I'm in serious awe of anyone who can hold a day job and do this too. It's been consuming all my time and a great deal of my attention for four weeks. I've learned a great deal about my own writing process as well, but I'll have to ponder that for a while too before I can define exactly what that is.
This novel may never get published, but I can always look on it like a music student playing scales: I learned a lot that I can later apply to actual performance.
What kept me going through this wrenching procedure was reminding myself that if I wasn't going to be serious about this writing thing, I had no business quitting my day job. Either I'm a writer or I'm not. Time to put my money where my mouth was. I don't know whether I'll ever do it again, but at least this time, it was worth the time and effort.
Congratulations! :) e
ReplyDeleteThank you, e!
DeleteWow, I'm in awe. Not to mention you jumped out of a plane to do it.
ReplyDeleteHold that awe until I see if there's anything usable in it!
DeleteTracy, I don't know if I've told you before how much I love your blog, as a fellow academic struggling with the question of whether or not to quit my day job. Now I'll tell you that I ADORE the title for this book!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Claudia! Titles aren't my strong suit but I do like this one. I'm still going back and forth between "Syndrome" and "Complex" but Icarus will stay, no matter which I ultimately setle on.
DeleteCongratulations, Tracy! I wish you courage to read through the draft later. I know I am frightened to read my own. And I also like the idea of a book about Icarus. It seems a fitting thing to write about during NaNo and explains your out of plane jumping.
ReplyDeleteIt certainly will take courage, Karrie, and wishing you lots of the same!
DeleteCongratulations, Tracy!
ReplyDeleteI've never braved NaNoWriMo and am inspired by your posts about it. I specifically like your analogy of this experience to a music student playing scales. I believe that's what writing is all about - applying later what we learn today. C'est la vie!
Thank you, Genetta! It was an interesting experience, and one I think I won't totally understand until I let it sink in a bit.
DeleteCongratulations, Tracy ... I admire your determination not to read what you've written right away until it has 'set' awhile. That has always been my downfall, but then I couldn't write fiction if my life depended on it :-) ... So, good on ya!
ReplyDeleteThat was the hardest part, Jan, but if I'd edited on the fly I never would have met the challenge. I'm reading it now and finding all sorts of subplots that got started and disappeared, characters whose names change every few pages, etc., but on the whole, I kind of like it!
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