Back to the land of the living!

After the blur of writing that was JulNoWriMo, it's good to have emerged out the other side. If I ever thought that trying to write 50k in a month would be a simple undertaking, I was certainly mistaken. Even greater kudos to those who went above and beyond the requirements! The WC amounts that some people made in July were astounding. And inspiring.

It was definitely an important experience for me, if not difficult - one that allowed me to add over 50,000 more words to my Plan C manuscript. At current estimation, it will take me about 25-30k more words to completely finish my zero draft, but, hey! It's definitely a start.

Current Plan C Word Count: 52,632+

Current Page Count: 236

Current Chapter Count: 20

Since getting back to California, things have certainly been busy. Busy, but good. On Wednesday, I met with my new academic advisor and the professor who's going to help me with my directed research. We talked about how the program will proceed - as it's directed research, and I'm the only student taking part - we could pretty much design our own course, with certain guidlines in place, natch.

Alas, one of the first things he asked for was my as-of-yet mostly unedited Plan C novel file. I cannot adequately describe the inner turmoil it caused me to willingly hand it over. One of the thoughts that had sustained me during my JulNo trek was the idea that no one would ever read my zero draft before I would have a chance to correct it. Well, so much for that!

And, as I sent him the file a few days ago, I know that he's already started reading it, too, for he asked me a few questions at the meeting, particularly about my characters Dyana Trigg, Dr Cornellius. Frayne, and Ridley Devon. One of the first he asked: "Tell me about Dyana." Awkward. (These characters have existed primarily in my own mind for so long that it's weird to discuss them with others. The feeling is kind of hard to describe.)

Already, I'm becoming painfully aware of the logical fallacies, plot gaps, general errors of the book as it stands - not because of anything that he has said, but more as a result of my own perfectionism. It's a disease, I swear. I suppose that this will be like ripping off a bandaid - dreadfully unpleasant, but hopefully quick. Although, the draft is currently pretty awful, so...

I'm taking this directed research for two semesters - the first is called "Novel Drafting," the second "Novel Finishing." What does that mean? It means that I'm going to have a complete working draft of Plan C by DECEMBER 11TH. The spring semester willl be spent fine-tuning the book and making the more minute edits that will be needed to making it generally readable (and, hopefully, on the way to becoming publishable).

I handed over the most recent revision of Plan C chapter one, which I'm thinking of tacking up here next. I've printed out chapter two and have begun making corrections on it. Halfway through the chapter, the JulNo content begins, so the quality's gonna take a dip. Ah, well. Time to stop whining. I have lots to be thankful for. I'll be able to graduate with my first finished novel. That will be pretty cool. And I'll learn a lot while I go. Right? Even thought it's gonna hurt.

Currently have 3.4k left to write to win my AugNo goal, and I tentatively set a 10k goal for SeptNo - the latter of which can still be raised if I need to. That will give me an extra 13.5k or so to the 52.5k that I already have... making at least a 65k manuscript. That's still kind of a low number, and I don't know that the storyline will be completely finished even by then. But at least I'm able to put a due date on the complete draft of this novel, which is pretty thrilling!

RANDOM THOUGHTS: My first critique group meeting is next Thursday in Spring Valley. Still deciding if I want to take chapter one or chapter two with me this time... might settle on the latter, as that one hasn't been touched by anyone yet. Toward the end of September is the San Diego Christian Writers Guild Conference. I'd really love to go to that, especially with everything that's happened this short year. Don't know that I currently have the fundage, but who knows.

Sorry, this is an extrordinarily geeky post (and LENGTHY), but... it's been a long few weeks, and I'm pretty excited with what's going down. :D

Till next time,
-R