Final Reflections on April 2014

April flew by so fast that it’s hard to believe it’s already over. I spent most of the month writing for the Camp NaNoWriMo challenge. Camp is the same as the regular NaNo challenge (which happens in November): you write a 50,000-word novel in one month. There are just less support and hoopla for Camp than there are for regular NaNo, which doesn’t really matter to me because I don’t need the support or hoopla anyway.

At any rate, my idea was that, rather than starting anything new, I’d use the challenge to finish up a couple of the novels I’ve been working on for a while. Technically, that’s outside the spirit of the challenge. *Shrug* I’ve already completed several novels and have way too many partials. I certainly didn’t need to start another one.

So guess what happened?

I just couldn’t help myself. Sometimes a story is itching to get out and you can’t do much to stop it. Of the 50K I wrote, more than half of it was on my new story. Needless to say, I didn’t finish anything and now I have a new partial. That makes seven partials now. *Wince* Obviously, I have a problem. I spent so many years not writing that, now that I finally started, I can’t seem to stop.

I wouldn’t consider that a problem if it weren’t distracting me from other things, namely focusing on publishing. At the beginning of the month, I was also working on revising one of my finished novels but I soon got too involved in Camp to continue. I think that was the big lesson of April. I’ve already proved to myself that I can write when I put my mind to it. I’ve proved that I can finish novels. What I haven’t proved is that I can do something about it once I’ve finished.

As I go into May, I will be re-focusing on the revision work, hoping to finish quickly (by the end of next week at the latest). I think this is achievable because I only have another 10-12 chapters to go, plus a new chapter that I need to write and insert. Yesterday, I worked through five chapters in one afternoon. I’m feeling pretty confident.

The other thing I’d like to do in May is explore more of the city. In particular, there are several museums, the La Brea Tar Pits, and Griffith Observatory that I’d like to check out. As much as I’ve been enjoying taking things easy, I’m starting to feel the need to get out a bit more. The pressure of the writing challenge left me without much time to do anything fun. 

The short version of this post is this: I spent April writing. If you're stopping by to read, why don't you tell me what's been taking up your time?