Well that’s me done for NaNoWriMo this year and probably for ever, I don’t think this style of writing is for me, the thought of all that editing on what was a very bad piece of work due to all that rushing through was incredibly off putting as I wrote. I think my ‘natural’ daily word count is more like 800 – 1000, which would still mean I could write a novel in two months which isn’t bad.
So what did happen to my NaNoWriMo story? Well I did finish it (huge fanfare of trumpets please, I’ve never finished a long story before) but I only got to about 40,000 words, in a less hurried more considered writing I may have found another ten thousand words but to be honest I hated and resented this story so much I wanted to put the story out of it’s misery as soon as possible. However I did still follow my plan and story to the conclusion I’d worked out before I’d started this, so what was needed was ten thousand words of filler somewhere between.
I wrote that I resent my story, this is because of all the things I haven’t been able to do this month because of NaNoWriMo, like for example more than a rudimentry glance at a book, I’d have normally read at least two this month, I’m still half way through my first and I believe reading is as vital an activity for a writer as writing is. I’ve been neglecting other writing projects which have a far more likely chance of being published in my eyes (ok still remote but my NaNoWriMo story, never). Plus my house is a tip and I’ve been neglecting some of the more fun aspects of Christmas preparation, I only got round to making my Christmas cake last night and that was only crammed in, late at night after a hard day’s writing (consequently the oven still on past midnight last night).
On the plus side though, yeah I finished a long story (did I say that before lol) and also as I wrote above I have resented not being able to work on my other projects, which is new because these other projects had been stalled a long time before NaNoWriMo, so NaNo has given me the incentive to finish one project I actually believe in and to start a new one I had been thinking about for some time.
So, much as I resented NaNoWriMo in the end, I think I needed to do this, it’s given me the incentive to continue writing at a greater rate than I have done before (although no where near 1,667 words), I now have the knowledge that I can complete a long story (even if it’s not very good) and I have more of an idea of the emotions a writer encounters on the way (the NaNoWriMo pep talk e-mails were fantastic and uncannily timed to hit the spot exactly each time), plus I would have always seen talk of NaNoWriMo each year and wondered what it was like to do, so now I know.
Finally I have really enjoyed reading others’ progress on their NaNoWriMo projects and will quite miss that.
