes that needed resolving during the last 8,500 words, 8 remain unresolved despite the words THE END at the bottom of the word document. 5 of those plot holes are crucial for the plot. Hm!

This has been an amazing adventure.

What I will do next: Read the last chapter of Chris Baty's No Plot? No Problem! Type up the 14,753 words of long-hand (try and decipher them!). Do a revised word count. Devise a title. Make a title page. Print the manuscript out. READ IT!

What an indulgence. I haven't read a single page of this novel. Chris Baty advises against it. I'm very curious to know what I've written! I shall take Jane Smiley's approach: The rough draft is not for you to judge, it's for you to understand. I want to figure out what the hell I've produced here.

After I've read it, I will see. I would like to resolve the plot holes, at the very least. And add chapters. Make a post about all wot i have learned during the past 31 days.

Oh, and celebrate! :-) Find out if I can collect the NaNoWriMo virtual icon even though I didn't do the nano in the designated month of November.

T'h has told everyone he knows that I am writing a novel. He thinks I am 'cutting edge'.

Wow. I invented characters! I invented a lot of characters, and they got involved in a lot of plot. Possibly too much plot and too many characters and povs veering merrily -- but halt! 'tis not for me to judge!

The icon, by the way, refers to the main McGuffin of my novel: a (black) lapis lazuli from Sang-el-Sar, broken in two. I cheated a teensy bit and used a novel idea I'd already had pre-wrimo. This is why I had the ready-made icon. But then I only remembered the importance of this item by around 35,000 words...! The story is set in Afghanistan, London and Heidelberg. I'm allowed to talk about it now!

Today, I felt a strong yearning for fanfic. After all that origfic. I would like to finish my wraith/Sheppard on a desert island fic, and my Desert Prince WIP.

I can't believe I wrote a novel. Strange veins of happiness shoot through me from time to time.



Novel playlist:

Mitwa, from Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna
Plan A, by The Dandy Warhols
Gimme Danger, by Iggy & The Stooges
Green, by The Dandy Warhols
Clint Eastwood (Ed Case Mix), by the Gorillaz
Esperanza, by Manu Chao
Sympathy For The Devil, by The Rolling Stones
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, by Ennio Morricone
Gimme danger, version by Ewan McGregor, from Velvet Goldmine
Baby Cakes ,by 3 Of A Kind
Jerk It Out, by the Caesars
Ain't No Sunshine, by Bill Withers
Not Your Bottle, by The Dandy Warhols
Persian Love, by Holger Czukay, using a traditional Persian love song
Us, by Regina Spektor (thank you, lim!)
My Doorbell, by The White Stripes
Smells Like Teen Spirit, performed by the Ukelele Orchestra of Great Britain, after Nirvana
Dance Of Eagle, by Sainkho Namtchylak
Mere Haath Mein Jatin Pandit, from Fanaa

Comments

[blueswan9.livejournal.com]

Congratulations! You did it. Hurray!!

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Thank you!! I feel so proud and happy.

[birdgerhl.livejournal.com]

yay!!!! well done!!! it's such an amazing feeling!!!

:)

is the nano book useful???

b.x :)

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Thank you! it's such an amazing feeling!!! Oh, it absolutely is! Did you feel amazed, too? I've been floating on the afterglow for days now. And I haven't even finished typing in the 14,573 words of shite wot i wrote in longhand -- I'm getting through about 1,000 to 2,000 a day. The nano book is phenomenally useful and I suspect will be even more so once I've printed it out and can finally read it. I will make a post at some stage; I've learned loads already.

[grondfic.livejournal.com]

Well done. I knew you'd make it.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

You did? Thank you!!

[sheldrake.livejournal.com]

Amazing! :)

*applauds*

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Shel, you need to try this. It's better than champagne. I've been floating on the afterglow for days. I'm still busy typing in the 14,573 words wot were written in longhand (and of those words, 14,473 are utter shite but I try and switch the brain off when I input them, typing-pool style) so I've still got the print-out to look forward to but already I feel great.

Have been reading A.L. Kennedy. After a rollicking start, it is now somewhat slow going. Hm.

[sheldrake.livejournal.com]

Hooray! :)

Meanwhild, our date with A.L. grows every nearer... What will she make us do?? Any clues in her book? Does she seem like an unnecessarily sadistic person?

