And In The End
The NaNoNovel was finished at 4pm today. After thirty days of spelling out every word (we party like it is nineteen hundred and ninety nine, not like it’s 1999), it all died in the arse in the last thousand words. The final sentence went something like, “So she quit her job and nicked off to Russia. The End.”
Clocking in at 50,101 words and 145 pages, I couldn’t resist clogging up the printer at work to print the whole thing out. And of course, there had to be a paper jam around the steamy scene on page 98. Could have been embarrassing. So here it is in all its twelve point Century Schoolbook glory.
The question is, what to do with it now? Does one plug on, rounding out characters, filling in the yawning chasms in the plot? Does one tinker away for another 30,000 words to make it novellish then try to fulfil the lifelong dream of getting published?
Ha! Here are some better ideas:
Put under the christmas tree and give to some poor sucker who you don’t really like.
Place on your bookshelf beside the other fine works of literature and hope noone notices the difference.
Stick it in the loo to prevent those agonising moments when you realise it was your turn to buy more loo paper but you just gosh darn forgot.
Give to your dog as part of his daily requirement of complex carbohydrates.
I love the pictures. It looks so thick! That could keep Harry absorbed for weeks.
I’d suggest putting it away and letting it percolate for a bit, then taking it out again and editing it into something you can publish.
You finished! Yay! Pleasingly thick. Unlike mine. Ha.
Wow! You certainly did accomplish the quantity thing!
I reckon you should do what TC says…you never know, you could make squillions off it
Painstakingly convert it to HTML (yes, all of it *g*) and post it somewhere
)
Or upload the .doc file =)
Please? You excerpts were *so* good, is all!
Hear hear…
Are the pictures in consecutive order? Your bathroom floor is much cleaner than mine. Spic and span even.
Congratulations, Shauny. I’m sure it’s great, as we all expect from you. Don’t second-guess yourself, edit and re-edit too much. And you WILL be published. This is not in doubt to any of us, I don’t think.
serialise it on wnp? in weekly installments!
TC – took me awhile to get the shot of harry. he kept trying to eat my arm instead! ever since he attacked you he’s gotten a taste for human flesh
Wow! That’s pretty dang impressive. I like Kristen’s idea.
‘So she quit her job and nicked off to Russia’ – woah-ho, that’ll be some sequel!
Hehehehehe. You rock. Fuckloads. We did it! Woo-hoo!
Congrats! My novel died a pathetic death on about day 6, when the paper notebook that I was writing it in at work was soaked with water at the start of my shift.
After that, I just couldn’t get back into it – I wrote a little bit more on days 11 and 12 [Well, one sentence on day 12], and that was that.
Sad thing was, I was beginning to like the stupid story. Maybe next year?
Rawk! I want you to send me a copy. Oright?
Oh, I can’t believe Harry never got a taste of human flesh before me! The poor depraved thing!
Or an alternative option: revise the puppy (not your dog’s scion, but the novel in question) and turn it into something grand.
I agree! Chuck it on here!
CONGRATULATIONS! Damn, Shauny, you rock. You finished it! You did it! You really, really did! I told you you could. So now my suggestion is: Put it somewhere, anywhere. Bind it, maybe. Shove it in a folder. Whatever. And then move on. Start writing again. Pull this one out now and then to give yourself a nice warm glow of satisfaction. You finished it. You did it. Woo!
Hooray for Shauny! Huzzah! You finished! And it doesn’t suck. I’ve read many a novel whose ending sentence was SO much worse than “so she nicked off to Russia etc. etc.” My suggestion? Drop the manuscript in a drawer for two months, pull it back out, and edit the crap out of it. It’ll be fun. You betcha.
Congrats, Shauny! Send me a copy (I’ll pay).
Shauna rocks my face off!
I vote for serialise on shauny.org. it’s not hard, cut, paste, and enclose the lot in tags. no formatting! yay!
oohbugger, I can do html in this book… I meant “pre” tags.
Yay Shauny! Well done! I agree w/ some of the earlier messages – a serialised version on your website would definitely rock!
You rock bigtime for finishing. Just my luck to write a story which expired at 20000 words.
And I really really want to read it…the postage would be nonexistent and I’d only laugh at the funny bits…
*grovels on floor*
*changes linklove list so Shauny is at very top in capitals*
*waxes Golden Boy*
*brings around a potted herb or five*
Shauny! Pinging is easy, especially in MT. All you do is to go into ‘edit blog configuration’ and check the checkbox which says ‘notify weblogs.com of updates’. That’s it! You’re pinging!
Well done, Shauny!
heheheheheh! (Your self-suggestions for what to do with it, that is.)
Some, it seem, are impatient to read your work, and understandably so (’cause you’re a brilliant writer). I reckon you should just put up the occasional extract, as a taster, so that when you eventually get published, you’ll have plenty of people who’ll snap it up. Can’t be bad to have some quick sales upon launch
I strongly disagree with simon, if you don’t let us read it, I may have to fly down to Canberra and steal it.
Don’t tempt me. I will!
Wow.. 50’000 words. Yeah, I think you should put small tasters up and then let us buy the book.
I wish I’d had a go…
or you could just spam people with it via email. maybe you’d get a publisher by sheer fluke, and become famous overnight?
I think you should do all of the things suggested above. ALL of them. Don’t miss any out. And plus my application of some theory or another:
Re-title it “Life in the early 21st century” and seal it in a steel airtight cannister… bury it somewhere to be found in 200 years time. Presto! Immortality!
oh goodness, those pictures are quite frankly the best thing ever. i wrote a novel too, but unfortunately my temp job ended the week before i finished, so i didn’t get to print it out like i was hoping. i suppose it’s easier to hide it that way.
congratulations on officially kicking ass!
Congrats on finishing your novel Shauny
. Well done!
Congrats you little potential Nobel winner you!
(Shove it through a dodgy online translator and posted it to the web in German?)
YOU ROCK! Wow. I am humbled by your fabulousness.
It’s all about lurve, baby. If you linked to me as many times as Mark and left as many comments, well, you’d be at the top too.
I guess that means that the links at the bottom are the most honest, because I don’t get a damn peep out of any of them!
How mad is that! I admire people who actually finish something like a novel – gawd knows I’ve tried so many times but by chapter two its dead… *sigh* Such is life. Your page is awesome – got the link from melp.net. Keep up the good work. By the way, I too am waiting for it to come out in print!
Ooooh! Aahhh! It’s SO green!
oh man, it takes real dedication to get there. Plus, the title is damn funny. I’m a fan.
Do you know that this has reminded me that my blog is now a whole year old. It was the beginning of October last year when I really started giving it a go. Happy birthday blog.
Now die.