NaNoWriMo is over. Did I win? You tell me

Wow! Here it is December 1 which means National Novel Writing Month has just ended for another year. After this month I believe myself – even more – to be a writer. Why?

The goal for the challenge is 50,000 words in the month of November. My personal goal was to finish my novel – the novel I have written only during NaNoWriMo. I started it in 2010, added to it in 2011, and planned to finish it this time. (You can check my progress, if you are interested, through each one of my pages called NaNoWriMo Updates 2010, 2011, 2012)

I have an accumulated word total of over 123,000 words through those three Novembers, every word written by hand. No editing has been done yet so there are whole sections which will be taken out or changed or added to in some way. Someday.

The cold truth is … I did not make the 50K mark. I tried hard to do it. My hand is so sore and was getting cramped by the time the clock reached 11:59 and I had to stop writing to post my final word count — of 41487 — before the stroke of midnight. (I managed to write 9750 words today.) Once midnight arrived the clock stopped in the NaNoWriMo stats chart. It now reads: Event Finished, where all through the month it had shown the number of words written that day, which day it was in the event, and how many writing days were remaining in the challenge.

Another thing is that my first goal was to finish my novel this time, second was to reach 50K. I did neither, although I wrote 82% of the 50K, and I am so close to the end of this story.

Am I disappointed? A little. I believe that if I had been able to ignore things, such as normal life stuff and responsibilities (although I tried to), I could have finished this novel. 😉 Now maybe I can cook a decent meal for my dear husband, although I usually don’t have writing to blame for my not-so-great results in the kitchen. Oh, and my internet connection dropped today, so the repairman came by to fix that for me. It is working fine now, yay!, but that was another time stealer – although I am not complaining about that. I am truly grateful for my Internet service.

The worst culprit for stealing time is ME, though. The times I could have been writing, but other things took priority; the times I had nothing coming to me at all; the times I just didn’t feel like writing. So now I still have an unfinished novel. But you know, that is okay too, because I can work away at it at my own pace now without a clock. That might not work in my favour, but that is something I will have to find out.

As I said at the beginning, now I believe myself to be a writer even more than I did before. One big reason is because when I am writing in the NaNo challenge the story practically tells itself to me. Sometimes things I write I wonder about, but later it all ties together; it makes sense as I go along. I find it to be an amazing process. And I enjoy it!

Thank you for your interest in following along as I attempted the National Novel Writing Month challenge again. I appreciate your support.

NaNoWriMo is over. Did I win? You tell me. 🙂

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂

One NaNoWriMo day left! I think I can, I think I can …

Here it is down to the wire. One day left in National Novel Writing Month. ONE DAY!

I do not have 48343 words written, which is the total suggested for the 29th day in the challenge. What I do have is 31737 words captured. Yes, I am way behind, but in looking at what I managed last year I am ahead. In 2011 at the close of the 29th day I had 24133 words.

In checking over my progress in 2010 and 2011, I see that the most words I added to my total in one day was 8017. That was last year on the last day when I was making a valiant attempt to get closer to the goal. This year I have to write 18263 words on day 30 to have accomplished a win at 50000 words!

I think I can, I think I can …

That’s if I need that many to finish this novel. I really don’t know even yet. I can probably stretch it out, make it longer that way, if I have time to do it. There is much that I can play with later in pulling the story together during editing to make it really work. The main thing is to finish this novel! As I have said before, that is my main goal, secondary being a NaNo win of 50K words.

As I am nearing the end of NaNo I am also gaining ground in pulling together some threads that will bring this story to an end. I just hope it can be sorted out later, because in writing it this way there are conflicting statements and unintentionally duplicated scenes that have to be fixed. But, that’s for later. For now I have a story to write.

First things first — I am about to catch some zzzzz’s and then in the morning – Day 30 – I will start writing again, because … I am going to finish this novel! That is the plan, anyway. 🙂

How do you do with your deadlines? Do you write better under pressure or do you need lots of time to get there?

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂

NaNoWriMo’s nearly over! Can I complete the challenge?

Another day has ended, a day of little writing for me. I simply was stuck … no words sprawled themselves over my paper (remember, I write longhand) until late in the evening. Not a good sign.

Here is it November 25 already and I have not made it to the halfway point yet in my NaNo Novel writing for this year. My word count stands at 43%. This does not look good for me.

Let’s see now … comparing my totals at this stage of the NaNoWriMo challenge, by the end of DAY 24:

in 2010 I had written 32,179 words
in 2011 I had written 8,722 words
in 2012 I have written 21,651 words

Looking at it this way, I could make it! If I take the next six days and write like crazy, that is. Six days to go to midnight of November 30.

(And I am grateful!)

My goal is to find the end of this novel by then, too, so my questions to you are:

Do you think I can write 50,000 words by the deadline?

If you think I can, do you think I will?

And, do you think I will finish writing my novel in this challenge?

Let me know your opinion about this. Send me a little encouragement if you want, I can use it! 🙂

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂

Nolfi book giveaway reminder & NaNoWriMo updates

Hi everyone! Just a quick post today —

Because I’m posting between my interview (<– click here to read it) with author Christine Nolfi and her book giveaway here on November 10, I’m tempting you with a reminder of what her book looks like. Be sure to leave a comment for a chance to win a copy of The Tree of Everlasting Knowledge.

I want to update you on my NaNoWriMo progress. On the right of this page you can see the percentage graph showing my total words written. To see the whole list of daily reports please check out my updates page here.

