{"id":5844,"date":"2011-12-01T06:18:39","date_gmt":"2011-12-01T11:18:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/?p=5844"},"modified":"2011-12-01T06:18:39","modified_gmt":"2011-12-01T11:18:39","slug":"i-won","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/?p=5844","title":{"rendered":"I Won!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I wrote 51,722 words of my first novel, <a title=\"The Synopsis of the Novel I\u2019m Going to Write in November (and a Few Thoughts About its Impending Birth)\" href=\"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/?p=5513\" target=\"_blank\">Marigold Man<\/a>, in 30 days, from November 1 to November 30.\u00a0 The folks who run National Novel Writing Month call that winning.\u00a0 Here is a quote from the organization&#8217;s Winner&#8217;s Page:<\/p>\n<p><em>Congratulations, novelist!\u00a0 You won!\u00a0 Here at NaNoWriMo HQ, we are partying hard in recognition of your epic accomplishment this month. One month ago, you committed yourself to this wild write-a-thon: 30 days of high-velocity, pedal-to-the-metal noveling.\u00a0 And now, 50,000 words and one month later, you are a NaNoWriMo Winner!<\/em><\/p>\n<p>National Novel Writing Month isn&#8217;t really a competition.\u00a0 It&#8217;s actually more of an exercise for writers and writer wannabes like me.\u00a0 The only prizes for winners are downloadable images like the one, below, plus a certificate.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_5863\" style=\"width: 190px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Winner_180_180_white1.png\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5863\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-5863\" title=\"Winner's badge for writing 50,000 words in 30 days\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Winner_180_180_white1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"180\" height=\"180\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Winner_180_180_white1.png 180w, http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Winner_180_180_white1-150x150.png 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 180px) 100vw, 180px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-5863\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">My cyber laurel wreath. Winning is more than its own reward.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Reflecting on the experience, I made a list of the actual prizes I won:\u00a0 <!--more--><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The lesson\u00a0that I hardly know what I&#8217;m doing when it comes to writing a novel, but&#8230;<\/li>\n<li>&#8230;learning what I need to learn and having a huge chance to practice it.<\/li>\n<li>The freedom of giving myself permission to\u00a0write creative, weird things, risking writing garbage or maybe treasure&#8230;<\/li>\n<li>&#8230; which ends up being the real prize: what you think is garbage may end up a gem, but you won&#8217;t\u00a0find out\u00a0if you don&#8217;t write it.<\/li>\n<li>The discovery and practice of\u00a0pacing &#8211; have I developed a character, relationship, conversation or scene too much or too little?\u00a0\u00a0Did I spend\u00a0five paragraphs on a minor thing and one paragraph on a major?<\/li>\n<li>The creative tedium of writing dialogue.<\/li>\n<li>The experience of\u00a0creating and developing\u00a0characters and giving them unique and consistent voices.<\/li>\n<li>The adventure of making and following a plot.<\/li>\n<li>The excitement of\u00a0getting to try my hand at foreshadowing.<\/li>\n<li>The permission to write tension or pain, without which the story would be a syrupy bore.<\/li>\n<li>The fun of writing a novel.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>That I mention these gifts is no guarantee I succeeded at any of them, but I&#8217;m pretty sure I&#8217;m on the right path.\u00a0 I&#8217;m hoping this past month&#8217;s schooling will\u00a0guide me as\u00a0I rewrite and edit.<\/p>\n<p>I am grateful for family and friends&#8217; support.\u00a0 My wife, our three children and their spouses, and many other relatives and friends all encouraged me with warm, helpful words.\u00a0 The dear wife of one of my many dear nephews is a talented graphic artist and sent me this gift at the end of the month:<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_5864\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/50000.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5864\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-5864\" title=\"You're wondering when you can read the book?  Read the rest of this blog post.\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/50000-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/50000-300x300.jpg 300w, http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/50000-150x150.jpg 150w, http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/50000.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-5864\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A touching gift from a talented niece-in-law and her husband<\/p><\/div>\n<p>So what&#8217;s the status?<\/p>\n<p>Over the past month, I&#8217;ve been reading Dickens&#8217; <a title=\"Click this link for crucial information on this point.\" href=\"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/?p=5291\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Great Expectations<\/span><\/a> and last night I reached the two-thirds point of the book.\u00a0 Same with <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Marigold Man<\/span>: I am two-thirds through the story (I wanted to find a way to compare myself to Dickens and my book to his.\u00a0 Slick, huh?)\u00a0 My plan is to blog less than usual during December, maybe three original posts per week or so, and spend the extra time finishing the book.\u00a0 At that rate I&#8217;ll be able to finish by January 1.\u00a0 Then I will print and read the book in hard copy and make many notes and edits in the margins about how I want to rewrite and revise the second draft.\u00a0 I hope to have a second draft completed sometime in the early spring, when the lettuce is just starting to grow well in the garden.<\/p>\n<p>Awed Townsperson: &#8220;But Marigold Man, when will you return?&#8221;<br \/>\nM.M.: &#8220;Look for me when the lettuce is four inches high.&#8221;<br \/>\nA.T.: Ohhhh, Marigold Man, you&#8217;re sooo dreamy!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>At that point, I think I&#8217;ll find a few brave souls who would like to plow through the thing and tell me what they think.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I wrote 51,722 words of my first novel, Marigold Man, in 30 days, from November 1 to November 30.\u00a0 The folks who run National Novel Writing Month call that winning.\u00a0 Here is a quote from the organization&#8217;s Winner&#8217;s Page: Congratulations, &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/?p=5844\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[841],"tags":[898,942,827],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5844"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5844"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5844\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5870,"href":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5844\/revisions\/5870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}