I definitely did. And I'm really going to get serious and stop treating it like this faintly embarrassing hobby...but not too serious. And I did write something every day...although I think maybe I had too many balls in the air...probably sometimes literally, writing so much fic and that too, but I have to feel like I'm taking time away from something or it won't happen. Right?

erika, the switching between fic and fiction gave me a genuine taste of what juggling several brightly coloured, rather heavy balls in the air above my head must be like.

But I'm all about you treating it seriously.

Maybe I need to feel like a cheater or something.(Don't mind me...sometimes I think I gave up therapy a little abruptly.;))

I'm writing again!

I'm still doing the background research to feel comfortable tackling the Peninsular War segment of Novel 2.0 (henceforth to be referred to by its working title, Anna and the Sergeant), but the not-writing was starting to bother me, so I'm writing around the martial bits. Got in 900 words tonight. Not much, but it's a start. I'm having to adjust to third person after writing Lucy in first, and find the right voice, but it feels good to be back in the saddle.

Susan, huzzah! I'm trying to polish off the last of chapter 4 of The Eden Tree, then down the home stretch for Matty, with tour stuff in the middle.

I'm going to try to finish Anna by 11/30/04, though allowing myself grace for not knowing how I'll deal with motherhood and all the changes about to come in my life. Eventually I'd like to be able to turn out two manuscripts per year, but this definitely isn't the time to push for that.

And by coincidence I'm getting a chance to write what I know--in the scene I'm working on, Anna is as pregnant as I am now, and the sensory details are flowing more easily than usual.

Always a plus - the flow for what you know.

I like the idea of being able to write one per year, then research and start the next one and get that half done. A book and a half, with research included, strikes me as a nice personal balance.

Well, wri mo is over. Did any of us make it?

Yes! Me! I'd cracked 50 000 words by 23rd November, and went on just far enough to finish the story, about 51K. Now I'm trying to be good and edit it properly.

So by my standards, yeah, I won.

Yours are the important ones, in this case at least, I think. So go you.

I'm writing again!

Congrats, Susan!

Whohoo, Am-Chau! Good on you!

And yay for us, too, who learned about the process. I'm pretty happy with the plot I ended up with. I think I can do something with it later. And I'll kind of be happy to discard the meme of mediocrity. It was good exercise, but I disliked the feeling of leaving something I knew lacked luster, for the sake of the count. Still, it was something I wouldn't have done otherwise, so I'm glad I did try.

I think I'll keep working on it, and then, of course, there's always next year. (Cubs fan much?)