[birdgerhl.livejournal.com]

OMG is your workshop with a.l. kennedy????!!!!!!!!

*jealous*

have to admit that i have not read any of her novels but i adore her columns in the guardian.

b.x :)

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Oh. She has columns in the Guardian? *sheepish* On what days?

[birdgerhl.livejournal.com]

irregularly - but here's a cool interview with her:
http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/generalfiction/story/0,,2042048,00.html

i will admit that for ages i thought she was a bloke...she comes across as if she takes Absolutely No Shit (in her articles, at any rate). i will be intrigued to hear what she is like. i think i'd be quite scared to meet her, and i am not easily intimidated by people, *lol*.

b.x :)

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Yikes, I'm terrified now. Well, not really. sheldrake: we must quake in our boots.

She looks all right in this photo:



At least I'll not be alone. We will be in a roomful of timid Cambridge ladies. I hope!

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

P.S. A.L. stands for Alison Louise.

Somehow, if you're called Alison Louise you're less intimidating than A.L.

[sheldrake.livejournal.com]

I became scared immediately upon perusing her website. I'm kind of ok with that though. :) Last time I was involved in a writing workshop I was about 17. It was not good. I had a sort of battle of wills with the poor person what was doing it. Actually, I lie - I was in another one after that with someone who wrote for Casualty, haha, and it was quite good. That was the story of me and writing workshops.

Cheers for the link!

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

A.L.'s book is full of swearwords and inner torment. Secondary characters are very sketchily wheeled on and off; description of place gets surprising short shrift, considering it's about a handful of people living on a small island. Which would (to me) also necessitate going into the other people in the handful some more but she focuses on the two main characters. The man of the duo is very, very tortured and there is much inner monologue, sometimes in italics, sometimes in bold italics. There is a lot of crafty attention paid to individual turns of phrase and similes, and not a lot of plot. There is graphic description of sex. What this translates into for the purposes of a workshop: I HAVE NO IDEA!!!!!

When are you arriving on the Saturday?

[sheldrake.livejournal.com]

I'll have to check the timetable for specifics, but when would be most convenient for me to arrive on the Saturday? I'm happy to work around you. :)

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Sometime after 4 pm is good as I have a 'how to get published' panel until 3.30 pm. I know: I have gone somewhat overboard on this literary festival. I've never been to one before nor have I evah done a writing workshop, not for Casualty even, and I am kind of O.D.ing.

What with this nano malarkey, I've not even seen your Torchwood episode!

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

birdgerhl tells me that she'd be scared to meet A.L. (who, btw, is called Alison Louise). This bodes not too well. Still, she doesn't look too scary in this photo:



Also, being called Alison is less intimidating than being called A.L.

[sheldrake.livejournal.com]

Haha, I was going to say, do we have to call her AL? Or Miss? I'm glad she has a proper human name.

[birdgerhl.livejournal.com]

she's probably delightful. if a tad menacing.

b.x :)

[sheldrake.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I kind of like that idea, heheh. :)

Morning, bg!

[birdgerhl.livejournal.com]

...er, afternoon, ducks!

b.x :)

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

I totally opt for 'Miss.'

[junalele.livejournal.com]

Wow! Congratulations!!! Yes, do celebrate!!!

I only ever wrote so many words in such a short span of time for my master thesis and I had to while you decided to do it. I'm so very much impressed.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'm still basking in the afterglow. :-)

[junalele.livejournal.com]

You do that. :D

Btw, who is that woman in your icon? I so do know her from somewhere...*ponders*

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

This is Woman Whose Name I Have Been Unable to Unearth and who was a Warrior of Gondor extra in Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. I love her. She is one of my AU rps characters in my ongoing WIP wot i haven't worked on for about 3 years now...

[junalele.livejournal.com]

Great name! And she's simply beautiful!

AU rps? Are there parts out yet?

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Desert Prince. This has been lying dormant for ages. :-)

[junalele.livejournal.com]

But...meep! - character death? Like one of the important ones? Because I so shy away from character death. And mpreg. Karl, though.... *purrs*

[msilverstar]

WOOT!!!

Not that I'm really surprised, that's the Sort Of Thing You Do. But I'm glad you got out the other side!

