As I said on Saturday, I did it. I wrote 50,000+ words on one story in less than 30 days. It was crazy and fun and frustrating and exhilarating all at the same time. In the span of 8 days I went from completely stuck and contemplating quitting to finished.
Is it a great story? No. It has a lot of dead spots that weren't all that exciting to write and I am afraid they will be even more dreadful to read. But there are moments that I really got lost in the story. I am hoping when I revisit those spots, I will still feel that way.
What's next?
1) Nothing, at least as far as this story goes. I have had a couple ideas of how to make it into a real novel - a way to cut out the dead spots and to beef it up to a word count that would work for an actual novel. I want to get those ideas down on paper and then walk away. I have some other writing projects I would like to work on between now and the end of the year, along with enjoying the holiday/birthday season around here.
2) Read it - in January. I will read through it once and see what I think.
3) Type and revise/edit. I tried not to do too much editing. I might have fixed something that was glaringly off base for something I wrote later, but I only did something with it if I could fix it with a different word or two. I did insert some dialogue or draw some arrows to move thoughts around. But it will need a lot more help. As I said before, some of my conflicts aren't big enough. In life I prefer to avoid conflict when I can, but I have realized that even though it makes me uncomfortable, it is a necessary part of an interesting story. Also, if I go ahead with the changes I have been thinking about, it will mean a complete overhaul of this story and a lot more writing. We'll have to wait and see.
So, that's it. A quick summary of my journey to write 50,000 words in a month. We'll have to see what the next year holds to see if I am going to do it again in 2010. I'm not opposed to it, but I am not ready to commit again to the craziness just yet.
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