At work on Thursday, instead of working on SharePoint deployment or database administration or any of the other 5,004 things I should have been doing, I spent the day reading the novel I wrote for National Novel Writing Month last year. Allow me to sum it up in two words: PEEE-EEEWWW.
Okay, it wasn't a total stinker. For what it was--a novel written in 30 days without an outline or any true idea of where I was going--it's not half bad. It turned out exactly as you'd expect it to. The first 80 pages or so are full of false starts, but it finishes fairly well. I learned a lot while writing it, and I've learned even more while reading it. The most important lesson is this: Don't ever, EVER try to write a story without an outline again!
Because I really like the characters, the theme, and the nugget of a plot that I introduced, I can't just throw this story away. I have no intention of trying to get this or anything else I write published, but I still want to have a story I'm proud of sitting on my hard drive, you know? So, I've decided to go back to work on it. Tonight, I'm getting serious. I've actually started developing an outline for the book. I'm playing around in Dramatica, trying to make sense of all the theory and terms, so I can build Skin Deep from the ground up, and once I'm done, then I'll start writing. I've turned off the TV, turned on some music (right now, I'm listening to a little Velvet Acid Christ, but I feel a little Tool in my future), and I'm getting down to business. Wish me luck!
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