Monday, November 28, 2011

REGRETFULLY SO....Officially dropping out of NaNoWrimo



Ironically, the song currently playing on my iPod: "This Never Happened Before" by Paul Cartney.

Tried to play catch-up all weekend, staying up until after one o'clock this morning. My butt dragged all day at work and when I got home tonight I finally had to admit defeat.  36,537 is my final word count tonight. Do the math:  13,463 in two days means 6,732 words each day to break even at 50,000 words. I type fast, but not that fast. Plus there's the day job that pays me to write court pleadings, not romance stories. So, I am bowing out, but with good reason.

DESIGNER GENES is a finalist in OKRWA's Finally a Bride contest. This meant I had the opportunity to take advantage of the judge's score sheets from the first round, and fix the weak parts of my story before submitting to the final round. It also meant creating the dreaded synopsis, which I am also being judged on. Sounds like something the normal person would whip together in two or three days, right?
 
Wrong. First, I'm anything but normal, and since entering the contest, I wrote a completely new beginning. My luscious hero, Jordan, didn't make his formal appearance until Chapter Four. There were glimpses of him revealed, but his onstage entrance came too late, according to suggestions given to me by the last two agents I'd submitted a partial manuscript to. Thirty pages is all they request. Jordan doesn't sweep Marli off her feet until page forty-two. You get acquainted with my equally delicious antagonist, Jesse--Jordan's twin, but I felt that confused my readers. I didn't want them cheering for the bad guy before meeting my superhero. Therefore, Jordan steps into the limelight on page one with a bashful "Hi."

This created a dilemma regarding my contest entry. After consulting with my critique groups, several strangers, an online psychic, and a quick email to the Dalai Lama, I decided I had to keep the beginning on the contest entry. But I really like my new beginning, so I sprinkled bits of it through the thirty pages I resubmitted. In other words, major editing project. I won't even go into the synopsis. Consequently, this took almost two weeks and a huge chunk of my NaNo writing time. Then Turkey Day attacked. I spent so much time out of the story I created in NaNo that when I got back into writing it again, nothing flowed. Ideas had grown cold and the story took on a "deflated airbag" appearance. It's a good story and I don't want to mess it up further trying to meet a word count goal, which in all reality, I can't.
 
OKRWA's FAB contest and Designer Genes took priority and now I'm crossing fingers, toes, and eyes, my efforts will pay off. I'm also dipping in a deep curtsy and bidding farewell to NaNoWrimo 2011.  Next year, baby...next year.

9 comments:

Jennette Marie Powell said...

Even though you didn't hit 50k, you wrote a lot! Congrats on that, and good luck in the contest. Good luck with the synopsis too- they are such a pain to write!

Jennette Marie Powell said...

Even though you didn't hit 50k, you wrote a lot! Congrats on that, and good luck in the contest. Good luck with the synopsis too- they are such a pain to write!

Doree L Anderson said...

Hey, the 50,000 words thing happens every November, join us again then...but oh yeah, first priority is the contest. Congrats and Good luck. Synopsis...well I know you know what I call those darling little devils :)

ladystef said...

I wish I had such good reasons for not doing more Nano, but a week on vacation in So. Cal did me in. I wrote several chapters to my work in progress, but my goal was to finish and it ain't gonna happen. Oh well, like Doree said, there is always next year. And I loved the write-ins, so fun.

Kacey Mark said...

I think you gave NaNo a noble effort, and I applaud you for getting as far as you did under the circumstances.
I think you know where your priorities are.
Next year we can both kick butt on Nano, how does that sound? The former flunkies will rise to success!

Joelene Coleman said...

The gauntlet shall be thrown down and we, the "chooser losers," will prevail! Sounds good, huh? We'll see...

stanalei said...

With you on the "didn't make it to the finish line". But hey, it's great that your story is a finalist. Well worth the reevaluation on priorities. 50k for NaNo. A chance to get the Call from a final judge. No contest.

Unknown said...

A good decision I have no doubt is going to pay off. So as not to jinx anything, I will say no more.

Sandra Z Bruney said...

Alas, we can't do everything at once and do everything well -- congratulations for sticking to priorities. NaNo will be there in 2012.