Lumbering Across the Finish Line

With 24 hours, 20 minutes, and 229 words to spare...

What am I talking about?  See the sidebar, under NaNoWriMo 2010. (If you're too lazy to look, I can't help you...)

I have to say, this year was a tough one.  Not only was life generally cruddy and annoying this November, but this year's story rolled along like a wheelbarrow full of cement on a field of mud.  The characters never really gelled.  Storylines flared only to gutter out out mid-scene.  The world was an embarrassingly slapdash conglomeration of inconsistent details and illogical rules.  It didn't so much end as lumber to an ungainly, wheezing halt at a point where I could slap on some semblance of an end-cap.  If I ever talk myself into a second draft, I expect everything but the name to change beyond the point of recognition... and right now I'm fighting a reflexive urge to burn the sucker onto a DVD, back over it a few times, then light it on fire just to watch the miserable, recalcitrant monstrosity go up in flames.

But at least I finished it.  And a full day ahead of the deadline.

Go, me...