I “won” NaNoWriMo, which means that I wrote 50,000 words during the month of November. To be precise, I wrote 50,364. The idea is to write a novel, but that 50K I wrote is more like two-thirds of a novel. A decent start, at any rate.
I figure I’ll finish the first draft in the next two weeks. It feels like it wants to be about 80,000 words or so, but we’ll see. Once that’s done I’ll let it cool for a few months before tackling revisions. Maybe they should call it National Novel Starting Month (NaNoStMo?) since all those first drafts are unlikely to be presentable.
The experience of participating in NaNoWriMo was an enlightening one. For years, I have convinced myself that I can only write novels during summer vacation because there just isn’t time during the school year. I found out I was wrong about that. I lied to myself! I can work on novels anytime, and I discovered some ways to bring focus to the small chunks of time in which I could write.
I used NaNoWriMo to try some new things too. I wrote in the first person, which I’ve only done in short stories, and I’m doing science fiction, which I’ve always wanted to try but hadn’t until now. The go-go-go pace of writing for this challenge doesn’t leave much room for self-doubt so it’s a great time to try new things and experiment a little bit.
It’s been fun, and I like the characters and the story. I’m surprised by some of what has happened, but that’s part of what makes writing such a thrill.
James Brush is a teacher and writer who lives in Austin, TX. He tries to get outside as much as possible.
I learned that I could actually write something that long. The relentless pace made it hard to get comfortable with my output because if I didn’t keep moving along, I’d be behind.
I realize now that I need to flesh out the story more, but that actually getting it down in some fashion beyond an outline will make that easier. The characters consumed me for the month…I had to write a few poems just to keep from going insane….
I don’t know how well that worked out….
Congratulations on your “win.” What I like is that you learned you could do something you didn’t think you could. How often do we hold ourselves back because we think we can’t do “x” for “y” reason. I’m totally guilty of it myself. Glad it worked out so well for you!