NaNoWriMo has ended and it is time to recap and reflect on my personal experience participating.
How did I do?
I finished with a final word count of 50,935 words with a day to spare. Because I was within a couple thousand words in the last couple of days, I just forced myself to get it done. And I got it done on the 29th instead of the 30th with words to spare.
As for specific milestones, I did manage to get most of the achievements that NaNoWriMo sets. I started off well with updating the word count daily but then it would slip my mind. And some days I didn’t write, so I didn’t hit the daily par either. Some days I would write 3,000+ words and other days less than 200. It really depended on my mindset that given day. I did have a calendar where each day had the par word count as a reference and then I’d put my own word count for that day under it. That helped a lot actually.
But no matter what I did to make it easier or at least more doable, this entire challenge was exhausting. I was so brain dead by the time I finished and I wanted to hibernate for a month. I’m brain dead writing this recap.
I’ve been writing fiction more frequently starting a year ago, and I basically never write with a word count in mind. Hitting a certain amount of words is, in my opinion, not that important when initially writing. I much prefer to write with the only goal being to convey the story smoothly. It could be done in 500 words or 100,000 words, it doesn’t matter. Telling the story you want to tell is what matters.
So having this 50k word count goal was tiring the closer I got to the deadline. I wouldn’t call it daunting because I’ve written twice that length in close to the same amount of time. And by breaking it up into a daily word count made it easier. But when you are so close yet still far, it’s exhausting. The last few chapters were a struggle for sure. But I got it done and that’s what matters the most.
What now?
Now I rest for a while because I’m not kidding when I say I’m exhausted. After that, I’m not sure. I wasn’t necessarily doing this to create a publishable novel, I was doing it to say I’ve done it. So I cannot guarantee that you’ll ever read it, and if I did decide to share it would need lots of editing first. I’m sure there are inconsistencies throughout and don’t even get me started on typos.
Will I ever do NaNoWriMo again? I wouldn’t say no, but I’m not itching to. Granted I just finished and I’m still tired so maybe in a year, I could change my mind. We’ll see!
Wow nice job!