- NaNoWriMo is 30 days of writing to produce and end result of 50,000 words and a finished rough draft. I ended on 20,115 words, but I had a week where I couldn't do much writing as we had company visiting from out of town. So basically, I wrote 20,115 words in 23 days. That's not too shabby. But that's not even why I'm feeling good about it.
- Some people go into NaNoWriMo prepared with an outline, character descriptions - you know, smart things that you'd do before you sit down to write a novel. I took a different approach to NaNoWriMo. I already have a novel I'm working on that has all of those things planned and plotted out for it. For NaNoWriMo, I wanted to really get into the concept of a soup-to-nuts novel. I went into it with a basic, one sentence premise for a novel. That was it. On November 1st, the gun went off and I flew out of the starting blocks. I came up with a couple of characters, and then I started writing. I wrote as I went, I worked out the story as it came to me. It was a completely different approach to writing than I've ever done. And you know something? I actually found a good story in there! It's rough and definitely needs some work, but it's actually pretty good. I now have six chapters of that story on paper, and just because November is over doesn't mean I'm going to leave it alone. I'm going to finish it the same way I started it - no plotting, planning, or fretting - just writing a story as it comes but without a time limit. There will be a rough draft of this book done in the not-too-distant future. So yeah, that's really cool! But it's not even the biggest reason that I'm happy with my NaNoWriMo experience.
- True, I wanted to hit that 50,000 mark. I did feel a moment of despair when I realized at 11:46 last night that there was no way I could write 30,000 words in fourteen minutes. But I'm actually quite proud of the 20,115 that I have written. And what is 50,000, anyway? How many novels are actually completed at 50,000 words? Is it just an arbitrary number? I'm only at chapter 6 in my NaNoWriMo story, and that's 20,000 words in. I already have half a novel written that's 11 chapters long so far and only about halfway done. So out of curiosity, I went to that file - which I have not touched since August, before our move to California and before I decided to do NaNoWriMo - and I looked at the word count. At chapter 11, that work stands at 60,954 words. So maybe the number is irrelevant.
So, yeah, I didn't hit the 50,000. But I did do some good writing, and I got into a writing groove again. Storylines and characters are playing out in my head while I do things like iron or do the dishes. Writing is back in the very matrix of my everyday life again, finally. And that is what I'm happiest about from this NaNoWriMo experience - that I can say I'm a writer and have something to show for it. Go me!
2 people said things about this post:
Congratulations!
I think anyone who even takes this challenge on is a winner!
While I was very happy that I did make the goal (first time in 5 years of trying, thankyouverymuch) I was more interested in trying to get myself into the habit of writing every day and showing myself that I really could make time just for writing.
Of course, after my allowed two-day vacation, now it's time to get back to work on this thing;)
Thanks! And HUGE congratulations to you!! I was watching your progress on my NaNoWriMo Friends list - you kicked some serious butt! I totally agree - it's gotten me back in the habit of writing every day too, and that is the most important part for me.
Good luck with your continued writing! Hoping I get to read it in print!
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