Camp NaNoWriMo Goal Achieved!

It's been far too long since I provided a Camp NaNoWriMo update.  The last time I posted, I was still coming to terms with the fact that I was going to be extending this novel into July.

Tonight I finished my novel, Amnesia, at long last.  I've thought I was "close to finishing" for about a month and a half at this point.  I just kept realizing I needed more and more to finish it off properly.

But tonight I finally wrote all the way to the end!

I finished the novel just under my word count goal for July, which was 135,000 words.  After several rounds of lengthening my word count goal, it seems I was finally spot on with what I needed to finish the story.  (To be fair, some of the lengthening was because I knew I was cutting out a substantial chunk of backstory that I was rewriting or ditching.)

I'd already started working a little bit on the sequel, so I just moved directly into working on that, and therefore met my word count goal of 135,000 words the same night as I finished the novel!

At some point, I need to separate these two novels into their own files and figure out word counts for each.  I think the first novel, Amnesia, is around 107,000 words, give or take once I finish cutting some and adding some.  We'll see how long it is after revision.  The second novel I haven't give a title yet, and I have no idea yet how long it's going to be, although I'll aim for them to be about the same.

My plan at this point is to write the sequel now, then revise both novels together.  I want to be able to do a staggered release, with the first novel to be followed by the second a few months later.  When I release the second, I'll likely do a promo on the first one to help sell the second.  While I'm gearing up to publish Amnesia and sequel, I'll get back to work on Ruby Ransome.  (Although now I'm also thinking about reviving a book I wrote for NaNoWriMo 2013, a genderbent retelling of Phantom of the Opera.)

By the way, because I hadn't done an update in so long, I also hadn't posted about hitting my word count goal at the end of June.  It took a whopping day of writing the last day of June, but I did it!