NNWM/30: Final Words

Happy last day of November! If you participated in NaNoWriMo, I hope you hit your word goal.

I, for one, am glad it’s over. NaNoWriMo was harder than I imagined it would be. 50,000 words in a month is tough. I did the math before signing up and figured 1,667 words a day – the number needed in order to reach your goal – was do-able. Well, it is, but if you fall behind even one day, you are stuck playing catch-up. And let’s face it: there will be days where you are unable to write 1,667 words. Life gets in the way, especially when you have a full-time job and a hundred other daily responsibilities, like cooking and showering and sleeping. Suddenly, you find yourself needing to write 2,100 words a day to get back on track, and that creates a lot of pressure. Four of us signed on at work. I’m the only one who successfully finished. I don’t blame the others, though. Maybe they’re the sane ones?

I basically devoted every spare moment I had over the past month to writing. Even when I didn’t feel like it, I did it. And yet, I still fell behind, and found myself scrambling the last two weeks. The long holiday weekend saved me. There were slow periods at work where I was able to knock out a few hundred words. As soon as I got home, I fired up my laptop. Weekends, in between errands, I focused on my novel. With that deadline looming constantly over my head, I had very little time to relax and have fun. I feel fortunate, at least, that I never suffered from writer’s block or ended up getting hung up on the plot. When I wrote, the words flowed. Research slowed me down more than anything else. So, yeah: great accomplishment and it was very inspiring and motivational, but I am mentally exhausted. Do I really want to put myself through this again? I’m sure in 11 months I’ll be all fired up again, but I reserve the right not to be.

I kind of wish NaNoWriMo took place in a different month. One with 31 days, for starters. That alone would reduce your burden by 54 words a day. And preferably a month without a big holiday that required your attention. I think March would be perfect. Maybe we can circulate a petition?

As for the book, 50K words doesn’t even bring me close to the end. According to Dr. Google, most novels clock in at 80,000 – 89,000 words on average, and that feels about right. Here’s an interesting link showing the word counts of popular works of fiction. I probably have another 1/3 of my novel to go yet. But NaNoWriMo was instrumental in providing me with the motivation needed to pick it up again, wipe off the dust, and plunge back into the story. Honestly, if I had never signed up, I probably wouldn’t have ever gotten back around to working on Dream Sailors again. It’s too hard to find excuses not to write; NaNoWriMo provided me with the exact lift I needed and got me back into the habit of writing. It helped me rediscover the joy of creating fiction, and for that I will be forever grateful. I love how the story has unfolded and can’t wait to finish. I’m estimating that will happen in January(ish). Then comes the editing, which will take several more months, if the past is any indication. I figure I might be a year away from publication yet, but I will get there. Mark my words.

I have also really enjoyed the daily blog updates. They have been very helpful in keeping me motivated, as well, and have done wonders to hold me accountable. Life is busy and my blog has sort of fallen by the wayside this past year; I’ll make an effort to update more often moving forward.

So…that’s it! I’ll continue to keep you posted on my novel progress as I go along.

Just not every day!

Word Count Today: 622.
Total FINAL Word Count: 51,023.