My novel from NaNoWriMo 2007, 200 PC, is still unfinished. I made it to just over 50,000 words, and I stopped. I went back and edited, fixed, re-edited. I know what I want the very end of the story to be, but I don't yet have a map for getting there.
This year's novel is nowhere near its end at this point, either. Of course, I'm only 60% or so through the designated November word count, but I believe I'm only about 40% of the way through the story. So the question before me is: should I go ahead and close the story arc, get to the end of the novel, and leave out many of the details along the way? Or should I continue to write the first draft as closely as I can in style to the theoretical final product?
The first option leaves me with many scenes to go back and add, and may make internal consistency more difficult. But the second choice leaves me in the same boat as last year: I'll have a story with no ending.
Since I'm plotting the middle bits as I go, I think it's easier to just keep writing at the expected final pace of the novel, and then continue the plot past November 30. This assumes I'll have the continued commitment to the novel to keep going in December.
Easier doesn't always equate to better, though. So perhaps I'll experiment tonight with writing some abbreviated scenes that I know I'll replace later with something longer, and hurry the plot along more rapidly toward its conclusion.
Whichever way I go, I have to get to writing. I'm almost 5,000 words behind quota right now, but thankfully it's the start of the weekend...