Thursday Thirteen #17

Thirteen Thoughts After Completing National Novel Writing Month 1. I'm surprised that I can write so freely on the computer. I have always much preferred to write with pen and paper. It's the blogging I've done for the past eight months that has made this possible. Cool. 2. It's harder to keep facts straight than I thought it would be. I made my novel up as I typed, and kept having to scroll back up to look up names, and time of day, and things of that nature during my writing. 3. This one is hard to explain. I've always felt the need to write character biographies and outlines, but never have been able to do it. Now that I have actually written a novel, I see what I personally need to work on before starting my next one. I think that from now on I'll be able to write effective character biographies and a general outline or plan of action before I write future novels. Make sense? 4. My characters used the word "yeah" a lot. 5. I need to relearn the proper use of quotations and punctuation. I was always so good at English in school, but it has been years since I was really concerned about punctuation. For example, I'm not sure of the proper way to write: "Are you too stupid to understand simple punctuation?" she asked. 6. Writing a novel for National Novel Writing Month has been one of the very few things of any value I have accomplished in the whole month of November, 2006. 7. My hero was too good to be true. He's a compilation of every trait I wish I had but don't. Basically he was Brad Pitt (looks) meets Arnonld Schwartzenegger (Conan's buff body) meets Jesus (always does the right thing). 8. I'm surprised that my hero and heroine didn't fall in love. The book ended with them just friends. Maybe next year, huh? 9. I thought going in, that my hero would change and that the villain would stay the same, be unrepentant to the end, and pay. My hero stayed the same, and the villian cracked, but he still paid for his transgressions. 10. It was nice knowing up front that I gave myself permission to write a bad novel. I never once dreaded sitting down to write because of the self induced pressure to perform perfectly. Don't get me wrong, I came up with all manner of lame excuses to avoid writing, but self pressure to write well wasn't one of them. It seems that is my main reason for failing to continue writing in the past. 11. I'm embarrassed by how truly bad my novel is, but I saw so many promising seeds in it that I know I can keep at it, and keep getting better and better. 12. Avoiding passive voice is something I now realize I have trouble with. ;-) 13. I didn't write each and every day of the month. I had to do some catching up in the last half of the month, but I am astonished at how fast and easy the words add up. I needed to average 1667 words per day, but some days were 0, and some were 6000. The 6000 word days weren't very hard either. Thankfully there were only a couple of those necessary. The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!