That’s All She Wrote

Well, I have managed to win NaNoWriMo again for another year and as has been the case in each of the past three NaNo’s I learned something new about writing and about myself.

I set myself a pretty ambitious goal this year. I wanted to get my 50,000 words completed by November 20th. That didn’t quite happen. The actual date of completion was November 22nd instead. Not quite what I planned but this NaNo had something others did not: days when I didn’t actually write.

Yes, its true. I had a few things come up where I was on the road without time to write. I think the total non-writing days this year was three so, in theory, I actually finished ahead of schedule. Either way, I’m very pleased with the outcome of this year’s NaNoWriMo.

So, what did I learn? Well, first and foremost, I learned how important the NaNo community is. I spent a lot of evenings on our regional NaNoChat. I also corresponded with a number of people and I made some new friends. The only thing I didn’t do as much of as I wanted was get out and physically meet some of my fellow NaNoWriters.

I also learned how therapeutic it is to write something new when I’ve been rejected on something old. I had moments where I just wasn’t sure if I was good enough. I got past those moments by reminding myself that the only way to get better was to keep writing. And I did (keep writing, that is).

I learned that I can do more than one project during NaNoWriMo and even more important, I learned I could juggle multiple priorities. During the first week or so of NaNo I was editing a novel for submission, writing for NaNo, spending two nights a week with the Boy Scouts and spending time with my family. Oh yeah, and I worked in there somewhere too. Yes, I can multitask alright.

I was also reminded, yet again, just how much work writing can be. That doesn’t come as any surprise, but it is good to have that lesson placed in front of me from time-to-time. It also showed me how doable writing all the time really is. I set myself a pretty ambitious goal of 2,500 words per day. If I knocked that back to even 1,000 per day I could be writing 3.5 books per year. That is actually doable (although I do need to consider edits too).

So, all in all, a very good NaNoWriMo again this year. I’m planning on attending the year-end meet-up so I can meet many of the people I’ve been chatting with and renew a few of the friendships from previous years. And I can start planning for next year too.

What’s Next For Me

With the realization that I CAN multitask, I have decided to work on several things in the coming months. I will continue to put episodes of ‘Get Published’ out, I am entering one of my YA books in a contest and I’m going to enter a few short fiction contests too.

I also started real work on a project I’ve been talking about for some time. It is a Science Fiction/Comedy and I’ve almost got a rough draft of the first episode finished. I plan to record the first episode and put it out in the feed in December. Watch for it. I’m hoping that it will be a lot of fun.

Finally, the NaNoNovel. I’m going to let it sit for a month (or maybe two) and then I’m going to edit it into submit able shape. That will give me three books in the series and I will be shopping them around for an agent and/or a publisher. I’ll also be writing other episodes of the previously mentioned podcast.

Busy busy. I hope your NaNo has gone as well.