Skip to main content

Cheerfully Losing NaNoWriMo

My final word count for NaNoWriMo 2013 was 38,644. Well, technically it was 39,948, but I didn't get the chance to add in my last few words written before the site closed.

It's 11,356 words shy of the 50,000-word goal, but I don't mind. November is not really the ideal month to write a novel in, particularly with my schedule. I am extremely pleased with what I've accomplished during that time. Especially compared to last year, my first NaNo attempt.

Last year, I began Mask, a YA contemporary novel about the captain of a high school girls' fencing team. There was much drama, but it would all have worked out OK in the end -- if I'd gotten to the end. Alas, I stopped at about 17k. This first NaNo taught me a lot, and I'm sure I have the beginnings of a good story somewhere in there. 

But I was never really meant to finish Mask, and I didn't expect to. It was a bad, stressful time. For one, I was sick a lot and tired all the time. I also hadn't been able to write much of anything without being stricken by an overwhelming disgust and hatred for what I'd written, where it was going, what I was going to write next, or any of it. That, or I'd just be too apathetic to attempt to write -- or I would try to write and fall asleep at the computer. 

NaNo 2012 was my last-ditch attempt to recover something that I had used to enjoy, by starting something completely new. Even though life got in the way of finishing, it renewed my faith in writing and reminded me why I enjoy the storymaking process.

 On to NaNo 2013.

 I decided to do NaNo because I wanted to finish a current wip. After last year, I knew that a completely new NaNo novel would be unmanageable with my schedule, and I didn't want to drive myself crazy. While reaching 50k would be ideal, I was also realistic. I judge my success this year based on what I wrote last year. 38,644 - 16,442 = 22,202 more words than I managed in 2012. So when I say I'm "cheerfully losing NaNoWriMo," what I mean to say is that I won it on my own terms.

Contracted isn't finished. Finishing the first draft may take a while. I can't believe that I originally thought it would be a short story...then a long story...then a novella...and it's now sitting at just over 80k, a genuine novel-in-progress. 

I started it around the beginning of 2013. 80k in a year is the fastest I've written any of my wips. I really love this one and I have high hopes for its future. And I really really really need to finish it soon because I can't read Throne of Glass until I do. I've put a self-imposed moratorium on all books containing assassins and/or fairy tale retellings. (I've been compensating by reading a lot of sci-fi, post-apocalypse, dystopian, and MG.)

 In conclusion, I am pleased with what I accomplished this November.

Comments

  1. Ty UnglebowerTue Dec 03, 12:47:00 PM CST

    That word count is a hefty accomplishment in its own right. Even more important is the fact that you are "beyond pleased" with what you accomplished.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Comments make me happy, so leave lots! :) I will usually reply to each one, so click Notify Me to read my replies.

Popular posts from this blog

Kiffe Kiffe Tomorrow by Faïza Guène, a YA Book By A Young Author

Review time! Kiffe Kiffe Tomorrow is a young adult novel by a young adult, so I was very interested to read it. There's also a #MuslimShelfSpace tag going around, and this review is a nod to that. The idea is that there's been a lot of stereotypes and anti-Muslim sentiment spread around, so buying and boosting books about and by Muslims can help educate people and break down harmful stereotypes.  The author is French with an Algerian background, and  Guène  wrote Kiffe Kiffe Tomorrow when she was in her late teens. Although the novel is not autobiographical, she shares many things with its main character. Doria, like her creator, is the child of immigrants and lives in poor suburban housing projects.   Guène   wrote that she realized girls like herself weren't really represented in books, and felt that Kiffe Kiffe Tomorrow was a way to tell the stories of people in the suburbs who are ignored by the elites of French literature. Plot: Life Sucks, Until...
2 comments
CLICK TO READ ON >>

Review: Hemlock Grove, ep. 1 and 2

Hello! I'm back from my blogging hiatus. I've been on a horror kick lately, and most recently, I watched the first two episodes of Netflix's Hemlock Grove. I'm a bit late to this series, but for what it's worth, here's my review. I have some...issues.  Pacing It's based on a novel, and you can tell. Once the show introduces something that might be interesting or lead to tension and conflict, it snatches it away like a precious plot-gem that it doesn't want you to see. There is way too much exposition and filler. The plot hangs together pretty well, but not much really happens. Case in point, it should not have taken two whole episodes to find out Main Character is a werewolf. Especially since everyone seems clued into this fact and accepts it as truth -- except the viewers. Then suddenly Rich Boy is asking if he can watch the transformation like it's understood that Poor Kid Main Character is a werewolf. No warning, no lead-up, nothing. ...
Post a Comment
CLICK TO READ ON >>

King Arthur Sucks.

I wrote a review of The Greenstone Grail by Amanda Hemingway , in which I applauded the book for being the first Arthurian adaptation I had read that I didn't despise. I mean, how could I? Despite the book's other problems, it had aliens riding motherfucking dragons!!! Aliens! Dragons! Parallel universes!  After reading my review, one of my friends asked me why I hate Arthurian legend so much.  Well.  Perhaps one of the reasons I liked The Greenstone Grail 's take on the Holy Grail myth was because it was so different.  Most Arthurian adaptations fall along the same lines. It's the same damn story told almost the same damn way all the time. But  The Greenstone Grail took place in modern times, borrowing from the Holy Grail and Arthurian myths without making it so central to the plot that there was no room for other stuff like imagination.  Say whatever else you want about this book ( and believe me, I did ), it had imagination. Its main character c...
2 comments
CLICK TO READ ON >>