They take substantially more than 30 days to write a quality novel.
I’m at 65k, about 3/4 of the way through my story. This one really, really wants to be born. I work, and I had to spend the weekend before last on a presentation, or I might be done. As it is, I stay up a little too late and get up a little too early, because the story wants out.
My October outline helped–no cheating, nothing to cut and paste–and the story just became more and more alive for me as the month has gone on.
I’m not trying to rub it in, just letting you know there is another side. The point is, if I felt it was turning into crap, I’d be in the same boat as many of you. I did lose heart for a while at the beginning of the second week, wondering if it was all too self indulgent, but I read some to people who liked it, and that helped. This is my first NaNo, and it was amazingly liberating to me to not worry if my story was any good, just do the words. Now, I find that I have to keep myself from re-reading, just because I enjoy it when I do. (And I’m saving the real editing for December.)
Me? Obsessive? You say that like it’s a negative thing…