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Thank you! How lovely that you have such faith in me. It makes me have faith myself! :-)

[sophrosyne31.livejournal.com]

Woman, that is AWESOME and you should be haloed in PLEASEDNESS about yourself. I am emerald with envy and DEAD IMPRESSED and I dips me lid to you, ma'am, I really really do. Wonderful!

And I will imagine you cackling gleefully when you finally do read it all back and find that your marvellous, fertile brain has conjured all sorts of marvels for you to feed on further.

Wowsers, Lobe. Bloody well done! Feel proud as heck!

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Coming from you, this is especially meaningful as you are the one I am DEAD IMPRESSED with cos u r the one wot has PUBLISHED an international bestseller omg

But I'm still coasting on the afterglow of having written a novel. :-)

[sophrosyne31.livejournal.com]

Crikey, u r too generous with ur praise. I am now in exactly the same position as you in re: novel progress, so let's just battle through side by side, wot?

Best of British, dearie!

PS I too always wondered who the spunky girl in that icon is. She's so happy!

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

How can you possibly say that we're in the same position? You are a published authoress and your current novel is in heaps of a better state than my sorry pile of chaotic words. (I just re-read Chris Baty's book and discovered that I've got the 'post nano blues'. He advises against re-reading the novel immediately. Today I typed up the last bit of long-hand and closed the laptop lid with the thought, my, what a heap of shite.) Did you ever feel that way?

[sophrosyne31.livejournal.com]

Did you ever feel that way?

HAHAHAHAH only every second minute!

First book was not so bad. But I did it in a class, and had kind people telling me it was good from the start (whether that's true is not exactly for me to say, but I was proud of it). Second book is murder. Someone who knows this stuff said to me 'You only get the first book for free', and she was right. You've just finished a first book, don't forget, apart from your novel!

I too am in post-first-draft blues. It's ghastly. Someone gave me a book called 'The Courage to Write', which is somewhat mollifying, but I'm yet to get to any part of it that talks about the brain-crushing fear that the whole thing is just shit. There's another marvellous, Australian, book called 'Making Stories' which is interviews with Peter Carey, and other eminent writers, about their process of putting a novel together. IT's SO encouraging, Lobe, it's all about how they have no idea what they're doing and how at certain points they lie on the floor and cry and feel like they're going to make a fool of themselves by publishing it and it's never going to come together, etc. It was the writer who said about the first book being free who's the most inspiring interviewee in it, too (Helen Garner). It did make me feel better, in the sense that I'm not freakish for being so panicked and despondent. Not that panic is necessarily a guarantee that the book will actually be good at the end, but...

Darling, you are a very, very talented writer, and I have no doubt at ALL that in your ms there is a good book. It might be buried or you might be a genius who's produced a great work on first try! But it's in there, and hopefully you'll find it.

As for mine... *quiet scream*

Oh well, we can only try!

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Thank you for this useful link to Courage to Write book. And the Making Stories! I have a similar book on Australian and other writers and it's one of the best books on writing I have. Go Australians. I just ordered that Making Stories book. It wasn't on amazon and is out of print but I got it via Abebooks from a bookstore in Rosebud, Victoria!

You are very sweet with all your encouragement. Today, I started a second novel to rid myself of the first-novel blues!

Why is yours a quiet scream?

[sophrosyne31.livejournal.com]

Oh good, I checked amazon.com for 'making stories' but it said it was out of print. it's such an encouraging book, marvellous. i know several writers who swear by it (must get a copy myself).

yes australian writers seem quite happy admitting to huge amounts of neurosis and terror. we're tough like that.

and i am dead impressed you're already onto novel #2. i think sometimes i should do the same. novel #1 makes me want to beat my head against an axe. (sorry, extra-violent image there.) you must be a-fired with writing ju-ju, how fantastic!

and my scream is quiet because if i let loose the truly loud chilling shriek that i'd like to, my neighbours would come running and spoil my fun. i just hate my novel so much at the moment -- i think because i've written it into a certain direction, and have given up (it feels) the chance to do it differently without having to take out a lot of hard work and admit failure... all of which are things i know writers sometimes have to do (tim winton realising that 'dirt music' was inherently bad about a week before submission, taking to his bed for an entire week, and then getting up and heroically cutting the novel down to a quarter and starting again...).

oh well, will open up the files right now and have a good glare at them. honestly, lobe, this is a dismal stage.