I am not even joking

I finished the last word of my novel, "sleep," at 11:59 p.m. I am that good.

Or that bad, I suppose, depending on how you look at it.

So, as of right now, my final word count is (and yes, I know, I broke the rules and am also probably crazy and sick and sleep-deprived and totally just hallucinated a spider on my hand): 54,847 words.

54, 847 words!!!! That's so much! I don't think I've ever written this much, and certainly never in a 30 day stretch. But I'm done.

Wait, I just have to write that again: I am DONE.

My shoulders are cramped, my fingers are exhausted, my contacts are glued to my eyeballs, but I am DONE. It's a magical feeling.

Look!



I don't know exactly how I ended up going over 4,847 words, but I think it mostly has to do with how the climax of my novel spiraled wildly out of control. It's such a clusterfuck. Also, I have WAY too many characters, many of whom get neglected for most of the novel only to pop up at random times. Also, I had to wrap up the end of my novel WAY too quickly (time constraints, y'know). But all can be fixed in the eventual editing process.

Now, it's time to concentrate on getting better, doing my job, and drawing again. I may even draw some pictures of these characters. Who knows??

Anyways, it's been quite an interesting month. I may have some more reflections tomorrow, but right now, my brain just put up a GONE FISHING sign (brain, have you learned NOTHING from my novel or "End of the Line"??) but when it gets back, we'll see what it has to say.

Thank you to all of you who followed my blog, and especially those of you who commented. It's nice to know that someone out there cares.

MantoWriMo is over. I can have my life back.

Uh Oh

So, um, I'm breaking some rules. My novel is going to be more than 50,000 words. How do I know this? Because today, Tuesday, June 30, at 7:07 p.m., I broke through the 50,000 word ceiling of the chocolate factory. And this glass elevator is just going to keep going, because as it turns out, I still have more plot left in me.

By which I mean I had trouble pacing this thing all along, so here I find myself at 50,000 words mid-way through a climax (and yes, I'm aware that sounds dirty) certainly with an end in sight, but one that's a few miles out to sea and only dimly visible through the marine layer. But, I can't help it. Really, if I were to just write "The End" right now, my book would be incomplete, nothing would be resolved, and one of the crucial mysteries would never be uncovered. So, onwards and upwards I go. I am mixing so many metaphors here.

Here's a picture of my word count as of several minutes ago:



Check back later tonight for the final update. I will finish by midnight, mark my words.

New Favorite Animal

So I met this giant river otter today at the Zoo. It makes the most ridiculous noises. You can hear one here.

Also

For some mysterious reason I am now following my own blog....what?

That's so lame--like laughing at your own jokes. Why BLOGGER, why?

47,452 words, 2 days to go

We're getting close now. And plot is happening! Probably TOO MUCH PLOT! But whatever. Today I was a writing fiend. I literally holed up in my room for like, 9 hours and wrote, with minimal breaks. The nice thing about being sick is that you don't even want to eat so I didn't even really have to stop for snackity-snacks (unless you count lime popsicles, which I consumed in a big way.)

I'm really excited for this to be over, but suddenly afraid of the big gaping hole that will be left in my life when my noveling efforts are over. Any suggestions on what I should replace noveling with? Bead-making, perhaps?


BEES??

Seal

I love how when you look up "seal" on google, this is the first thing that comes up:



My mom and sister saw him at the airport once.


But I can see seals every day at the zoo. So...there.

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a....

It's the most badass stingray ever, out-leaping an orca whale.




Of course, after this picture was taken, it probably still got eaten, but whatever.