Thumper Thinks Out Loud

WooHoo, it's December.
Christmas is coming.
New Year is coming.
NaNoWriMo is over.

I didn't hit 50K. I will not get the spiffy PDF certificate. In NaNo terms, I am not a winner, but I'm not a loser, either. I like how that works out.

In the last few days I had to make a concentrated choice: finish NaNo, or work on the layout of a book, the royalties from which will be donated to an animal charity. Get a PDF certificate or get the book to print in time for people to order it for the holidays. And there was the whole sit down and write, or go for a ride mentality working on me.

I opted to finish laying out the book (which might still get to print in time, I'm still waiting on a couple of publishing agreements; even though people submitted work specifically for this book I can't go to print without their John Hancocks) and to take a few bike rides. The thought occurred to me that I could cheat and just type nonsense for 10,000 words and "win," because GOSH DARN IT that's one spiffy PDF certificate (or it was when I did NaNo year before last) but my initial goal was to get this story out of my head, and in that I succeeded.

Before November, it had been tumbling around in my head for well over a year, but I didn't have a clear enough vision of it to do more than take copious notes. I had no idea how it would end; now I do, and it's ending in a way I honestly did not expect.

While I was pounding the story out, once in a while I worried that some people would eventually read it and think I had written them into the story, and not in a favorable light. I had to keep writing anyway...one, because if it didn't get out of my head I wouldn't be able to move onto the next project; and two, it's fiction. Pure fiction, albeit wrapped around familiar truths.

So when I finish, if it becomes a you-can-buy-it book...No, it's not about you. It's not about me. It's not even about the dead guy walking around in Goth makeup.

There ya go, something to look forward to, and to discuss amongst yourselves.

Who's the dead guy in Thumper's failed NaNo...?