I know it’s been a while since I did a writing post on my blog or LJ, but I’ve been having some difficulties there related to health issues that made me less inclined to keep up with things. However, that didn’t stop me from progressing, so here I am, finally updating NaNo.

I went back and read my posts (as sparse as they were on the topic) and realized that any reasonable person would assume the life block surged up and swallowed me again. That is far from the case.

I struggled a lot at the beginning mainly because I hadn’t taken the time to reread either what I’d written already and intended to scrap or my outline which I’d been planning to rework so the beginning was completely different. Starting late and behind, I thought there wasn’t time for that.

Well, though I got some great scenes out of it, I felt like I was pussyfooting around the original text, or at least my memory of it. The only solution was to read it over so I could see just how bad it was.

That solution didn’t work at all. The old beginning is rough, sure, but it sucks me right in and it feels appropriate. Gak. No wonder I was struggling.

So I made a decision to do something I’ve heard other writers talk about, but I’d always stuck with the purist approach on the manuscript, even taking a break from another story in the middle to start something brand new. This time though, I kept what I’d written so far for NaNo, about 7k, and started in the same doc writing from the moment I’d left off in the first doc. This made me a little nervous because Karth’s Story is short, and I was carving 9k out of the word count as it was.

Didn’t matter in the end. I finished my 50k a couple days early and the story had all the complexity and depth in it that I thought it warranted. Even better, when I put the final touches on in the first week of December, I felt a wonderful sense of accomplishment, of release, and of closure, as though by not finishing it, I had held myself in limbo for two years.

So…NaNo? It was a success in more ways than just finishing 50k and I’m vindicated in my choice to bring Karth’s Story into the light.

The final stats for the book are 48 scenes and 60,534 words, of which 51,464 were completed during NaNo.

The first edit pass is going to be an adventure since I need to blend and/or choose between the two beginnings, but the story quickly takes shape after that. Oh, and since it’s been a long while since I talked about it, if you’re curious, here’s the story blurb.

An adventurer who retired from the field when an up-and-comer bested him at all challenges is called back into service because old trouble stirs again. Approached by an old friend, ties of loyalty and the feeling he’s left parts of his life undone send him back into the ancient forest he’s sworn to avoid after running from the woman he loves because he had nothing to offer her. Now more creatures like the dangerous beast that first sent him under those sheltering branches are attacking the king’s men, and he can’t stand aside when harm might come to her along with the rest.