NaNoWriMo Has Finished, Now What?
NaNoWriMo month is over, and what a final few days it has been.
I started the final week with a large deficit, and knew I had to really push myself if I was going to hit the word count target of 50,000. With the story flowing quite well, I won’t lie, I was reasonably confident that I could scrape back the two weeks of lower daily averages as I had more time to sit down and type. I just had to type.
What I found is that procrastination set in, and although I wanted to type, I just found myself distracted. Whether that’s something to do with the pacing of the challenge, or more because of my neurodivergent brain, it was genuinely a struggle to concentrate and focus for the last week and hit those higher daily averages.
The story had twisted and turned, and I was still enjoying what I was writing, it was just finding the words to express what I wanted to. I was finding confidence in writing more detailed chapters, and not second guessing myself so much. My characters were enjoyable to write about, and the plot was beginning to really spice up, so I did feel pretty good.
But, as the end got closer I realised that I wasn’t fast enough. I wasn’t hitting hard enough daily averages to get to the 50,000, and even said to myself that I’d try to pull a few late night sessions. Even with those I just didn’t quite get there.
I stopped typing at 7,533 words just before midnight on 30th November, and ended my NaNoWriMo with 38,736 out of 50,000.
I feel proud that took part and that I got as many words as I did, especially as it’s the first time I’ve taken part and stuck with it for the entire month. Even though I had a few 0 count days, I’m also happy I was able to just keep going and not give up the story completely.
I definitely will be taking part again next year, albeit a lot better planned out. I’d like to really sit down with my characters and plot line and sketch out my chapters, just some general descriptions so that I at least know what I’m attempting to write each session I have. That’s something that would’ve been incredibly useful this time around.
One important part of NaNoWriMo to mention was the community. There was such a motivating influence being part of the NaNoWriMo England discord community too, which really kept me going and gave me the confidence to just keep typing. I don’t imagine anyone will read this but I did thank them all, and hoping to stick around on the server while we wait until NaNoWriMo 2024.
What’s next
I’m going to leave my book sitting until I’ve close my shop and logged off social media for the winter holidays, which starts 22nd December. I want to then read through the whole thing, and then use it to full redraft ready to continue and finish writing my novel.
My hope is that I can redraft and eventually finish the whole thing before next NaNoWriMo planning begins next year, and maybe even self publish, just so I can have the satisfaction of knowing I’ve achieved my dream of writing a book.
So I’ll be back with more updates, just not for a couple weeks ✌️