If life is a school then I’ve just experienced that feeling you get before a major exam when you’re supposed to have done several weeks revision and you’ve actually done none at all. I started out on Deadheads with the best of intentions and the 17000 odd words of prose I generated are a testament to a solid start but even a two time NaNo winner can’t compete with a November where it simply wasn’t going to happen.

I think the most important thing that came to me while I was enjoying the adventures of Janet Forsberg and Greg Woodburn immensely was that as fun as it was all shaping up to be I had lots of other half-finished portions on my work plate. I also identified that there were a number of “side projects” which were either demanding my attention or, as time went by, eating it entirely.

On the topic of side projects it’s not something I think authors talk about but any artist needs time to do things which are not strictly speaking “what they do”. Terry Pratchett helps on the science of discworld, Stephen King pens a mini-series, Neil Gaiman writes a normal novel instead of a graphic one… it’s a healthy thing I think because approaching a creative project from a completely different angle shakes things up a bit and makes it much easier to keep plugging on with the main “thing you do”.

So this year’s NaNo I suffered from numerous excuses why I couldn’t bash out 50k by the 30th. And the most important ones were things I never saw coming like, wanting to write other things instead and feeling that there were other editing projects which deserved my attention. I haven’t even finished Starfall yet and here I am ploughing into fresh turf.

I just like taking part and the month did it’s main job which was to get me a foothold in my next project. I will have to leave Janet and Greg for the time being however as I have far more to do before I can introduce them, and you, to the deadheads…