ENGAGE SATISFIED MODE....

The Corpse-Rat King passed 43 000 words tonight, 29 300 of them since the start of Nanowrimo. What's most satisfying is how much of the plot I still have left in front of me- with Napoleone's Land, it felt like a struggle to come up with enough words to fill a full-length novel, but the lessons I learned from the experience are playing themselves out much more easily this time around, which bodes well for when I finish this first draft and go back to do the Napoleone rewrites.

What's most pleasing is the feeling that these are 43 000 saleable words. It's one thing to slap words down on a page and pass a distant finish line, but unless you write with the aim of publication, that's all you're doing-- slapping words down. I may not be winning the Nanowrimo 'race', but I'm gonna sell mine!*

The part of me that has been resisting the change in focus from short stories to novels is getting smaller and smaller.


*This, of course, has no bearing on whether other Nanites will sell their words-- only a mug would bet against the likes of Simon Haynes, Stephen Dedman, and Lyn. But the egomoster don't play like that......