Zombies

I am not sure how my silly little zombie story from NaNo '06 managed to top out at 116,000 words.

This is a good story, for those of you who participate in NaNo. My "serious" story wasn't working out - I was going through a rough patch at work, I'd just broken up with a boyfriend, and I was peeved at my long commute. So midway through November, I dumped the serious story and just started writing about the end of the world. 10 days later I had something like 40,000 words and needed a plot device.

I added zombies. Bam! Insta-plot.

The Evil That Men Do (named after the Iron Maiden song playing when I heard it - and nominally after the Shakespeare line that inspired the song) went through several rewrites, edits, and tweaks over the next few years. I think I wrote 60,000 words in 15 days, then attacked it at different points. I've been ignoring it for awhile.

I think I missed the main zombie craze, unfortunately, but I'm wondering if it's worth pitching the thing somewhere, hence my pulling it out now.

After gluing it together and putting my eyes back into their sockets, I did some trimming last night - it's down to 112k - but I must do more. 12,000 words need to go. I think at that point I'll have to print the sucker out and work on hard copy.

I did order a printer last night from Staples: a cheapo inkjet. I need a working printer for manuscripts, advertising, printing out updated resumes and the like. Also applied to a job I've seen advertised on CL every few months - they probably won't get in touch with me, but eh, might as well cover my bases.

Meanwhile, editing.

How did I wind up with 12,000 surplus words on this monster? HOW?

I had a zombie-ful week on Wednesday, watching Dead Snow (Nazi zombies!), Dead and Deader (Dean Cain as good-looking zombie!), and Deadgirl (just...WTF).