My National Novel Writing Month Challenge | How did I do?
November is National Novel Writing Month or #NaNoWriMo and for the first year ever I decided to join in. I’ve wanted to write a book for ever, and have actually got a book already in the writing process, but it needs more work to be honest. But at the end of October I was hit with inspiration for a novel that I decided to tackle for National Novel Writing Month.
I had the barest of plot lines and ideas for what I wanted to happen, and to be honest, the plot developed and changed quite a bit though out the writing process as I don’t write with too much of a strict plot in mind. More of a beginning, middle and end.
I undertook the National Novel Writing Month challenge with the 50,000 word target that is suggested and figured I’d just let the plot take me where it wanted to.
All credit, to all the authors who are also parents, or have other jobs and responsibilites ourside of drafting books, because although I loved the experience, it is really hard to keep up with when you have other things going on as well, especially a newborn. Using the #NaNoWriMo website to log my writing activity was fun and enlightening as the site updates your daily word count to tell you how much you need to write to stay on track and records how much and when you write.
I learn quite a lot about myself as a writer and aspiring author from the National Novel Writing Month experience. I learnt that I write best in the early morning, around 7am when the kids don’t know I’m awake and I can write in peace. I learnt that making time to write at 4pm each day was really rewarding and left me feeling more positive for bedtime. It could turn an unproductive day into a good day just by merely getting some words down on a page. I learnt that I can definitely touch type, so can type in the dark. I learnt that I don’t write in a linear fashion particularly well, especially if I want to write a lot in one day. I learnt that I have a terrible memory, and I already know I need to write down my character descriptions and have them beside me so I can maintain their imagery. I can’t tell you how many times one characters eye colour changed! I learnt that I do write pretty well when I just let the scene come to me. Not necessarily in order, which has meant a little back and forth, but it had made the process enjoyable and probably easier.
I can’t say I hit the target for this challenge. I was just shy of 40,000 words in one month, which to be honest, I’m pretty happy with. I wrote far more than I would have done without the challenge, I know that for sure.
I did start a new challenge for December to get another 30,000 words down, which I only achieved half of, but considering the month we had, I’m happy. January will hopefully so the end of the first draft, ready for redrafting and editing in February. Maybe, just maybe, I’ll have a book with a pitch ready some time in 2021. Time will tell.
But as for the National Novel Writing Month challenge… I’d do it again in a heartbeat. It helped keep me focused, drove me to write more, and I managed to write every day of November, which in a national lockdown was pretty handy. I think I’ll need it for this January, just to feel like I’ve achieved something when the world is still pretty topsy turvy.
Have you done a #NaNoWriMo challenge? Would you like to next November?