No writing today, but I figured I'd mention some of the struggles and observations I have made with NaNoWriMo. The first is pretty obvious, speed writing 25k words doesn't mean quality. I'm struggling over the contents of the story, despite getting the broad brush strokes of the story. There isn't the little refinements I normally add in. It is to be expected, but it becomes painfully obvious when I browse through the older stuff to put in a reference I need in a later chapter.

I have doubts about Case of the Morning Zombies. Doubts about the story working out and how I'm framing it. My novels start slow, one of those things I think cause trouble with my reader. I'm also not sure about the main character. Do I hide the fact he's the zombie for the first third of the book? Not sure about lying to the reader, if you know what I mean. The 25k word point is the beginning of the meat part of the story. Zombies are shown, people get their brains eaten, and a mystery is afoot. Somehow, I got a mystery into this story and I wasn't originally planning on that. Telepathy with the eaten brains was also not planned, but it made a slightly better story so far.

Fluffy read it and... didn't have really positive comments about it. Too many holes, but I needed a bit of a pick-me-up (which I didn't exactly get). Doesn't mean I'll stop, but it makes it harder to keep up a good rate when it isn't one of those amazing, wonderful, cannot-put-down books.

Speaking of slightly depressing reviews, I got my feedback from scienceprincess. Again, it wasn't really a positive review. I mean, she had good things to say about it, but "if I bought it, I wouldn't feel that I wasted my time or money" isn't exactly the type of review I hoped for. But, it is honest and frankly, I want honesty. I've been trying to get Wind, Bear, and Moon published for almost two years now (January). Do I give it more time, or do I self-published and work on another novel? Or do I keep trying and write another novel (one a year) and hope that it pans out? In some ways, self-publishing is an end of life (EOL) thing for me. Once I self publish, I can't get it really published by another publisher.

Not really sure. Parts of me worry that I'm putting too much effort into WBM and parts of me tell me I have a chance, just as I do with Muddy Reflections.

Thoughts to think about, I guess.

Case of the Morning Zombies (NaNoWriMo, 25,160 of 75,000 words)