And that’s a wrap. No, the novel isn’t finished. But the month is, and I think I’ve done enough work to call this a victory. I completed the goals I set for myself 30 days ago. I set a new personal record for most words written in a month. I still have the final 4 chapters to write, but those should go down in the next few days.
Before we get to the wrap-up, here’s the final stats.
This session’s word count: 4,114
Total word count: 136,613
Daily average: 4,553
Last year’s total: 103,626
Now, on to my thoughts about the month as a whole.
First off, I am never doing this again. Not at this level, anyway. Over 135,000 words in a month? If you suggested that in October, I’d have called you crazy. Now, after doing it, I’m ready to call myself crazy. Seriously, this month wore on me more than any other period of writing I can remember.
Back in June (I think?), when I was writing The Shape of Things, I actually quit for over a week, because I was just tired of the story. This time, I really didn’t have that luxury. I had committed myself to The Soulstone Sorcerer. And there were times when I hated that decision. I still don’t completely like the story, even at this late stage. Maybe I can write an ending that will leave me feeling better about it, but I don’t know.
If the quality isn’t up to my own personal standards, then the quantity certainly was. I don’t know what possessed me this month, but this is definitely the most prolific I’ve ever been. (Maybe I wanted to get it out of the way. I did feel that way sometimes.) I started out with 5375 words in the first day, about double last year’s opening, and I think that set the tone. I kept a daily average of at least 4500 until the 13th, and the only real reason I lost that streak was because of my bizarre sleeping schedule.
Could I keep that pace with a story I truly enjoyed? I doubt it. For this one, I persevered out of sheer stubbornness a lot of the time, boredom the rest. If I had anything else to do at all, I’d never have come close to 136K.
I’ll keep going to finish this book, and I hope that won’t take more than a week. Next year, I think I’ll have to find something that won’t run 400+ pages, because I’m tired. I’m exhausted. As soon as this one’s done, I want to curl up into a ball and ignore my keyboard until January. I know I can’t, because I have other things to do (like editing, and making a cover for that pesky Linear Cycle paperback). But I think this will be the last story I write in 2017, barring some unforeseen flash of inspiration.
As always, it’s been fun, though maybe not as much this time around. Regular posts start back up next week, and here’s to 6 in a row!