Bad Company: The Spectacular Finale of JanNoWriMo

For those of you who have been paying attention, one of the goals I made for this year was to finish Bad Company once and for all. So, when I found myself falling behind in the last week of JanNoWriMo, I pulled off a series of 10,000-word marathon sessions. I won JanNo in spectacular fashion, breaking my all-time WriMo record in the process. However, even though I ended up with pain in my neck and shoulders to go along with my satisfaction, I didn't finish the first draft. That's my next goal: finish BadCo before NaNoEdMo begins on March 1.

Here's the lowdown:

As I've mentioned many times before in many places, Bad Company has always been plagued with massive plot holes. From the time I wrote it back in NaNo '07, there have always been major plotlines I plotted but never wrote, and they never really fit together, leaving plot holes so huge you could maneuver the starship Enterprise through.

Toward the end of last year, however, for NaNoFiMo, I returned to BadCo in order to fill in those nagging plot holes and finish the first complete draft. I decided I'd try to finish everything during JanNo. As usual, I had to battle my old enemy, procrastination, just to get started. However, when I reached the Panic Mode stage in the final week, I pulled off three (!) 10K sessions to bring my word count to a total of 63,161 and beat my word target of 50,000 with a vengeance. In the process, I filled some gigantic plot holes and completed entire plotlines.

But I left one more thing unfinished. I still left plotlines unfinished.

There are three major plotlines in particular that I need to complete before I can say I have a complete first draft:

1. most of the "Dictel Academy" school war;
2. the "Dictel invades America" plotline from the opening chapter to Desiree's piratecast; and
3. the entire plotline parallel to the Dictel Academy sequence, in which Charlie does everything she can to free her beloved sister Desiree from the company-owned boot-camp school.

There are a few minor plotlines left to add as well, and I intend to add at least one of them in February as well.

Last March, I spent a lot of EdMo writing more than editing. I wanted to fill in the plot holes, but in 2008 those plot holes simply refused to be filled, so I ended up burning out on writing altogether when I attempted AugNoWriMo. This year, I want to focus mostly on editing. That means I need to finish the last remaining major plotlines by the end of February. I'll keep my progress posted right here.

Meanwhile, I'm doing a FebNoWriMo. But it's for Black Science. 30,000 words should be a manageable word target while I'm writing at least 14 songs to win FAWM. But that's another entry entirely...

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