I arrived home late once again. Staring at the time I felt nothing but frustration and disappointment. It was November 30 and in 3 hours, National Novel Writing Month would come to a close. There was no way that I would be able to hit 50,000 words. I knew it in my head but my heart was still having trouble accepting it.
This month had started off wonderfully. I was on top of my word count and attending write-ins. Not a day would go by when I did not get some writing done. Even when I had a trip to Hollywood, I was using my iPad mini to write on the metro.
Then it happened. During what was (initially) a routine one on one meeting with my boss, I learned that he was leaving the company.
My jaw was literally on the ground.
When I pulled myself together and started accepting that he was serious, I hit the ground running. His position would not be back filled and his work would be spread to either a) other teams b) his boss c) me. This meant that I would have to spend my time trying to get as much work finished that would need his review. Plus, I started attending meeting to catch up on the projects scheduled to soon fall into my lap.
The days between writing sessions began to grow. My novel stats began to suffer. I would try to grab a few minutes to write and I would fall asleep on my laptop. The acknowledgements began to stack up at my day job but at night, I would feel like a failure.
It is now December 1. I stare at my manuscript. More words written than any other NaNo. There is still that feeling of sadness. That I once again was unable to meet a goal that I set. However, co-mingled with my disappointment, I feel a sense of duty. There was a tremendous amount of work put into my novel (67 paperback pages, 73 printed pages). I could not just let this novel fall to the wayside. Plus, this was an unplanned sequel to what I suspect would be my first published novel.
So, I will hit “Publish…” button on this post and will return to writing my novel, The Fallen. NaNoWriMo may be over but my novel still needs to be finished.
PhoebeJaneWrites 