post-NaNo victory lap

Total word count: 50,014

I think I only missed writing one day this month, which I’m hugely proud of and is maybe the most important takeaway for me. I’ve written long stories before (though only screenplays, and they’re a different sort of beast), so crossing the finish line didn’t bring the kind of elation you get winning a poker tournament in Monaco or anything. For me, ‘winning’ NaNoWriMo brought more of an overall sense of satisfaction, like finishing a lengthy run and taking in a giant breath of fresh air.

A bunch of people have asked me how they can read ‘Nightmare 1.0.’ Firstly, y’all are awesome for offering! Just delightful. But the gift of having interested readers is not something I take lightly (because, like, who reads these days?!). Writing 50k words in one month does not produce a great, or even good book. Great stories of any length take a lot of time and effort, rewriting, editing, and whiskey. Anyway, this particular story requires a lot more time in the oven, a lot more blacksmithing or what have you, for it to be worthy of readership, or visual adaptation, or toy lines and t-shirts and video games and midnight book store parties. Because without midnight book store parties, WHAT IS THE POINT.

I’ve printed the draft out and put it in a box along with the last screenplay I wrote (also a first draft). I like writing these long form works and putting them away until my brain wakes up one day and is all like IT’S CLOBBERIN TIME! In the meantime I’m working on a few different projects in the short term: some short stories, The Micros, and a stoner poker comedy. Some might argue The Micros is a stoner poker comedy, but hey, that genre’s got plenty of room.

Thanks for cheering me on! It totally helped.