Say goodbye to NaNoWriMo 2011 and my obsessive edit of my first 50 pages.

My kids in the Young Writers Program both made their word count goals. One with a day to spare, and the other staying up a little past bedtime to wrap it up. It is surprising how much one can write in a day when pressed!

I’m so proud of these guys. We all know that first draft can be hard. Writing every day can be hard. And getting to the end of our stories can sure be hard. They did it!

Now? We will be spending the next few weeks learning about revision, starting with proper dialogue formatting. Then I’ll be able to read what they typed without going cross eyed. I remember I used to hate taking the time to put in the quotes when I was in school. Now it’s second nature. They’ll get there, too.

For me, my fifty pages grew with my character’s thoughts, feelings, and motivation (and other details) to over seventy pages. Some of the changes I made changed the trajectory of the plot so now I need to follow the thread through until it matches up with the second plot point. Then I get to take what I learned for my first fifty and apply to the rest of the book.

I’d like to set my goal to have this all done by the end of the year, but I don’t know. Life gets full of activities the closer we get to Christmas, but we’re also taking a break from homeschool soon so I’ll have that extra time.

And speaking of goals! I should take another look at my goals for the year. Four more weeks to complete my 2011 goals. I almost forgot about that list. *gulp* I haven’t been good with reviewing it. Hope I’ve covered most of them by now.

Next thing you know, we’ll be talking about 2012 writing goals…

Just 10 days ago, we were playing in the surf on an Australian beach

Looks like the 974 words I wrote for NaNo on November 1st will be the grand total for my 2011 NaNo experience. Moving around the world really put a major wrench in my monthly writing goals. I’ve been in the U.S. for almost a week and I am still exhausted. I feel like I’m going to die if I don’t take a nap at 3pm, but I hang in there so that I’ll sleep great at night. My plans are always to go to sleep early, even 7pm or 8pm if necessary so that I’ll end up with 7-10 hours of sleep even if I wake up way early.

But it seems like every night I get a second wind and I no longer feel like going to bed early. Then I still end up not sleeping well and waking up tired. Sigh. Monday I had to get back to work, regardless of my sleep schedule. I got an awful lot done. Tuesday wasn’t bad either. But I can barely remember what I did then, let alone what I still have to do. I’d be lost without my to do list. In fact, I’ll walk into a room for…I’m sorry, why did I come in here?

These are normal things that happen to people sometimes, but since the flight from Sydney all of these things are part of my life constantly. I’ve written three articles in the last two days, and I think they were moderately good, but I still feel lost inside my head. I think maybe I should write about that, but I’m afraid I’d save it someplace by some name that I’d never find again!

All I can hope for now is to keep up with the major deadlines and show up to the family gatherings without forgetting what day it is. At some point in the (near? please, God, let it be near) future, all of this will fade into a distant memory and I’ll be back to working efficiently. But I can just imagine that John will be offered a contract in London or something right about then, and I’ll be moving again.

Ah, the life of an adventurer!  :)

          It doesn’t look like I’m going to win NaNo this year. I only have about 17,000 words written. That’s not really an insurmountable problem. I could write like a maniac over the next few days and bring my word count up. I’ve done it before.. This year is different, though. I doubt I’ll reach 50,000 words. (Unless I suddenly get bit by the competitive bug and go crazy.)

          But in my mind, I’m still a winner. This month marks the beginning of the end of my long writing-drought. The painful life-events of the past year are behind me (or almost behind me) and I’m on the road to emotional healing. It’s been difficult to write this month, but oh-so therapeutic. Here’s what I’ve “won” this NaNo:

• I have 17,000 words that were not written 4 weeks ago. (Only about 1/2 are actual scenes and story, but the journal entries are full of fodder for more scenes.)
• I re-established a writing routine. (Stumbling and stuttering though it is, it is still a routine.)
• I have reawakened the muse in me. (She’s still a bit groggy, but she’s awake.)

          So, yes, I might not be declared a winner on the NaNoWriMo site, but that’s okay. I’m still a winner.

          What about you? What have you won this NaNo?