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I finished my NaNo novel about mid-month. It had a beginning, a middle, and an end. Unfortunately, it only had about 20,000 words–not even close to the 50,000 word challenge. Curious, but my previous first draft also ended up at about 20,000 words—but it took me the entire month to write it, not two weeks.
Now I should tell you that I write middle grade books so they typically aren’t 50,000 words anyway, but somewhere in between my actual 20,000 and the 50,000 target. With two weeks left in November I had to decide whether I should attempt a second novel or if I should jump right into the 2nd draft.
Then, that very day, Meg Cabot’s NaNoWriMo encouragement e-mail arrived in my inbox. She talked about not being lured away from your current work-in-progress to that shiny new story. She encouraged us Wrimos to finish what we started. Was she looking over my shoulder?
I resigned myself to not “cheat on my WIP.” Thank you Meg Cabot! I dove into the 2nd draft—changing the narrative portions to actual scenes, that sort of thing. (I tend to write either straight dialogue or straight narrative in my first drafts.)
As of right now I’m at 36,350 words and recovering from the flu. Three more days to go! Let’s all see what we can do in the final push towards Nov 30th.
Some of my writing buddies from this blog already have their purple “winner” bars. I think it was PaperClipFrenzy and Myrrh who crossed first. Way to go! If you two happen to catch this blog let us know how it feels to have that purple bar.
I already feel like I’ve won because the book is out of my head and onto the page. Amazing what you can accomplish in a month. Three more days to go and I can return from my dream world back to regular life, satisfied that I’m one step closer to having a new novel ready to share.
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Way to go, Shonna! You are a winner!
I’m not sure if I’m going to make 50K, but I am VERY pleased with my 32K so far. I have had several family issues that required me to be away from the computer and other emotional issues that made me want to quit before I even started. Instead, with some prayer and grace, I’ve channeled that emotional turmoil into the story. THAT in itself is an accomplishment. One I am very proud of.
I’m going to write hard for several more hours. Then, tomorrow afternoon, regardless of my word count, I’m going to reward myself with a day at the movies with my son and daughter.
I may have 3 or 4 hours after we get home to try to reach 50K (and it would be nice to have that winner’s icon on our site), but even without 50K, I have a good story started and an even better personal victory behind me.
We are all winners!
What a surreal moment. I was reading your blog and said to myself…”Huh? Myrrh? Hey – that’s me!”
This is my 2nd year doing NaNo. Last year I started 5 days late and just barely made the deadline. This year I crossed the finish line about a week early. It can be a very draining month but, to tell you the truth, I kind of miss it already!
I am happy to have December “off”, but I already have plans to edit my WIP during March’s NaNoEdMo.
And one thing I learned from this year’s adventure is that I can absolutely be productive if I simply push myself a little! So my goal is to write at least one short story a month in 2009 – though, after having multiple 5k+ days during this year’s NaNo, I already have “secret” plans to try my hand at finishing more than 1 story per month. Wish me luck!
Hi Mary/Myrrh,
Congratulations on hitting the NaNo word count! That’s awesome! And you sound excited about your 2009 goals too. Excellent!
I have to say, I did a mental double-take when you spoke of NaNoEdMo. If you catch this comment, tell us more about it. I haven’t heard of it, but it sounds like just the ticket!
Congrats again, and happy writing!
Kitty
Hi Kitty – thanks for the kudos!
I’m not sure that NaNoEdMo is as “official” as NaNoWriMo. But I thought it sounded like a good idea, and a great way to keep the momentum going. It’s far enough away from November that one is afforded at least ~some~ recovery time
Yet still close enough that the original project isn’t so quickly forgotten.
I’ve worked on the same WIP for both ’07 and ’08 editions of NaNo, and I think I am at the point where I need to edit, instead of simply adding onto my story. And since the goal of NaNo is to pretty much keep writing, without looking backward, this is the perfect opportunity for me to weave the threads of my story together.
If anyone is interested on watching the magic unfold, I’ll be documenting my progress on my website come March!
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