The youth of today

For the most part, I’ve been enjoying the snow. I’m not a fan of cold weather, but I love it when the big fluffy flakes are coming down. But the accumulation is making for slippery surfaces. I’ve not become an NHS statistic, but yesterday as I was out last-minute-shopping, I had that dignity shredding experience of falling flat on my bum. I’m not sure what sort of noise I made, but the young man, a teenager, just crossing the street ahead of me took out his in-earphones and turned around to ask if I was o.k., bless. He didn’t move on until I was standing up again.
Why does this episode get a blog entry? Because it occurred to me that I could use it in a story sometime. Yes, it would seem contrived to have characters meet because one of them slips on the ice, but it would also be realistic. Even though I’ve not made any progress in editing my nanowrimo novel, I still seem to want to write more. How can I use my time on the bus to do this? I’m not sure. There’s no reason why I couldn’t edit the novel on the bus; it’s just that I find it hard to do, and hard to want to do. It’s tempting to try to crochet snowflakes instead. But it doesn’t matter either way at the moment, because I’m off work until the new year.

Tap-a tap-a tap-a

I finished my nanowrimo novel on the 30th! My total word count was just over 50,000 and I haven’t worked up the energy to read it yet, but I did hit that deadline, see winner decal to prove it. I made P a “Support Staff” decal for all the help he gave me. He even told me at the end that what I’d written was the size of the Ice Schooner by Michael Moorcock, and that made me feel quite impressed with myself.
The organizers are correct in saying it is possible to write a full rough draft of a small novel, but it is a big task. I’ve neglected other interests and even stuff like shopping for boots. Plus I’ve not been getting enough exercise. Sitting and typing leads to a flabby bottom. If I do more writing, I will have to exercise properly, too.
Was it worth it? I am proud to have done it, but the novel will take a lot more work before it’s even in a state where I could ask someone (probably P again) to read over it. At the moment, it makes sense to me, and I still like the overall story, but I have a feeling it isn’t going to be readable until I put in at least the same amount of time editing it. My previous experience at editing on the bus tells me that it’s not as easy as writing. At the moment, I’m having a rest. I didn’t have time to plan any other activity for after writing on the bus, so I’m just watching pigeons and seagulls on my commute.