The End is Nigh

The end is nigh …

Three more days of SoCNoC to go! A big congratulations to those who have already made it to the 50,000 word mark and good luck to those who are still plugging away.

June has been a crazy month for me.  I’ve been juggling SoCNoC with unexpected extra responsibilities at work, doing a volunteer training course (with homework!) and getting up at all hours of the night to watch world cup football matches.  And I know other SoCNoCers have also been dealing with pesky real-life interruptions.  Actually, I’ve really enjoyed it.  I feel like I’ve been surfing on a wave of adrenalin (and chocolate) that’s been keeping me going as I’ve headed towards the end of the month.

So once SoCNoC is over, what then?  My novel has been very well-behaved (just as well).  It’s all gone more or less according to the very few plans that I made, my characters have done what they were supposed to do and all the action should tie itself up neatly at around the 50,000 word mark.  I’ve been reading over what I’ve written as I’ve been going along.  It’s not a complete load of dribble, but I’m not sure what I’ll do with it.  It’s probably not the kind of novel that I want to write and I’m not sure how I would change it into the kind of novel that I do want to write.  Maybe because I don’t really know what kind of novel I want to write.  I’ve been writing long enough, I should have worked that out by now.

However, I’m not feeling at all despondent about that because SoCNoC has kickstarted my creativity and my subconscious is throwing up all sorts of ideas, which is really exciting.  I’ve got some completely new ideas as well as some new takes on old ideas.   There’s quite a few competitions coming up, like the Sunday Star Times and the Manhire Creative Science writing competition.  So I’ll probably leave the novel to mature in a cool dark place and turn my attention to getting started on some short stories. 

I’m also trying to think of my end-of-June reward (Xengab has inspired me with her bribe and reward system).  Is it time to get that netbook that I’ve been thinking about …?  Or maybe what I really need is a good night’s sleep.  And more chocolate of course.