The NANOWRIMO Report

So, how did I do? 

The goal is to write 50,000 words in a month. If you hit 50K or more, you "Win!" I did not win... again. However, that being said, I feel like a winner because I did more than I usually do and I did not give up after the first week, as I usually do. I had a co-writer who bugged me, a few good friends (one in particular-you know who you are!) who bugged me but ...alas... I am not discouraged. Not at all! As a matter of fact I feel more inclined to just write 8-10K a week on a regular basis, which was my goal in the first place.

Now, if I were to "cheat" and count everything, including all the stuff we did before, all the co-writer's words, plus my own, we are over 50K! The grand total actually comes to 51,942 and That my friends, is nothing to sneeze at! Granted most of the words were written by my brother (the co-writer) but between the two of us we will probably get this first draft done (we're talking 80-100,000 words) by January and hope to have it revised into something viable by March. Wow! 

I believe we can do this!

You know, the lesson I learned is how to organize my time and my life so that I can actually make the time for writing. I can tell you that I have limited things. I do watch a lot of TV, but lately I have limited even that. One, I have not been able to purchase The Walking Dead episodes so that's out. Two, I have been able to wait and take some time in the evenings with my family to watch some of my other shows, like Bones. I like to watch Go On and Sherlock with Superman so that's been fine. I have even waited to watch OUAT and not running to my Hulu+ on Monday mornings. LOL See, I can do it! 

I have also learned to make time for the things that really matter so I can relax and release the magic for writing. This week I learned that I can do that. I still need to figure out how to incorporate my housecleaning. I am pleased with the results of this NaNo experiment (that's how I look at it) and at what I know I (and WE) are capable of. It opens my mind to what I can really set my sights on! And I am ending every sentence with a preposition and it's making me nuts...


So... The Goal now is to personally hit 50,000 words for our fantasy novel by the end of 2012. That means I need to write approximately 40,000 more words (my word count for November was under 10,000-see below) in December. If I write 10,000 words a week, that is 2,000 words a day five days a week. That's my goal. The only drawbacks I see are obviously, the holidays (the kids will be home, lots of prepping and my personal Season of Sanctification goals, etc.) but I'm going to go ahead and shoot for the moon... at least I might land among the stars... as the saying goes.