NaNoBlog 2002
30 days.
50,000 words.
No sweat.
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NaNoBlog 2002 |
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Saturday, October 26, 2002
WOW. I went to my writing conference today, and had one page of my previous novel-in-progress critiqued by a senior editor from Harcourt. He didn't like my first two paragraphs at all, but said the rest was "pretty excellent"! AND he said he'd be happy to look at more of it if I wanted to send it to him!!!! Him, a SENIOR EDITOR from HARCOURT, a publisher that does NOT take unsolicted manuscripts!! Problem: I've only written 4 chapters!! And of course, since I've already written that much, it is not my NaNo novel so I wasn't planning on working on it at all in November! But I can't pass up this chance, can I?
I have no idea what to do. I think any sane person would say I should drop out of NaNo and write like mad to finish this other novel (that's option 1). But geez, I've invested so much of October in NaNo and was so excited. I would feel like something in me was being squashed if I quit entirely. Some also suggested I bend the NaNo rules and write 50,000 words on this as my NaNo novel. But I don't want to do NaNo wrong & then still claim I did it...if I were going to take that challenge, I would just do it unofficially and not submit my word count at the end. So that's option 2--do my own private NaNoWriMo challenge for this already-started novel, while still cheering the official wrimos on from the sidelines. But that still leaves me feeling deflated. Option 3 is to spend a while (which would have to include some time in November because I'm SO busy this week) revising the chapters I have & sending them to him with a synopsis, assuming he wouldn't respond for months anyway, in which time I could do more on it. I am a bit worried about that because it's not really kosher for new fiction writers to do it that way...AND he might respond quickly (even though he said he's really slow)...AND when I write the rest, I might change things that would make the first few chapters much better in the revisions...arrgh. Then Option 5 is to forget about that novel for now, write my NaNo novel in November, & then jump onto that one in December with the hopes of finishing IT very quickly also! (But in December? I'll be so busy then!) I guess there's also a scary Option 6, which is to try to write BOTH novels in November, whether by writing on both every day or by trying to plow through my main NaNo novel in a couple of weeks and then getting back to the other one. It's a nice dilemma to have, but I never expected to feel torn when an editor invited me to send in work! I am awfully pumped, though. Even if he would hate everything after the first page (which he definitely might...it doesn't stay quite as quirky on every page), for today, someone validated my writing!! posted by Alison | 11:12 PM
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