First off, a reminder that if you’d like to register for my e-reader giveaway, all you have to do is leave me a comment telling me what type ($100 or less) you like best. I’ll throw your name in the hat and when I draw the winner, I’ll order it and have it sent directly to you. There truly is no catch on this! I write e-books, I love reading e-books and I want to share that love with others. The more people with e-readers in the world, the more chance I have of selling a book, right?

Now, on to the news. I’m not sure I would even call it bad news. Well, maybe a little. I got up to 46,000+ words done on my NaNo novel and realized it was crap. For one very simple reason. I had a character alive in it who should have been dead from the start. I couldn’t even kill her off partway through the novel. It just didn’t make sense. So I started over.

It’s quite an experience throwing away almost 46,000 words. I can’t actually say I mourned them. I knew they were crap and becoming crappier with each word written. I also knew I was going against the entire NaNo philosophy: Write until you hit 50,000 even if it is crap, then fix it later. I just couldn’t do it. I knew how to fix it and I was eager to get started. So I went back to the beginning, axed the troublemaking character and am now working my way back through the novel, salvaging what I can. I’m up to 7,000 words. Some of them are even good words. Here’s a teeny-tiny sneak peak:

“You can’t sell this place to a developer. Your grandmother would never have wanted that.”

“What do you want from me? I can’t keep the place. It’s not like it’s a real productive farm like it used to be. It’s a few acres and some horses. My life is in Raleigh, Colin, and I plan to get back to it.” Silence fell and she raised her eyebrows. “If you love this place so much, why don’t you buy it?”

“I’d love to, but I’m not the rich developer type, in spite of my appearance.” His mouth twisted with sarcasm as he indicated his worn work shirt and jeans.

Yep. I killed off the grandmother. And I introduced another character (the developer) earlier in the story. Everybody seems to have a much clearer idea of how they’re supposed to act. So I’m not sorry I didn’t finish NaNo this year. I think it still worked for me.

Now I have to go wade through some more of my ultimate revision. Congrats to the NaNo’ers who finished and those who attempted it!