As I expected, I did not win NaNoWriMo this year.
I did, however learn a lot about my novel. I spent more time planning the setting and world-building with this book than any other story I have written before, but as it turns out, I didn't do enough. I often write stories that take place on other planets, and the setting is important, but I could still get away with making a lot of it up as I went along. In this story though the setting IS the story in many ways. It is the mystery. It is the central conflict. It matters a lot, and I didn't realize the number of details that I really needed to think and make decisions about early on that will affect the rest of the story.
So I am headed back to short story writing for a little while as I work on the world for my novel. It is an exciting and intimidating project all at the same time.
