It does not escape my attention that rather than publishing this on December 1st, or even November 30th, I am publishing this update on December 9th, which isn't ideal. That said, I do have an exciting announcement to make...
I won!
I won!
Unfortunately, I did not come anywhere close to meeting my goal of 100k words. I spent a good deal of the month sick, which slowed me down, and then disheartened by getting so far behind, which only made it worse. However, despite falling WAY behind, I was able to make a comeback in the last week and ended up squeaking by with just 50,349 words. But hey, a win is a win.
If you want to see just how much of a stretch my win was, here's my stats for the month:
If you want to see just how much of a stretch my win was, here's my stats for the month:
As you can see, I spent most of the month not writing. To fill you in on those long plateaus, I spent a lot of that time taking naps due to intense headaches and watching TV when my head didn't hurt. But while some of those days I was definitely not feeling well enough to write, for much of it the lack of writing boils down to lack of ideas and utter laziness. However, I kicked it into gear on the 26th and put in at least 5k a day from there to reach that final goal of 50k by the end of the month. And while I would have liked to meet my personal goal of 100k last month, in some ways I am glad to have finished the way I did. I really pushed myself in my writing last month and really had to stretch my imagination to keep my story going, which I probably wouldn't have done had I not had that deadline to meet. I'm happy to announce that writing is going better this month, and I think I will be able to finish my rough draft this month, which has long been my goal.
In the end, although this is not the first time I have won NaNoWriMo, I think I learned the most this month about the importance of deadlines and how they can motivate you. I highly recommend participating in NaNoWriMo to anyone who is interested in writing and is looking for a support group, because those message boards are gold. I'm sad that it only happens once a year, but I might look into Camp NaNoWriMo next spring and consider participating in that, or somehow coming up with challenges myself to push my writing throughout the year.
Did anyone else participate in NaNoWriMo this year? Have any stories, tips, or questions? I'd love to hear from you so go ahead and comment below.
In the end, although this is not the first time I have won NaNoWriMo, I think I learned the most this month about the importance of deadlines and how they can motivate you. I highly recommend participating in NaNoWriMo to anyone who is interested in writing and is looking for a support group, because those message boards are gold. I'm sad that it only happens once a year, but I might look into Camp NaNoWriMo next spring and consider participating in that, or somehow coming up with challenges myself to push my writing throughout the year.
Did anyone else participate in NaNoWriMo this year? Have any stories, tips, or questions? I'd love to hear from you so go ahead and comment below.
RSS Feed