TGIO: Thank "Gosh" It's Over

I did it. I completed National Novel Writing Month. Today is the first day of December, and I am so done. Although not really. December is the month of revision and also the month of preparation for JanNoWriMo! It's my favourite way to kick off the new calendar year because I refuse to write anything serious during the month of January. It's a ridiculous journey of sarcasm, oddity, and sheer insanity, and I always have way too much fun doing it.

But before I can get to the hilarity of January, I have a book to revise! It's incredibly exciting. Last year's novel was so atrocious that I only finished because I already knew it was so terrible that more words couldn't possibly harm it; it was easier to write knowing that no one would ever see the terrible thing but me. And so, when 1 December came, I closed the document and filed it away, never to be read again. Until this past month.

It just so turns out that the book isn't quite as terrible as I thought. I mean, it's horrid, but it's not unsalvageable. I don't really have a whole lot of interest in salvaging it, but if I wanted to, I could. The story just isn't "my thing" anymore. It was a horror/drama/romance/thriller/comedy/absolutely uncomfortable sort of story. It feels gross. There are little shining moments of good, but it's just horribly dark, really. Violence, hate, crime, etc. There's a psychopathic abusive boyfriend who turns out to be even more horrid than the "good guys" thought. And the "good guys" aren't exactly the most wonderful people either. It's just all around a rather unsettling book. 

But I'm not ashamed to have written an unsettling book. Writing is therapy. I was unsettled a year ago, and writing that book helped me come to terms with and understand my emotions at the time, just as Call Me Lux has definitely been a part of my journey of understanding myself and my own views this past month. It's a happier story, but it's not all rainbows and butterflies. And that's okay too. 

I'm getting a little tired of introspection though. By the time the first of January rolls around, I will be so completely done with introspection from revision, that I'll just have to spend the month of January writing goofy fun. It's my reward for working hard at my craft (of writing). 

Is it January yet?