I knew when I made this list that there was no way I would be able to do 50,000 words in a month and boy was I right. However, that’s why I said PARTICIPATE in NaNoWriMo instead of complete! (I’m wicked smaht, right?)
It wasn’t for lack of time after I made it through the 15th, so much as lack of desire to sit in front of a computer and write and even though I came in just under 20,000 words I’m still really proud I got that much done. I was shocked at how easy it was to write the story I chose and am excited to finish it. Looking at the graph, you can see I wrote the what I did in three quick spurts with the final one being where I wrote nearly 12,000 words in one go.
If there was one thing I didn’t like about the entire process and the month it was the bureaucracy behind it. I mean I completely understand that NaNoWriMo is now a nonprofit machine and it needs to be able to sustain and support itself, but throughout the month I must’ve received at least five (probably closer to ten) calls to donate to the cause and as a “professional” fundraiser this was a bit too much. I was very glad that at some point in the past when I thought I might make the attempt to write for this, that I’d turned off the automatically forwarding the system messages to me. It was just too much.
The only other thing I noticed that perturbed me a bit was the tag line “The World Needs Your Novel.” Seriously? I mean sure the world could always use more creativity, but does it really need another novel cranked out in 30 days? I feel like I would be much more inclined to participate on a regular basis if the focus was more on the writer. Maybe something like, “Discover the novel within you,” or “Thirty days to create a world.” I don’t know those are both pretty bad but does that make sense?
But I don’t want to end on a bad note. I did really enjoy finding my creativity and when I wrote I wrote a lot! Regardless of if I finish the novel(la) I’m working on which is also on my list before 12/21, I’m counting both of these as a success. I have the story fully written in my head, but it’s amazing where it goes when I’m writing. It’s still working towards a final endpoint, but the journey has already changed pretty far from my outline.
That’s awesome–you did much better than I did this year! The thing I like about nanowrimo is the collective spirit of creativity, which I think is emphasized more than the final product (although that could just be my rose-colored way of seeing it). In any case, I enjoy challenging myself to write more and the group aspect of it helps to keep me motivated.
I kept waiting for that collective spirit to hit, but I guess because I wasn’t active on the forums and didn’t have writing buddies it never found me. I can definitely see where that would help out though.
I haven’t officially signed up and I didn’t know about the messages to donate. that would get to me. I’m not against donating money, but I have my charities that I like to support and I don’t like being pestered for money.
congrats on participating. Can’t wait to read the final product!
I’m sure it wasn’t as bad as I’m making it out, but as it’s what I do it seemed very clunky and like they were hitting you over the head sometimes.
We’ll see. I havent decided if I’m going to actually let other people read it. 🙂
Good job! 19,000 words is still a lot. It’s more than I did. 🙂
Thanks for stopping by and for the comment! I was honestly shocked I got that far. It was easy when I put myself to task, but I just didn’t have the drive to write the final 30,000 in three days 😀
Congratulations! That’s still further than I got last time I tried, hehe.