Viridian Dreams Forum

So, I realize that National Novel Writing Month was in November, but I am curious--did anyone here enter? If so, were you successful, and how did you feel about your finished product?

I am proud to say that I finished my book a day early, and have since finished it--it clocks in at about 53,000 words, a bit of a short novel. However, it still needs a lot of editing that I'm not sure I'll ever get around to doing. I grew not to like characters as much as the book went on, but I think they might deserve a second chance.

I've been a participant since 2006, but only won years 2007/8. This time round I was just way too busy with school to properly concentrate on my novel. Doesn't help that I lost interest in the story, either.

Of my "won" NaNos, I only like the one from 2007 and it's still not finished. Hmm. In lieu of any other original writing projects, maybe I should work on that.

Actually, to be fair, I love the concept of the 2008 novel, I'm just not well-travelled enough to pull it off. There's only so much you can make up before people start going 'Okay, have you travelled... ever?' (I mean, I have. Just not to the places that happened to feature in the novel. Also, most of the characters were 30-ish for some strange reason.)

For the NaNoWriMo coming up in 2010 I plan to write something which I can finish in 50,000 words.

I doubt I'll have the time this year, due to various things, but I would like to do it. I did last year but started like two weeks late and only got about 10k words in before life got busy and I stopped. Figure I'll try again eventually.

I can relate with the 'not travelled' thing...I've lived in the same house my whole life. I'm sometimes afraid to set stories in the real world, because I'm sure I'll find some way to give away my ignorance if I attempt to set the story anywhere but where I live. That's probably why I write so much fantasy and science fiction...then again, I don't seem to have much more luck with fantasy world-creation either. I was actually happy with the setting I made for this year's entry, though--it was just the characters who needed work.