Endings and Beginnings

I'm back! NaNoWriMo is over, and I'm here with my report.

I did not make it to 50,000 words. I made it to just over 35,000. That is not to say that I came away with nothing. Even if I never turn this draft into a proper book, that doesn't mean it was wasted.

I have learned a valuable lesson about myself. Even if I can't describe a setting, or a character, or world build worth shit, my god, can I kill people. It's like time slows down and I can detail every moment of their demise. There's a procedural cop show, I've forgotten which one, CSI or Bones or something, where it does this interior simulation of arteries getting severed and whatnot? It's like that.

So I killed Steve fifteen times, and rendered each one in beautiful detail, but at no point mentioned what he looked like. That's how I roll.

Then I had a lot of weird meat references, in regards to the human body, despite the fact that cannibalism never quite became an issue. Take this gruesome example:

It sliced through muscle and fascia like he was a tender cut of meat. And maybe he was. He felt like it. Like he could be cut with a fork.

It has this element of vulnerability, like he's just this squishy weak thing. I don't know if that's deep, or just gross. You decide.

The best part about the end of NaNo was that I was finally able to tally up all my stats. So, out of 35,196 words, there are:

• 17 deaths (that occur in-story, not in backstory)
• 69 uses of "blood" (and all its forms)
• 102 uses of "fuck"

Was that all necessary? Probably not. But it was fun, and that's what matters in NaNoWriMo.

So, what's next? Well, for this past week, I've been taking a break from writing. Just sitting back and clearing my head. I needed it. But, already, I'm thinking about, and getting excited for, the next thing. Up next is the biggest project I have ever tackled.

Revision.

I've revised short stories before. This is different. This is a novel. I'll be editing and rewriting Cold Blooded, my ice cream themed vampire novel from 2016. And dear god, do I not know where to start. I have 50,000 words (139 pages) of raw material. Some of it is good. Some of it is potentially good. Some of it is definitely crap.

I'll be starting with the big picture, the main plot arc, and working my way down, eventually, to actually picking the best words. It's going to be quite a project, and I'm giving myself until the end of 2019 to do it. To be honest, that seems like plenty of time, but I guess we'll see.

I'll see you next week.