I am continuing apace on my Nano novel, although many thousands of words ago I accepted that this was a practice novel and not something that I want to spend any time upgrading into a real novel. When a friend asked if I was at least enjoying the experience, I said:
I am, even though it’s not a keeper. At least, in nothing like its current form. I am doing various things in it, though, like switching viewpoints, and doing flashbacks, and having scenes with multiple people in them that I haven’t done as much in the past. It’s one long practice session!
Currently I seem to be killing off half the character list and setting up the other half as suspects. Almost anything is ripe for comedy, but murder just isn’t funny as far as I’m concerned, the book’s descent into furious black comedy seems to be my way of accepting that not everything is meant to be published. And writing is never wasted: you always learn something from it (or should).
Oh, and next time? Outline.