NaNo Reflections

So that was… Interesting, to say the least.

Turns out November is a pretty crap month for getting things done in; there’s fighting the obligatory winter cold, End of term meet ups/parties/shindigs, so much college work, the fact that my class has only just decided we want to publish an anthology of which I masochistically chose the role of associate editor, Christmas money woes and anything else that happens to crop up (such as Terry Pratchett visits, parent wedding anniversaries and the like) so I didn’t reach my goal.

Because about 70% what I was doing was editing, not writing from scratch, I had intended to get the whole thing edited and ready for one final draft, or realistically speaking 60,000 words. I got about 52,000, fraud though I am I’m still sticking the badge up on my profile.

On the plus side I think I’ve got a pretty good system for editing sorted out now and I should have Rapeseed polished to the best of my ability by mid-January, then it’s in the hands of my beta readers.

You may have noticed my new Wordcount-o-meter in the side bar? It shows my various projects that my short attention span has birthed. I have some poetry and short stories in the works, maybe working towards a collection, joint or separate I’m not sure yet. I kind of like the idea of a joint poetry and prose collection a la Neil Gaiman. I also have begun my Creative Writing portfolio for college which will count for 70% of my mark (I think), so far it’s untitled. I’ll blog about that some time in the future. I also suffered a fit of frustration in the face of editing the sprawling mass that is the second half of Rapeseed and started a new novel called The Waiting Place, I intend to continue that sometime after the holidays.

That’s about it for now, as fun as NaNo was I wouldn’t recommend it for those who are editing, NaNo is about quantity not quality whereas editing is the exact opposite. Also for those of you who agree that November sucks I’d recommend A Round of Words in 80 Days instead.