Time for some reflection on this year's NaNoWriMo.
Seve hosted a race-to-the-finish party at his classroom where I wasn't able to get wifi, so I verified my word count early, pulling the extra 8K I needed from a previous story. This resulted in a final word count of 55,285, which I was sure couldn't have been right . . . where did that extra 5K come from? Did I really only need 3K? Nevertheless, that night at the party I finished with fifteen minutes to spare having written the full 8K in a mere three hours. My hands were shaking by the time it was over, and I'm pretty sure those last four pages descended into complete and utter gibberish.
But I did it! So on top of the initial 20K I wrote for the story back in China, I now have a fully completed 70K manuscript. In heavy need of revisions, of course, but I'll tackle that come January. I don't think I even want to look at the thing until January.
Seve also completed his NaNo on the dot at midnight after an equally frenzied writing session. Cowabunga, dude!
Tackling the NaNo this year wasn't like past NaNos . . . for once I knew the entire story from front to back, nothing was a mystery. I always thought that would help me write better, but it didn't. The writing and pace remained as it always had any time I sat down to write. Rather than dishearten me it gave me hope; that the other stories I have logged away and unsolved will reveal themselves to me in time, as long as I keep writing.
In fact, on days where I procrastinated my word count I kept returning to my 2010 NaNo. I hadn't bothered to read it since writing it three years ago, thinking it was awful and an eyesore. But I loved reading it! The 1950s werewolf story? I vaguely remember blogging about it at the time. I was sorely tempted to abandon my NaNo and just finish that werewolf effort. It's a full 50K after all, and only needs maybe 30K or so to wrap up the story. But then I remembered that's how this year's effort was brought about . . . a resurrection of 2007's NaNo, realizing it wasn't as bad as I thought, a sudden desire to finish it . . . so I pressed on, and finally made it to the finish line.
How did your NaNo go? Did you finish? Are you enjoying JustSleepAndEatDecember? Me too.
I feel like my NaNo experience was too big to explain in words. And I have a feeling I won't fully understand it until I've sort of recovered. I feel good enough about it to make plans of revision and sending it to agencies sometime in the next year or so. But I'm deliberately not even looking at it for at least another week--I'm still buried in it too deeply to see it clearly.
ReplyDeleteAnd I would totally read that 1950s werewolf novel. Finish that shiz up.
I propose that we workshop our stuff together bc I think we're after the same market. Not to be all uppity business about it... you know what I mean
DeleteI am SO amazed that you wrote that many words. I don't even have kids yet, and I can't imagine taking that much time to write. Good for you! You should be proud of yourself.
ReplyDeleteOh, and I'm totally celebrating December that way. Most of November happened that way, too. Sorrynotsorry.
Thank you so much! I wrote like crazy during their naps. I was worried all that frenzied writing would simply equal bad writing, but rereading bits now I can't tell the difference between the "inspired" writing and the time-crunch writing. Except that 8K in three hours... that stuff is... stream of consciousness turned up to 11
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