What you will find is that I got off to a rough start, but not as slow as last year’s. Even so, I am far behind what the suggested total of words is for day 7. They suggest 11,669 words by midnight tonight and at this moment in time (4:15 PM AST) I have the big total of 2330! Okay, so it’s not a big total, but it’s something. I have a LOT of writing to do. I’m trying to steal time out of my days for it.

What I found is that when I started with NOTHING for NaNo 2010, once I began writing it was easier to let the story happen than it was to later pick up where I’d left off and keep writing and adding to it. In 2011 I had such a slow start because it was hard to get back into the story. This month I read it all again right before beginning to add to it, and saw my struggle at the end of November last year. It was a mess. It lacks flow and uniformity. It is choppy, and obviously I was grasping for vision.

Now I am again adding to my novel, ignoring the confusion and hoping for a completion during this NaNo. I don’t know if it will take another 50,000 words, but it’s okay if it doesn’t. I have a feeling I will be writing the whole month anyway. And I don’t even want to think about revisions once I find the end of my first fiction novel. That is going to be even more of a challenge to plow through.

I hope you will join me by following my progress in this writing challenge. I won’t be posting updates this way daily, but I will be keeping track on my NaNoWriMo updates (2012) page. I invite you to please follow along. If you want to leave me a comment, please do – here or on my updates page.

Do you enter writing challenges or contests?

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂

my NaNoWriMo updates

Just a quick note to you —

I DO intend to participate in NaNoWriMo this month. So far, in case you didn’t notice, here on my blog I have set up a new page called NaNoWriMo Updates (2012) where you can track my progress – which is, so far, not progressing. But I have not given up yet. Last year I didn’t get going until day 7, and that was a slow start with a low count of words. The result was not a NaNo win, but it was not a total disappointment to me because I did add to my novel. I’m hoping to do better this year.

Just so you know … in case you are interested.

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂

NaNoWriMo – am I crazy to try it again?

It’s National Novel Writing Month again! And the question is:

Am I crazy to try it again?

Let’s see …

reading reading reading, reviews, interviews, Caregiving, two homes to keep up, other family concerns, blog posts, emails, more writing …

sounds like a year ago this time! Only it’s more stressful as time goes on.

NaNoWriMo should either keep me going forward or push me over the edge of sound mind.

I do have this novel I want to finish. I started it in NaNo 2010, at 50265 words I put it away for a year; in 2011 I picked up where I left off, at 32150 words I put it away for another year. (You can see that info on my NaNo pages update here and here.) It would be exciting to write my way to a great ending this time. The characters haven’t revealed to me how that ending will transpire, but it was all starting to come together to the resolving of a few critical issues leading to it.

All year the story and characters have been playing on my mind – not enough to write more but enough to keep it alive in my memory. I think it is a story waiting to be told.

So, what do YOU think? Am I crazy to try it again? (I’m nodding YES!)

Should I do it anyway? (I’m nodding YES!)

Will I do it? (I’m nodding YES!)

Will you join me? OR will you support me? I am going to keep track here on my blog again, the same as I did the previous two times. Hopefully, I will have something good to report each day. I have installed two fun NaNoWriMo widgets on the right side of this page so you can watch my progress (of lack of) through this month.

Wish me well?

(Now I’m excited! even with 0 words for day one. 🙂 )

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂

NaNoWriMo – incomplete but not a failure

It is over. NaNoWriMo 2011 ended at midnight November 30.

I did not “win”.

I tried. I even pulled two all-nighters of writing, not getting to bed until 4:00 AM, but it was not enough. I just could not manage the 50,000 words required for a win.

It was my own fault. Getting started was really hard this year. Because I wanted to complete my novel started in NaNo 2010 (50,265 words written then), I think I felt restricted and I had lost my momentum. (Those reasons and life stuff.) Once I finally got going with it, ideas kept unfurling themselves and evolving into more depth and extended drama.

My story is not yet complete. It is getting ready to wind down, though. Some details have to be worked out to fit into the story so that the conflicts and questions can be resolved. I need to write several thousand more words to settle that out.

Here are my stats:

Your Average Per Day … 1,071

Target Word Count … 50,000

Total Words Written … 32,150

Words Remaining … 17,850

At This Rate You Will Finish On December 17, 2011

Yes, I wrote 32,150 words. A lot of words, but not enough for a win. But, I do not consider that to be a failure, just an incomplete. According to my stats, if I were to keep at it the same way I would meet the goal in 17 days. If today is any indication, that is not going to happen. I got up at 7:00 AM, took care of the dog, went back to bed and didn’t wake again until noon! (All-night writing binges do not a wakeful mind make. 😉 ) But do I even want to keep up the same pace until the 50,000 words have been written?

What I want to do is finish my novel’s first rough draft. And rough it most definitely is! Once I bring the story to a satisfactory end, then begins the editing. Oh my! I have plot holes, repeats of scenes but in different ways, – a couple of those, and they were by accident because once you begin NaNo you are not supposed to go back and reread or you will not have time to finish .. so you just write on, – I have names mixed up, facts missing, details confused, a time line that must be established, and unnecessary fluff to be sifted out. For this to become a readable novel there is yet much work to be done.

*Laura, do I sound like a writer to you? 😉

NaNoWriMo 2011 is over, but the challenge has not ended for me. I have a novel to finish!

Do you get totally wrapped up in your writing projects so that you cannot stop until you have them done? Or do you easily put them away to work on at a later date? Do you lose your momentum or inspiration if you wait?

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂

Next post: PiBoIdMo (Picture Book Idea Month) update.