Crossing the Finish Line

I knew when I started writing this month that I was pushing myself.  I’d done NaNo, and managed to “win” three times before, but I also knew how much work it was.  I was right.  Writing 80,000 words in a month averages out to 2,667 words per day. 

I don’t set out to do NaNo with the illusion that I’ll have a finished novel at the end of the month.  I see it as a writing exercise and a way to improve.  There were a few things I learned this month.

1.  I can write 1,000 words in about a half hour, if I know what I’m writing, and I’m excited about it.  One night I even found myself thinking, “Oh, I’ve just got 1,000 words left to hit par for the day.  I’ll just whip that out, and then I can make dinner.”

2. I’m not always thrilled about everything I write.  Sometimes my characters seem flat and dull.   Sometimes the story seems to be dragging on and on.  Sometimes I think I ought to delete the whole word file and try again next year.

3.  BUT … even when it’s rough going, I still find little gems.  A character does something unexpected, I write a sentence I’m particularly fond of, or I get to use the term “fluid dynamics” in my novel, and it makes me smile.

4.  Now that I have a novel (not this one, a previous one that wasn’t a NaNo project) that I have cleaned up and am ready to start submitting to agents, it’s easier for me to cut myself some slack.  Yes, this novel as it is, all 80, 559 words of it, is a horrible piece of junk.  It needs major revising, two characters need their backgrounds (and their attitudes) adjusted, and I need to add a number of scenes in the middle and at the end.  But I have hope.  It can be done.  It will not always linger in the miserable state it is now in.

I leave you with a character sketch I wrote before starting the novel.  May I introduce my antagonist, Enez Bozwell. 

Enez felt his body hit the water. It swallowed him whole, lapping over his limbs and head to encompass him. It was cool, and after the beating his pale skin had taken from the sun that day, it was almost a relief. Almost.

Enez panicked. His lungs burned and begged for sweet air, but reach as he did for the light glinting off the surface of the water, he couldn't lift himself up. He didn't know how to swim. His body drifted slowly downward, the light receding. Enez opened his mouth to curse his mother, but only a bubble escaped. He closed his lips against the rush of water and wondered how long it would take him to drown.

It was his mother's fault. His father had met her on a trip to the mainland, and she wasn't used to the ways of the people of Ao'Ha. She'd watched them swimming in the canals that flowed like streets through the city and shuddered. No child of hers would swim in filth. And he never did. But try avoiding the water in a city that rises and falls with the tide. Every bridge crossing, every boat ride, every glimpse of the blue expanse beneath him sent icy fear down his limbs. The water would be the end of him, Enez always knew it. And today, the end had finally come.

Enez watched the light dwindle, feeling the water pressing down on him. He didn’t leave much at the surface. His mother was long gone, and his father had stopped speaking to him more than a decade ago. He'd never had friends, only a few people who didn't mock him outright in school, or now at work. His students would dance under his memorial, if anyone bothered to put one up for him. No, he had no love for the world that had shown him little kindness.

Enez stretched his arms to his sides, as if to embrace the end. His heart burned with longing that equaled the craving in his lungs. He'd been rejected, but he yearned to bask in love, hungered for praise and admiration. Alas, his end had arrived.

The deep blue of the water flickered with a green glow. Enez wondered if it was a trick of his mind, the pressure beginning to turn his brain to mush. Now a shape appeared in the center of the lights. A woman. Enez had always wanted to find a woman … This one was beautiful. She swam with an unnatural speed and grace. Her hair streamed behind her as she swam, but as she stopped, floating in front of him in the water, it floated in a halo around her face. She smiled. Her arms reached out and took his hands, bringing them together and cupping them in hers.

Enez's hands grew warm, and the tingling pain from lack of oxygen seemed to seep away. The warmth traveled up his arms. It reached his chest, then spread into his legs and up into his head. Enez stared into the green woman's eyes. He found himself smiling back. She reached up and stroked his face tenderly. A song echoed in the water, calling, and the woman turned. One glance back and she dropped his hands. She disappeared back into the darkness.

Enez watched her go and took a deep breath. Water flowed into his lungs, warm and tingling, quenching his hunger. Enez stared after the woman in wonder. Where had she gone? And what had she done to him?