Yeah! I surpassed the 50,000 words (and hence a NaNoWriMo winner) and came to An Actual End!!! The novel is… well, nothing spectacular, but it’s dark, grim, some parts funny, some parts actually good, and way much dialogue (along the lines of “You’re stupid”/”No, you’re stupid!”). As a murder mystery, it’s not that good (uh, clues weren’t clearly clues – they were more like anvils for being obvious telling rather than showing, I’m still not clear on the motive, etc.). But, character development was kind of there. More importantly, the first draft is done! I win, just for being done!
Man, I didn’t even have a title until 11/29/07; it’s entitled, “Bread and Circuses.” It’s a sort of NYC murder mystery, taking place in 1992; a look-at-the-life of a reporter who gets embroiled in a bunch of murders plus at least two or three subplots going on in his life; a sort-of spy thing, where this ex-spy kind of wishes he was back in the business; hints of mafia; small cameos of characters from my other stories; and the oh-whoa, I made it to an ending, not just surpassed 50,000 words! Yeah!
Will I learn to love to do second drafts? At least I’m out of the creative rut that I was in for weeks previous to this month.
Stuff:
The NY Times: Seth Kugel on these lovely (yet pricey) chocolate places in the city. Mmm, chocolate. But, yeah, pricey.
No new Mark Bittman video on NYTimes.com, but he writes on the concept of the hot pot, shabu shabu, and other aliases. Fascinating stuff.
Slate: Dahlia Lithwick on the transparency (or not really) of the US S. Ct.
Finished reading yet another Billy Collins poetry compilation, “The Art of Drowning.” Good stuff.