Fortunately, I didn’t.
But I did get this for my efforts this month:
Woohoo. I’m one for one in National Novel Writing Month success. 50,000 words in thirty days. (“Twenty-nine, actually,” he boasted.)
The only problem–I’m nowhere near done with the complete story. Most novels are closer to 100,000 pages, give or take a few ten thousands. But I’ll keep churning along in December to complete the story.
My secret? (I hear you clamor). I spent the entire month of October plotting out characters, scenes, settings, all the nuts and bolts that make a bunch of words come together as a coherent and entertaining story. I never got writer’s block because I always knew where I was heading with the plot and the characters. Whenever I got stuck on a scene, I’d just start working on another one that I had some good ideas for bubbling just under the surface of my consciousness.
I don’t know that I’ll necessarily join the NaNoWriMo crowd next November, but from now on I will always plot my stories before I type even one word. I’m now an official plotter (as opposed to a pantser).
Did you participate in NaNoWriMo this year? How did it go? What worked and didn’t work for you? Is the story that came out of this month’s event going to be a blockbuster for you, or a literary masterpiece?
That photo is AMAZING! Great job on the writing. I know how difficult it really is.
I do Nano every year. This year was pretty rough. I had constant writer’s block, but kept going. I’ve “won” but I think I’ll need to rework the novel entirely. I could have used more plotting like you.
Congrats on winning! It’s fantastic it’s been coming out so well for you.
Well done on your win. This year was my fourth win (and I started with two losing years, so it’s great that you did so well in your first year) and I finished on the 29th too. I totally agree on the plotting thing and usually do however due to family illness I couldn’t manage that this year and started with three characters, an ending and a general idea. I lost time as a result during the month BUT surprised myself by still making the finish line and finding some great plot ideas on the way. Will I outline in detail next year? Yes. Will I try to leave more room for inspiration? Yes. Will I finish it and eventually publish it? I certainly hope so. Good luck with finishing your story! Grace Tierney (ML for Ireland NorthEast)
Thanks for stopping by, Grace, and congratulations on finishing your fourth NNWM.
Hi Ardyth. Thanks, and congratulations on finishing. I think nearly everyone who writes 50K during NNWM will need to do a ton of reworking. The main thing is, we both have the solid start to a story that can only get better with revision. And we’re 50K words ahead of where we were last month.
Sorry I missed your comment the first time, Rebecca, and thanks. That photo is one of many spectacular, awesome, beautiful, or whatever other adjective you might think of to describe a photo. Photobotos.com seems to find a great one every day.
Awww nice. I am haven’t been to photobotos.com before. The celebrations of lights (the second photo they have right now) makes me wish I could see that in person.