There’s always that question about what winning Nanowrimo actually is.  I hit 50,000 words, and that’s what they define as victory, so I suppose I won.  However, I realized near the end of the month that Capsule had only reached the end of Act One, and it really was a proper three act story with three clear climaxes.  I didn’t know I could write those.  So the final length will probably be in the 90,000-120,000 word range, with me shooting towards the lower end, cause that’s what gets published for first time novelists.

So here’s the plan going forward:

December I’m going to do all the writing I can, but between moving the last week of the month and a big photo scanning project with a Christmas deadline, that might not be much.  I’ll be thrilled if I can add 10,000 words to the manuscript by the end of the month.

January I’m going to pick back up.  With my current estimate, that should leave me needing 30,000-60,000 words to finish the draft.  I’d love to get that done in one month, but I’m going to give myself a reasonable deadline of February 15th.

Then I’m going to sit down and do an honest assessment between Capsule and Conqueror Worm, and decide which needs less work to get into a position where I can shop it around.  Once I’ve decided, I’m going to start a chapter-a-week program to get it ready to go.  That will take several months, but once I’m about 2/3 through, I might start actually (gasp) sending query letters off to find a literary agent.

I know.

So there’s the plan.  It’s nearly New Years, a good time for resolutions, and for realizing that I said similar things about last year.  I don’t know how I’m going to do better this year, other than really hoping and trying.  And hopefully engaging some ass kickers to help me out.

I know it’s not quite nanowrimo yet, but I was hoping to make Capsule something more than just a nanowrimo project.  Therefore…it has begun.  The first draft of chapter one is written, comes in at just over 3300 words, and I’m going to get started on chapter two today.  Everything feels so much better than the last time around.  The world, the characters, the plot, everything has come together quite a bit more than when I tried to write the novel this time last year.

I don’t know why I’m reminding the void, but maybe one day when people discover this blog they’ll read back and discover they’re far too late to sign up for Capclave 2009, which is next weekend.  Online registration is available through this weekend, same price as at the door, that’s $60/person for procrastinators like me.  I think this year I’ll just do the advance registration for next year at the event which is something ridiculous like half price.

One thing that’s been lacking in preparing for Capsule is any idea of why the body that’s lying dead on the sidewalk at the beginning is lying dead on the sidewalk at the beginning.  That would seem to be a rather vital part of the plot, even though it’s meant to be a horror/thriller rather than a murder mystery.  But that changed over the weekend, helped in part by an SUV I was driving behind whose license plate started XUA.  I realized that the dead girl on the pavement had a name.  Xua.  At least that’s the name she went by after being drawn into the Titlacauan.

Then, I figured out why she died, who killed her, who suggested she be killed (gasp!), his motivation behind suggesting it, and where she was killed.  Because just bouncing questions of my wife is the single greatest writing exercise I know.

I’m starting to think I might be able to write this thing.

Reminder:  Less than a month til Capclave.

In my effort to make this blog ever more and more of an actual living thing that one day people other than Day and Renee might read and enjoy, I’ve added content down the right hand side over there in the form of some countdowns.  Three big events:

Capclave:  Seriously, a great place to be a writer and just to hang out.  This will be an early trial for CVS 2.0, but will not yet be the official coming out party.  Still, several of us are talking about being there, and at just $55 head, it’s a rather good value.  Last year I went to both World Fantasy and Capclave, and would you believe it’s Capclave I got more out of?  Well believe it.

Nanowrimo: This is when I’ll be doing a lot of work on actually writing Capsule.  There’s something about Nanowrimo that just gets me writing in a way that is hard to duplicate at other times in the year.  I’ve been victorious four out of the last 5 years.

Balticon:  When you see us talking 2.0, this is what it’s about.  This is where several CVS members have some name and face recognition, and this is going to be the big coming out party.  But the time Balticon rolls around, I really am hoping to have a first draft of Capsule, and at least a good chunk of the second draft of Conqueror Worm.