A Novel Approacheth

The good news:  I am almost finished with the first draft of my novel!  I'm not there quite yet, but the end is is in sight.

The bad news:  The further along I get the more I realize I'll need to change when I revise.  Draft number two will look pretty different than draft number one, I think.

The good news:  I love the thought of revising and editing and proofreading and cleaning up and making better!  I have so many ideas of what to change, and I can't wait to get started.

The bad news:  It'll have to wait, because...

The good news:  Yay, I'm going to do NaNoWriMo again!  Woot.  A whole month of feverish writing, and not much else!

The bad news:  Oh  no, I'm going to do NaNoWriMo... again.  A whole month of feverish writing, and not much else...

Honestly, I'm having such a great time writing. Last year I did so well with the deadlines that NaNoWriMo imposed, I want to give it another shot, but this year, I am planning to write a Young Adult novel.  They are typically a bit shorter, so if I can hit 50,000 words in November I will basically have a completed novel (assuming I can get to the end of my story in 50,000 words, anyway).  So my goal for November is to write the entire first draft.

I have an idea that's been lurking in the back of my head for a few months now, about a gay teenager who lives in a very small rural town.  Her family and her community are homophobic, so she keeps her gayness a secret, and feels bad having to lie to everyone about who she is.  She quietly works at a crappy job while secretly saving up money so she can move to a city and finally come out.  I'm still working out the details, and I don't even really have an outline yet, but I'm excited about it.

I can't express how much of a difference writing has made in my life since I started last November.  I remember a year ago, already thinking about it, and wanting so much to get going, but so fearful that I couldn't do it. 

Whew.  :)