So NaNoWriMo is over for 2019 and my NaNo novel isn’t to “The End” yet. I have chapters left to write, more story to tell. It just means that my novel isn’t finished yet.
What now? Do I wait to finish it during Camp NaNoWriMo in April or July? Or do I keep going and just get it done?
Or do I just stop where I am? What if the novel got to a point where I decide that it isn’t going to work this way or this time or it isn’t going to work at all, ever? It happens. I’ve shelved, but not deleted, several unfinished novels.
For my 2019 NaNoWriMo novel, I’m finishing it. I already have a folder full of edits to make, but I’m holding off on making those changes until after I’ve typed “The End.” My goal is to finish by New Year’s Eve.
And then, in January, it’s editing time. During the January doldrums is the perfect time for editing. I’m frustrated with the weather, which alternates dreary, grey skies with bursts of hints of soft blue spring skies to come.
Editing, not my favourite part of writing, pairs beautifully with January. I’ll be in the mood to rip out passages and cut words, then add phrases and perhaps a chapter or two to replace those I tossed out of the novel. I might find that I need to kill off a character or worse for me bring a character back from death and restore to the novel someone I’d earlier deemed not necessary or that their death moved the story along the way I wanted things to go.
January is coming. Will I be ready?