Beyond NaNo

I am absolutely exhausted tonight -- it's the first of December, and NaNoWriMo? Is done for another year. I have to say that I was relatively successful, even if I didn't get quite as far as I wanted...the basic goal is of course fifty thousand words, though to be perfectly honest I knew I could do that. I did 77k in seventeen days in 2003, so I knew I could do it. So, I upped the ante to 100k. Which I did manage to do. I just...didn't quite push on through until the end, which was a little bit of a disappointment to me. My Inner Editor is also back and raging like a bitch, so I have decided to sidestep her a little and have now officially stopped work on The Juniper Bones for at least a couple of weeks.

So, what am I doing at the moment? I am thinking I need to make a real effort to write something every day, even if it's only a little bit. I haven't managed anything tonight and I'm not sure I will, as I am exhausted and I have the urge to go and read some of my graded Japanese readers for a bit, in order to keep my hand in. But I have decided there are three things I must sort by the end of the month:

The Neverboy -- this is a "children's" novel I am writing for my nephew. The massive sarcasm quotes come from two facts; one, he's four years old and it's geared more towards twelve/thirteen year olds, and two, it's overlong. And it's not even finished. But I want to finish it. It's a golden example of my problem with my Inner Editor, in that another ten or fifteen thousand words would finish it AND it's actually dialogued through all the way to the end. I just can't bring myself to do it. It's been hanging in this form for at least a year now, so...that's a wee task for me. And I think I know what I need to do to break through the barrier I've erected around it in my mind, so we'll just...go from there? I might try to do five hundred words tonight before I have a shower and then go back to my Japanese study.

Tea For Two -- a slight experimental short story of six thousand words. I wrote most of it on Sunday, but again, finishing it seems beyond me. Certainly I should have it done by the weekend. It's just irritating me in that it's for an "Erotic Gothic" theme anthology, but instead of being inspired by Anne Rice it seems to have gone the route of H.P. Lovecraft. You think I'm joking, but I'm not. I blame the Miskatonic University for it, even though originally it was Ohtori Academy that started it. And you'd think a school with a gigantic phallus for a Chairman's tower would be more about the erotica than the horror, wouldn't you. (GODDAMMIT, AKIO, THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT. YOU, AND THAT DARN CTHULHU.)

Sin of Seven -- this is for a different anthology, called The Long and the Short, a local anthology about stories and passing them on. I wrote the basic story almost two years ago and promptly forgot about it, but I must have mentioned it on IRG because in the back of Jenee's car on the way home from Cochon one night in New Orleans, Rachel told me how much she'd loved and been touched by it, and...well, I could have cried for the surprise and gratitude I felt. So, I decided I might rework it to be more standalone than it currently is, and then give it a go. It has to be done by the 24th, so again if I finish the reworked draft this weekend...someone -- probably poor Rachel! -- will be able to beta for sense and sensibility and I should be able to then nitpick and submit by the 24th. I'd originally thought of doing The Simple Story, actually, considering that story actually is two stories in one, but...even though I love the idea of it, I'm not sure the people I'd be submitting it to would. Probably too much sex and homosexuality in it, for starters. And there's not actually a lot. But...you know. People will be people. I might just hang off on that one for the meantime, and go with Jeramie's little cycle of the seven sins instead.

So, yes: I am thinking that in 2011 I really need to make an effort to start finishing and submitting things. I should also edit For What We Drown, and either finish Hibernaculum or write People In Looking-Glass Houses. There's a lot for me to do, and...I really need to do it.

So, I suppose I ought to go get my five hundred words. NaNo may be over, but I really do have work still to do. <3