Midweek #ROW80 Check-In and “The End”

Ahem.  The End.

Of the first draft anyway.

Last night I knocked out the first draft of Be Careful, It’s My Heart.  It came in right around 36k.  I expect it to top out around 40k once I’m done filling in holes.  I started this during Christmas break last year, but when I counted up actual number of days writing on it, it was only 45, so I was averaging 800 words a day, which made me quite happy.  I’ve been averaging a hell of a lot higher than that the last couple of weeks.

So right now, my printer is spitting out the paper copy to start first pass clean up.  I’m diving right in to that in order to get it out to betas soon.  At least one of them is ready to hold me hostage until it is in her hot little hands.  (I’m looking at you, Alice.)    She has a thing for my hero, Brody.

So.  That happened.  I’m psyched.

And in the fever of finishing, I have been bitten, as I am every year, by the NaNo bug.  I don’t know WHY I do this.  I mean, I started ROW80 as an alternative to NaNo.  But this time EVERY SINGLE YEAR, I get sucked in and sign up for NaNo.  It’s being faced with all these posts about NaNo and this morning I got an email from my book (yes, very clever NaNo site, very clever) begging to be written.

I have projects planned.  Short things with all kinds of practical reasons to write them, given life stuff that is on the horizon that will make short stuff infinitely more manageable than anything long.

And yet.

This one, at least, isn’t a NEW idea.  It’s actually the first full novel in the series of the novella I just finished.  Which, chronologically, comes before the story I just wrote, but whatever.  My head is IN THIS WORLD right now.  And I really, really want to take advantage of that.  It isn’t planned in more than the broadest of strokes, so I’d actually have a lot to sort out before diving in, if I actually DID choose to do this for NaNo because I no longer like diving in without a clear PLAN.  But the temptation is DEFINITELY there.  Even though November is Thanksgiving.  And an out of state family wedding.  And crazy shit at the Evil Day Job.  Because, you know, I’m totally susceptible to NaNo insanity.  :buries head in hands:

But first pass clean up on Be Careful first.  Then we’ll see if I still have the fever.

6 thoughts on “Midweek #ROW80 Check-In and “The End”

  1. I know how you feel about NaNo. There’s all this excitement in the air. It’s tempting. But I can’t write that way anymore. That spewing out of words that have to be fixed later. I just can’t do it anymore. I’m an edit as you go writer, and I don’t really want to change. I won NaNo two years in a row, and it just took too much out of me because I tried to write and edit at the same time. But I truly admire anyone who can go at that crazy pace. And I would support any friends who decide to do it and cheer them on!

  2. So happy that you finished your first draft! Congratulations!

    I’m a NaNo-er, too. I was a vehement skeptic until I tried it last year, and I loved it. So, in addition to being a fellow Foreword author, I’d be honored to be your writing buddy on the NaNo site, should you choose to embark on insanity with the rest of us this year.

  3. Oh, how I love that “being able to say The End” feeling. Congrats, Kait.

    NaNo though…. Hmm, I think you probably should do it if it keeps calling you, but do it on your own terms. Claim it. Make the challenge your own. Either set your own wordcount, or write something you’ve been wanting to finish for a while… Write a series of shorts.

    In the end, the work is yours, the stories are yours, the success and the choice to feel successful are yours. Why not take that last step? Claim your NaNo for you.

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