NaNoWriMo 2009, The Final Tally

What an amazing month! Time to pop the champagne! I wrote a total of 17,812 words on my NaNo project, not to mention all of the blog posts I wrote. I haven't written this much in a 30 day stretch for a very long time. To be honest, I wasn't even really pushing the boundaries of what I could have written; I managed all this with plenty of free time to go around. Just goes to show what I can accomplish when I make a paradigm shift from "I need to find time to write" to "I will write every day and the other stuff will work around my writing time".

The first question that comes to mind is: Will I use any of what I wrote? That's a tricky one. I'd have to give a qualified yes. Qualified, because I may not use many of the actual words written, but I'll definitely be using what I learned, about both my process and my story, as I move forward.

What did I learn during NaNoWrimo? I definitely learned (or re-learned in some cases) some important things about process--how I write. The more I write, the easier it is to write. And by that I mean, the more frequently I write, not necessarily the more words I write, though that helps, too.

In addition, I think I'm finally figuring out where I stand on the whole plotting versus writing by the seat of my pants thing. By personality, I should be all about plot and having a detailed roadmap ready before I even start, and that's just how I approached NaNo. However, I've discovered that while that's exactly how I approach most things in life, when it comes to writing, having too much detail stifles my creativity. Even when I tell myself it's okay to deviate from what I've planned, I end up feeling like things are cast in concrete. I do much better when I only have a very loose idea of what the story is about and then let the characters guide me to the plot. It may not be the most efficient way to write, but it's what works best for me, at least for right now. I also learned that consistently blogging about my progress helped keep me focused on my goal.

As for the story itself, I'm starting over based on what I now know. That may sound like a complete failure, but trust me, it isn't. By writing my 17,000+ words last month, I learned what didn't work in my story and what parts I wanted to keep, though in a much changed way. If I continued to struggle with the story in the shape it's currently in, I'd only be setting myself up for frustration and failure. Instead, I'm setting those words aside and cherry-picking the best from them: some of the characters and settings, and a couple of plot points. Now I'm ready to start fresh.

So, where do I go from here? It's a brand new journey, full of new and exciting possibilities. As of today, I'm starting a new (revised?) project. I'm estimating it'll be approximately 100,000 words, give or take. I plan to continue blogging about my progress--at least 3 to 4 times a week--to keep me focused and to share my ups and downs on my adventure. I can't wait to see what's up around the bend!



NaNo Day 27 Words:  0
NaNo Day 28 Words:  1760
NaNo Day 29 Words:  0
NaNo Day 30 Words:  2270 
Final Total NaNo Words:  17,812