As we near the end of October, it's time for me to stop putting off the decision and either buckle up for NaNoWriMo or for the grueling task of editing the 2nd draft of my mainstream novel.

Every year I make the decision somewhere around October 31st. I usually decide for NaNo in hopes that the competitive nature and supportive community will help me to break through what appears now to be an annual lull in creativity. I'm not sure what it is about October that stalls my writing, but I'm starting to think it can't be a coincidence.

This year I have added stress from household issues, and nothing kills creativity like a boatload of stress. However, I have previously found that writing can also be an escape. I don't get much actual writing done whilst in the middle of editing, so if I'm to find that magical escape, I'll have to shelve the mainstream novel again for awhile.

Methinks I will try NaNo again this year and see if I can jump start my creativity by working on something new. If nothing new comes to me, then I'll go rebel and work on my mystery novel, which is this year's official project.

Who knows? Maybe NaNo will help me come up with my next novel idea, so to speak.

As I read and notate my way through the last ten or so chapters of my first draft, I realize that my misgivings about the ending and the general wrap up of the story were entirely justified.

Some of the chapters are incomplete. Some of the scenes are in the wrong order. Some of them have been partly rewritten and now no longer work with the rest of what was originally written in those scenes. I'm starting to think some of the later chapters also need to be moved around; and a plot line I had decided to drop needs to be put back in, which will require rewriting chapters 38-45.

Overall, I'm still pleased with the way the story is going. It will need quite a bit of work, and I'm not really looking forward to reading through the last several chapters, but I'm determined to get this over with so I can begin reworking the manuscript.

Here's to you, second draft - you have to be better than the first draft(pretty sure it's the law).