Sundresses, Zoolander and Jenga

This is why I love Austin. It's winter, three weeks from Christmas, and I'm wearing a sundress and sandals. It is just so lovely. Although I desperately need a haircut before I turn into one of these guys:

LOML and I went to a Zoolander quote-along at the Alamo Drafthouse last night, and it was the most fun I've had in at least two days (we have a lot of fun). I particularly enjoyed shouting "What is this - a centre for ants?" in unison with a hundred like-minded people. And then we played outdoor Jenga at the Kung Fu Saloon, building what was possibly the world's largest Jenga tower before I became over-ambitious and brought the whole thing crashing down in spectacular fashion. All this means that I am a little worse for wear this morning, slept in, and am scrambling to catch up with all my work. Thank goodness for beautiful Austin days that make everything better!

Nanowrimo bites the dust!

The book is printed and ready for editing - all 400 pages of it!

I'm so sorry that I'm a little late on this - November beat me into the ground, somewhat, and I was nowhere near as involved and active in Nanowrimo as I wanted to be. But after two days of fuzzy-brain after finishing the revisions, I can form whole sentences again!

Congratulations to everyone, no matter whether you finished your Nanowrimo project or not. Whatever you produced during the month is more than you would have in the normal course of things, and that is something to be proud of. There are many great side-effects of Nanowrimo - a sense of pride and achievement, an opening-up of the imaginative part of your brain, an ability to put your inner perfectionist on hold for a while - and I hope you are feeling some of these. I also find that, for many people, Nanowrimo gives them a heightened appreciation of the books they love. Once you have tried writing a novel you gain a greater understanding of the process, which can make you enjoy and admire your favourite books and authors all the more.

A small round-up follows! Sara and Hayley both wrote a fantastic response to the whole experience, and I think their emotions and doubts will be familiar to everyone who took part. For the full list of participants, go here.

Sara

"Some of you have asked about my novel. I mentioned how it’s more or less my second first draft, but I’ve actually been working on this story in one way or another – writing about it, researching it, thinking about it – for nearly four years. And since it’s inspired by a family story, I suppose I could say it’s been on my mind my whole life.

For the first time in all those years of work and thought, though, I feel really good about this rough draft. I believe, very much, that there is a time for everything, and I believe that’s certainly true for story telling. I see this story very differently than I did last year, and I can’t even begin to compare this rough draft with the original nearly-four-year-old essay that began this whole project. In my opinion, time spent working on a piece of writing, even if it’s put aside for a few months, even if it sits dormant for years, is rarely wasted."

Hayley

"It has not been smooth sailing.

Not even a little bit. (Okay, maybe those first couple of days of excitement, actually.)

There have been self-inflicted bribes. There have been internal boxing matches. There have been tears. There was a regular interest in giving up because what I’m writing is so crappity crap it would make Shakespeare cry, and then the entire world would drown miserably in a flood of his tears.

It seems — and I think I’m not alone in this — that when you write fiction, and the It’s Not Good Enough bug bites your leg yet again, there is no such thing as a mediocre fail. Instead, it is DOOM. It is the WORST piece of writing in the entire universe. It is the epitome of poop, and our name and picture are destined to appear in the dictionary beside ‘ABOMINATION’.

But at the same time, that’s part of the beauty of sticking with it. It’s saying “I don’t care what you, world, and you, pessimistic part of my brain, I don’t care what you both think, I’m going to do it anyway because I said that I would, and underneath all that self-doubt I really, really want to.”"

Some of you have already checked in with your final word count and progress - if you haven't, please feel free to do so in the comments. I would love to hear from you.

Fin!

Mink writes the final chapter of his autobiography.

I have FINISHED the revised draft. It feels great. And with one day to spare! This is the fourth draft of the book, and it is the first draft with which I have felt happy. Obviously it will need a read-through, edits and perhaps a couple of pick-up things, but I think that the essential shape and substance of it has taken on its proper and final form. Hooray! The word count is sitting at about 105,000, but will drop down a bit in editing. I'm looking forward to seeing that fat wad of printed-out pages, and smelling the fresh ink. It's one of the most satisfying moments.

This is unrelated, but LOML and I put up these Ikea clocks to keep track of the time in all our important time zones. Never again will I miss a call from New Zealand because I forgot about daylight savings, or have to look up the time in London six times before an interview (although I probably will, because I am neurotic). LOML made the magnetic orange letters underneath each clock - clever thing!

(The wall is actually a very pale mushroom-y colour, but looks weird here).

Now I think it is time for a celebratory nap under a celebratory blanket.

Those of you who are working on projects for Nanowrimo - how are you doing? Do you expect to reach your goal by tomorrow? If not, do you still feel good about what you have achieved?