Done. According to the NaNoWriMo validator: 50,047. According to Scrivener and MS Word: 50,449. Regardless of the number, it’s over 50k and that is the important thing.

There were a lot of professional, personal and interest oriented obligations in November. There were professional academic requirements that needed tending including teaching and tutoring. Thank the gods, two of those professional obligations, Rock-a-thon and Assessment evaluations, were canceled. There were family obligations of significant proportions that occurred including the advent of a second grandchild, Samantha Xenos, travel to Hollywood to watch my wife receive two music awards and hosting the family Thanksgiving celebration. I was able to maintain those responsibilities and still get my 50k done.

It was in the interest department that things did not work out as hoped. Though I was able to maintain my bagpipe practice and lesson schedule, I totally dropped the ball on HOL and Gryffindor prefect duties. I’m probably going to lose serious standing in that online community. I just could not do the 50k and get all the homework in. If I had been smart, I would have made arrangements to be gone and hand in my homework late. As it is, I have not been on site or in the Gryffindor Common Room for over a month. Not good.

So, were I to analyze the success of this NaNoWriMo experiment in light of the above, I would rate it neither a complete failure nor an unqualified success. It’s obvious I cannot maintain such an intense combination of writing schedule, academic career, family obligations and personal interest responsibility.  On the other hand, I did prove I could tackle such a large project in the midst of those things and complete it. I just wish I could have kept up on HOL too.

What’s next? Good question. Do I soldier on and finish the first draft of Scions of the Moon or do I return to The Kevodron and complete that manuscript by adding the second POV? I have to admit to a certain feeling of obligation to those who contributed to my sponsorship page, three dear HOL friends and a partner-in-creative-crime from the OHS art department who has been particularly encouraging to finish Scions to a point they can read it. I have to admit I am leaning heavily that way. I just don’t know. I’m afraid of getting so far away from The Kevodran that I don’t want to go back…or creatively cannot.

There are also a couple of short blog entry essay ideas floating around in my head that I would like to give air to, one involving an idea about the limited use of the word “love,” and another about the role of the Mentor from Campbell’s Hero’s Journey I play here at school. I suppose those would be short and sweet and could be done regardless of what I’m working on manuscript-wise.

I suppose I’d also like to finish Sanderson’s Well of Ascension too…and Vogler’s The Writer’s Journey. Regardless I need to go to HOL and see what I can salvage of my reputation and house points, get what homework I can done and turned in and talk to Jenny and Kadina.

Were it not for that disappointment and guilt, I would have to say I am seriously happy I made the 50k. I did the NaNoWriMo! I got into it, raised money for the cause, worked hard, wrote my fingers to the bone and now have a second Earinna’arin manuscript to work on. All in all, not too shabby.

Originally posted in The Salamander’s Quill 1.0 now deleted.