Writing Hell week 4

It is the end of Nanowrimo 2012.

What is this Nanowrimo? National Novel Writing Month, 50,000+ words of a novel in 30 days. As of midnight I clocked in at 90135 words, well over 50,000  of the tallied words less than a month old so in the course of this exercise I over doubled the pages of my manuscript to now just over 300 pages. My last novel clocked in at 400 pages so because I took on this task and kept to it I am three quarters of the way to a completed 1st draft of The Kahunas of Lobster Cove. Now I don't expected the pages to actually be readable to others until Springtime but I appreciate the productivity of my efforts.

So according to Nanowrimo I am a winner, right? Does the novel have to be finished as well to qualify. FYI: just in case I added the words "The End" to the conclusion of my last writing, Chapter 16; Ebb Tide, so there!

Now there is a new manuscript to be dealt with, one I can no longer shove into the bottom drawer of my writing desk.

• STILL my job search is a total failure, I am still unemployed with the nation's and my own personal fiscal cliff looming.

• STILL my toilet sings to me (at least is stopped crying)

• STILL my tub decides to not drain, then drain, and then not drain, at will.

• STILL my car rabbles and shakes and now decides to pee through whatever gas I can afford to give it. Mechanics say driving it can't make it much worse and as I listen to its choppy idle I agree.

• STILL my phone and internet connections cut out long enough to contact my provider, then return after an appointment has been set, then return. "They can't fix what ain't broke" they tell me and for them to come to my home would be fruitless and they would have to give me another bill I can't pay.

• STILL my thermostat is locked at 40 degrees as it have for three seasons now

• STILL my writing continues.

 You can see how each bullet point impacts the others, a quantum theory that make my nights long and my teeth grind. Now it seems the only place where the rush of "What if"s and "What Now"s fade into the distance is when I write. Who would have thought?

Nanowrimo forced me to write out of my comfort zone. During the scary ride I learned the depth and the strength of my characters much to my surprise. Plot-points, never charted or even dreamed of, appeared on the page leaving me as surprised as the characters dealing with them. Most of all I read as they led with their hearts. On my best pages they weren't pontificating about life, they were living it.

I will take their lead. When this new novel is complete (or for the Nanowrimo police, "Now that my new novel is complete...) I hope that the readers can gleem what I have from its telling.

Its December 1st. 
NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing month is over. 
PerFiJoMo, Personal Job Finding month has begun. 

oh yeah, and coming soon, NaHo-Ho-HoMo, but I don't even want to think about that yet. 
One deadline at a time.

-S.E. Toon