NoNoWriMo

No Novel-Written Month for me

During the month of November, I wrote 15,872 words on “The Unintended Mongrel.” National Novel Writing Month’s challenge is 50,000 words. However, I don’t feel bad about not making that goal.

I haven’t worked on the novel since I learned of the death of my sister, Mary. I will get back to it, probably later this month, but I needed a break. Considering death’s emotional toll, the legal aspects of it shouldn’t be this difficult, especially since her estate seems to be comparatively simple. I’m planning to incorporate some of this into another novel I’ve been working on, one that is untitled and that has proven to be an emotional challenge. It’s inspired by my mother’s death from lung cancer, when I was 25. As the main character faces the loss of her own mother to cancer, it dredges up her alcoholic father’s death, which involved hitting and killing a family while driving drunk. My own father died when I was 16, from heart failure complicated because of respiratory illness brought on by smoking. Like my sister, who was just 50.

Looking back over the month, I realistically probably wouldn’t have made the NaNoWriMo goal, regardless. To my surprise, I’m not that fast of a writer. Also, I had too many demands on my time and energy this year. I generally like such challenges, sometimes to the point that I push myself too hard. I have a fresh understanding now of the need to enjoy life. I don’t want to negate what I’ve done simply because I didn’t reach the NaNoWriMo goal. Nearly 16,000 words is a very good start on a novel, and I like what I’ve written. I’m glad I attempted the challenge, as it got me started. I’m enthusiastic about this book, and I’ll probably post more excerpts as I continue to work on it. I’m averaging about 1,000 words per scene card, and I have 63 scene cards left to work from, but that will likely increase. I’ve added a few as I’ve written and come to understand the story better through that process. I’m sure I’ll also expand when I get to the editing stages and spot any holes or weaknesses. The book will likely end up as a shorter novel rather than an opus. I hope to finish it by the end of 2007.