Knowing when to quit

Well guys, this is me throwing in the towel. I’m calling my NaNo escapade for the year.

I’ve been thinking about it for the last week or so and decided that this really is for the best. For one thing, my workload has really increased now towards the end of the semester. I have to finish two big technical editing projects, two big technical writing projects, my graduate school applications (which means finishing Sheridan Price) and a handful of other personal projects that are just getting neglected.

But the big reason I’ve decided to quit is simply because I don’t like my novel. Seriously. I really despise the way that it’s been turning out. The characters I fell in love with in Chapter 3 have morphed into dislikable stereotypes, and their conversations have turned forced and trite. I’ve just reached this big romantic scene that I wanted to build up to as the emotional (romantic at least) climax of the novel; but everything leading up to it has just been so horrible that I don’t trust myself to do it justice.

So I’m done. This book is getting sealed up in a safe little .zip folder and dumped onto my external hard drive. In a few years I’ll go back to the idea and start with a clean slate, and then everything will fall into place. For now, though, I’m going to move on.

My next focus point is graduation, then figuring out that the heck I’m going to do with myself after graduation. As far as writing goes, from here on out I’m devoting myself to plotting that awesome diesel punk zombie series that’s been nagging on my mind and, come December, I’ll hit the keyboard again for a personal WriMo to get that first draft done before the DFW Writer’s Conference in February.

And that, as they say, is that.

Final NaNo Stats
Page Count: 102
Word Count: 31,650
Story progress: So lost and mangled that it’s not even funny.
Status: Failed. But it was a good experience nonetheless.