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Tuesday, December 4, 2012

NaNoWrMo: The Aftermath

So, NaNoWrMo is over.  How did I do?  Well, let's just say I learned a lot.  I didn't win NaNo, meaning I didn't write 50,000 words in the month of November.  I fell short with about 41,000 words.

The month started off great and I was really excited.  I spent the first week or two ahead.  It was supposed to be so easy.  Keep writing at the pace I started off at, take a few days for the holiday, and finish early.  Well, it wasn't so simple.

While NaNo was great because it was forcing me to be productive and write every day.  An average of 1,667 words a day are needed to complete NaNo on time.  Like I said I started off with a bang and stayed ahead of that for a while.  Then things started to slow down.  There were days I just stared at the screen and days I barely choked out a couple hundred words.  I fell behind and I realized forcing myself to write when I wasn't in the mood or I lacked inspiration was not productive.  It was counter productive.  I ended up being stuck for longer than normal.

I also don't write linearly.  My stories are hardly ever developed when I start writing.  My characters generally have control over what they do.  I jump around writing scenes I see and then go back and link it all together.  That's how it usually happens anyway.  Every now and then a story flows from beginning to end.  Well, this one didn't.  And I stressed over skipping and coming back to finish up because of the deadline.

Let's talk about grammar and spelling mistakes.  The idea behind NaNo is to write and just write.  You don't edit, you don't worry about plot lines and character development, you just write.  Well, that doesn't work for me.  I can't stand knowing my fingers were flying too fast over the keyboard and I mispelled a word.  I HAVE to go back an fix it.  It's really a problem.  It definitely hindered my NaNo progress.

So, I have to say NaNo wasn't a success but it also wasn't a complete bust.  I got to work with some characters that have been running around in my head for a few years.  And despite no winning I made some great progress.  So keep and eye out for Chloe and Drake and their adventure.

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