Cyber Champ

As you know, or don't know, as your case might be, I participated in National Novel Writing Month this November. This is something that someone made up like a fictional character, but it gets bigger each year. It's like, at least for me, a cyber contest with yourself. Er...myself. And anyway, as you know, November is now over.

So, how did it go? Not that I think you are really asking yourself this...In fact, that is why I asked it for you. Anyway, it went well. This year, again, I did not reach 50,000 words, but like last year I don't feel no shame in that. In fact, I feel like a cyber champ. I got just over 31,000 words written (5,000 less than last year), and I wrote only about half the days. I did a lot of research, probably research I should have had done before November, but like Sheriff says, twenty twenty the hindsight and all.

When I got the idea for my first one a couple years ago, I sat down and started to write and realized that a. I had never written anything longer than a 30 line poem that wasn't a term paper, and 2. because of this I just didn't have the skills to write what I wanted to. So, I wrote 80,000 words of a REALLY bad novel that was REALLY good practice. When I decided to do NaNoWriMo, I didn't think I could do a serious novel in 30 days, so I went with something a lot more light, and hence was born Sheriff, who looks an awful lot like Craig Morgan the country singer, glares at everybody all the time using one of his repertoire of glares, visits his Auntie May June July on a regular basis, threw some punches at his best friend's nuptials, and has no other discernible name besides Sheriff.

I got a little work done on several of my other novels that have been waiting in the wings. I found out that some great girls I know write, too, and we'll be starting a writing group. And, I got the idea for my next book in the Sweetwater series. Actually, for a couple. So, all in all it was a good month for writing.

A long, long time ago, when I graduated from high school, a friend wrote in my yearbook, "keep writing and you'll be happy." And you know, he was right. I just wish I hadn't waited so long to act on the advice. But, like Sheriff says, twenty twenty the hindsight and all.

Comments

Elsie said…
I am really proud of you. You are a very good writer - and just seem to get better and better. I also glad that it makes you happy. Love Ya.
Dave said…
Well loddy-freakin'-dah! We got ourselves a writer here! Hey, Dad, I can't see too good is that Bill Shakespeare over there? Hey you kids are probably saying to yourselves: I'm gonna go out there and grab the world by the tail! and wrap it around and pull it down and put it in my pocket. Well I'm here to tell you that you're probably going to find out, as you go out there, that you're not going to amount to jack squat!
Dave said…
That is a funny quote I thought I'd share with you. Thanks for writting and working so hard to complete a goal. Happy to see you working on something that isn't involving me, or kids. That's awesome.
DK said…
So can we read some pages of your NanoWriMo novell? I wanted to join in too, but I had no time and 50.000 is really a lot of words!

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