Brain == Dead.

So. Turned out this year was the most I’ve ever written. (2009 was 3 different nanos all a shade over 50K). This year had the magician series second novel Drowning Magics at ~60K for its first draft. The pre-nano idea that became Loss & Gain was 50K, complete in itself with no sequels or anything planned. Too Many Murders got shelved for another time [doing a murder mystery without planning doesn’t work for me] and the literature-style One Night ended at 16K words as a novella — I could have continued it, but only with rubbish so I figured it was best to end and then redo at a later date. The rest of the month was other stories, mostly end-pieces that might  become part of Drowning Magics. So, technically, I did two nanos and one collection of stories centered about themes of forgiveness, so it wasn’t all that bad.

I doubt I’ll ever do this much again, but that’s what I said in 2009. 2015 will be slated for the first draft of the third (and final?) novel for the magician series.

Cumulative Nanowrimo Word Counts (2012)

Waking Dreams (2003): 52,214
Higher Ground (2004): 105,857
Guardian Monsters (2005): 54,347
My Cat Used To Be A Buddhist (2006): 50,074
New Fires (2006): 50,857
The Coroner's Tale (2007): at 62,857
Roadside Attractions at the End of the World (2007): 50,314
Necessity and Power (2008): 74,988
Roadside Attractions (new version) (2009): 50,269
The Adventures of the Miskatonic Elementary School Kids #1 (2009): 50,277
Shadows of Never (2009): 50,002
Monsters & Miracles (2010): 67,571
Dogs of War, vol. 1: Contact (2010): 72,747
Found (2011, summer): 50,045
Rites of Exorcism (2011): 69,681
The Long Way to Home: a journey of a Boy & Fox (2012, summer): 51,695
The Second Theft (2012): 75,086
Ghoulish Happenings (2012): 62,691

For a staggering 10 year total of: 1,101,572.

Bloody. Hell.

Bloody hell (a post about writing)

So .... the folder containing Rites of Exorcism stuff contains the current finished first drat (70K, nanowrimo of this year). I'm 20K into the sequel. The rest of the folders within it contain another 151,768 words. Various novel drafts, setting notes, character notes, write-ups on creatures, other attempts at the setting and so forth.

This is damn depressing on a number of levels :p

The worst part is that I have one other novel that, in various iterations totals 201,227 words. The actual novel that resulted from all that -- Monsters & Miracles -- was 67,000 of those words and is entirely impossible  to compare to the first draft of the story, which is kind of cool in its own way. Almost nothing from the first drafts survived at all, which is at least proof of a kind of progress even if it, too, can be seen as depressing.

I also have a trilogy in progress whose accumulated word count is 137,000 words which seems reasonable enough as it includes one finished draft of the first novel, 4K of the second novel, partial revised draft of the first and notes for the entire series.

(For the curious few, Boy & Fox is over 80K, not including 50+ handwritten pages I've yet to type up. Which isn't surprising given there are entire chapters of the first draft that no one else ever saw. It was very strange to be submitting a story to a writing group and editing entire chapters of the future story out of it in the process, which is one clue why it stalled so very badly.)

OTOH, the accumulated word count of some of the projects in some way forces a finished draft, as it did with M&M and has in many ways with the Rites series. I tend to be the sort of writer who leaps from idea to idea and concept to concept, seldom bothering to ever really go back and edit/revise novels since the new is always luring me on. However, thanks(?) to the writing group I tend to stop novels mid-stride, revise it as a new draft and what emerges at the end of an absurdly large word count is at least a more functional finished first draft.

Or so I am telling myself right now :)

Cumulative Nanowrimo Word Counts

Waking Dreams (2003): 52,214
Higher Ground (2004): 105,857
Guardian Monsters (2005): 54,347
My Cat Used To Be A Buddhist (2006): 50,074
New Fires (2006): 50,857
The Coroner's Tale (2007): at 62,857
Roadside Attractions at the End of the World (2007): 50,314
Necessity and Power (2008): 74,988
Roadside Attractions (new version) (2009): 50,269
The Adventures of the Miskatonic Elementary School Kids #1 (2009): 50,277
Shadows of Never (2009): 50,002
Monsters & Miracles (2010): 67,571
Dogs of War, vol. 1: Contact (2010): 72,747

For a grand total of: 792,374 words thus far in 7 years. Damn.

And done

151515 words, by nanowrimo's count. Brain is dead.

On the plus side, I have now written a lot for nano.

2003, Waking Dreams: 52,214
2004. Higher Ground: 105,857
2005, Guardian Monsters: 54,347
2006, My Cat Used To Be A Buddhist: 50,074
2006, New Fires: 50,857
2007, The Coroner's Tale: at 62,857
2007, Roadside Attractions at the End of the World: 50,314
2008, Necessity and Power: 74,988
2009, Roadside Attractions (new version): 50,269
2009, The Adventures of the Miskatonic Elementary School Kids #1: 50,277
2009, Shadows of Never: 50,002

For a grand total of: 652,056. Damn.