Novel - half full or half empty?

Happy November 15th! It's the halfway point, and I'm happy to say that I got there last weekend during the 2nd annual MO novelpalooza. Thanks to Jude, her living room, two airports and It's a Grind, I managed to spew forth 24,000ish words. (Thanks, Mom, for making me take an entire year of typing class in high school. Most boring class ever, but life has been easier because of it - and you didn't even know about computers back then...) Most of those words are connected in sentences, and a few are connected in relatively coherent story lines.

I even managed to type one sentence while I was asleep. I know I was asleep because I don't remember typing it, and I woke up and it was on the screen. I wonder if my typing is slower when I'm asleep, because there were no typos in the sentence! The sleep-typed sentence has nothing to do with anything my novel! My characters are not living in, going to or talking about Michigan or Minnesota, nor is it anywhere near Christmas as I haven't really placed the novel anywhere on a calendar year. There are no seasons or weather patterns or temperatures mentioned. However, this sentence appears in my 2007 novel: There ain’t no folks like us having Christmas in Michigan or Minnesota this year. It’s just too cold.

Yes, it is written in the dialect/poor grammar of the character who was speaking in the previous sentence, but there was no reason for Mr. Porter to say that. And no, I'm not taking it out because it pads the word count. I did change the color of the text to white so as to not distract from the flow of the chapter. (ha - that's funny!)

Got my LL Bean Christmas catalog today. The name Porter was used in several of their 'you can have this monogrammed' pictures. I wonder if they've met Mr. Porter...

I've come to several conclusions, some more profound than others:
1. I can write narrative or I can write dialogue. I haven't yet found the magical blend of both that makes novels interesting and well-written.
2. I still suck at this, but it's fun.
3. I'm addicted, and I can't imagine not writing a novel in any future November. I would miss it.
4. I lack the self-discipline needed to write a novel in any other month of the year.

and now, I must get back to my characters for a few minutes before Scrubs is on. I've missed them - both my novel characters and the Scrubs characters - and need to check in and see how they are doing.