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The Massively delayed post-Nanowrimo post
Feb. 1st, 2011 04:44 pmUh. Yeah. It's February 1st and I see that I never posted anything about my Nanowrimo experience after that initial post in the beginning of November. I guess better late than never. Let me tell you how it all worked out.
This year went great, though it definitely had its ups and downs. The first day was rough, with me ending up behind and feeling very disheartened about my story's potential length. However things quickly turned around and I found myself staying a day or so ahead of the daily word count quota. That worked nicely. For a bit.
By the last week I found myself faltering again. I knew I was going to fall short of the 50,000 word count and was at a loss for a few days over how I could eek out my fourth win and still have a book that wasn't appallingly bad. Finally some inspiration struck. I had a great idea to run with. The trouble was that this amazing idea would add potentially 15K to my story. Once again I was feeling blah. I had my heart set on not only hitting 50K but finishing the book during the month of November. One of those would happen and the other wouldn't. Oh well. I had to keep going.
This year, I was feeling a bit less embarrassed about my writing and allowed 2 of my friends to read the first draft as I wrote. Their praise fueled my motivation and a desire not to let them hanging with what would happen next. I have to say, they sure are nice friends. They always had very nice things to say about the writing and the plot. It made me feel good about where I was headed with this even though there would likely be lengthy revisions.
On November 30th I found myself with over 3100 words left to get to the finish line. I took a vacation day (really) and wrote all day. I wrote until my head was splitting and I felt like I might get sick from so much thinking. Reading that last sentence sounds dramatic, BUT. yeah.. I was worn out by the end of that day. I wrote over 5400 words, finishing Nanowrimo with over 52K.
But the story wasn't finished. I had thousands and thousands more words to write. December came and I did pretty well, pushing myself to write at least SOMETHING. My friends harassed me because they weren't getting updates as quickly as before.
And now it's February. I'm still not done with the story, though I am on the last and final scene. What's keeping me? What's holding me back? I suddenly got to the end and there's one thing I don't know if I'm happy with. Too much has been going on to get a good grip on what's bothering me and fix it. That needs to change soon! I'll let you know when I'm finally done.
Then we can talk editing. *loud groan & facepalm*
This year went great, though it definitely had its ups and downs. The first day was rough, with me ending up behind and feeling very disheartened about my story's potential length. However things quickly turned around and I found myself staying a day or so ahead of the daily word count quota. That worked nicely. For a bit.
By the last week I found myself faltering again. I knew I was going to fall short of the 50,000 word count and was at a loss for a few days over how I could eek out my fourth win and still have a book that wasn't appallingly bad. Finally some inspiration struck. I had a great idea to run with. The trouble was that this amazing idea would add potentially 15K to my story. Once again I was feeling blah. I had my heart set on not only hitting 50K but finishing the book during the month of November. One of those would happen and the other wouldn't. Oh well. I had to keep going.
This year, I was feeling a bit less embarrassed about my writing and allowed 2 of my friends to read the first draft as I wrote. Their praise fueled my motivation and a desire not to let them hanging with what would happen next. I have to say, they sure are nice friends. They always had very nice things to say about the writing and the plot. It made me feel good about where I was headed with this even though there would likely be lengthy revisions.
On November 30th I found myself with over 3100 words left to get to the finish line. I took a vacation day (really) and wrote all day. I wrote until my head was splitting and I felt like I might get sick from so much thinking. Reading that last sentence sounds dramatic, BUT. yeah.. I was worn out by the end of that day. I wrote over 5400 words, finishing Nanowrimo with over 52K.
But the story wasn't finished. I had thousands and thousands more words to write. December came and I did pretty well, pushing myself to write at least SOMETHING. My friends harassed me because they weren't getting updates as quickly as before.
And now it's February. I'm still not done with the story, though I am on the last and final scene. What's keeping me? What's holding me back? I suddenly got to the end and there's one thing I don't know if I'm happy with. Too much has been going on to get a good grip on what's bothering me and fix it. That needs to change soon! I'll let you know when I'm finally done.
Then we can talk editing. *loud groan & facepalm*
