NaNoWriMo par: 1,667 words/day
NaNoWriMo total: 40,000 words
Personal par: 2,000 words/day
Personal total: 50,206 words
I passed the 50,000 word mark today, which means that I have successfully completed the NaNoWriMo challenge for 2009. It marks the first time that I have ever done this. I also had a record day today, writing 4,808 words in a total of 3 sessions.
For those following along, you might have notice that I missed some days. I did no writing on Saturday or Sunday. This wasn’t exactly planned. We had visitors in town, and I planned to write in the mornings, but things got so hectic, and I was tired, and well, I just didn’t get around to it. Fortunately, I had built up enough of a lead, that even skipping those two days left me more than 7,000 words ahead of NaNo par.
Yesterday, I got in just over 1,000 words, but I wasn’t too happy with what I was writing. I had meant to come back for another session, but I put it off, in part because I wasn’t sure what to write next. So I did something I’d done earlier. I wrote out a list of 15 scenes that would describe a key part of the story to which I have been building up so far, what takes place during a year-long space flight to another star. This list somehow galvanized me.
I began to tackle the list today. I wrote 2-1/2 of the 15 scenes and that gave me a total of over 4,800 words in a single day! This is far more than I have written any other day of NaNo and it felt so good. Not only did it push me beyond the 50,000 word mark, but it also renewed my interest in the story just when it was waning a bit. I am now eager to complete these 15 scenes and then list out another 15 and work on those.
Despite having "won" the NaNoWriMo challenge, my own personal challenge is not yet complete. I set out to write a novel, not just 50,000 words. As I estimate, this novel will be around 90,000 words, which means I still have 40,000 words to go. I will press on each day as if I were continuing on with NaNoWriMo. Given my present pace of 2,091 words/day, I should hit 62,700 words by the time NaNoWriMo comes to a close. And I should hit the 90,000 word mark sometime in mid-December. Maybe sooner since the Thanksgiving holiday weekend is about to start and I may have a little more time to squeeze in some extra writing.
For now, I’m taking the rest of the night off and basking in the personal satisfaction of knowing that I completed NaNoWriMo. I know that this doesn’t mean much to a lot of people, but it means a lot to me and it feels great!
RSS - Posts
I just read through all your 09 nano blog entries. Interesting. I derived that you are very motivated by the word count goal and that you are pretty analytical-minded. Not one of those dreamy writers whose feet never touch the ground. Interesting and enlightening…should help me in my quest. Thanks!
Wondering what your final word count ended up on that novel.
You seem like you liked a lot of what you wrote, so I hope you stick with this project and edit it, etc. I’m nervous to be one of those with just a pile of dung after the 30 days.
Brenda, the total count was just about 60,000 words, and ultimately what I wrote, didn’t work out as a cohesive novel. (But it wasn’t a waste by any means; I’m cannibalizing much of what was in there for numerous short pieces.) I’ve made some adjustments this year and I’m aiming for a complete, 90,000 word novel that is good enough to be worth sending around to agencies. I just posted about my game plan for 2010.