Ok, I know that there’s still one day left in November, but Wednesday is my day for writing posts about, well, writing, so we’re wrapping this year’s Nanowrimo …ok?
In case you missed it, I passed my 50,000 word target just after 6am on the morning of the 24th.
me typing the 50,000th word on Friday morning at Mooloolaba
Yes, I’m a nanowrimo winner.
The thing is, anyone who finished November with more words than they started it with is also a winner.
Nanowrimo – the Stats
I started slowly, with a grand total of zero words in the first two days. Thankfully I was able to pick the pace up after that and wrote daily until I got to target. That meant an average of 2400 words a day for 21 days.
How I did it?
The same way that I do anything – by planning ahead and doing the head down bum up thing.
There absolutely were challenges. I’m working on a project in my corporate gig at the moment that has meant some travel to Sydney to familiarise myself with a process that I’ve to date managed to avoid needing to be familiar with.
In the middle was also a long weekend in Wellington, New Zealand visiting with friends, plus I had to get all the family Christmas shopping done ready for our daughter to take to Sydney with her today.
Plus, of course, there was normal life.
Alongside those challenges though, were opportunities.
Some rainy mornings helped my writing – but not my fitness. I’d still get up at the same time, but write before work rather than go for a walk.
I worked pretty much anywhere – in bed at night, in my lunch break, waiting for flights, on flights – and made the most of the days I wasn’t at my desk doing corporate-ish things. On those days I’d take myself out of the house for a few hours at a time – I have a few favourite places to write at that I’ll tell you about another time – order a coffee, sometimes brekky, and just write.
What now?
To be honest, I haven’t written a word in the manuscript since last Friday – and don’t intend to until December 1.
I have another 30,000 or so words to write before this is a passable first draft, and my goal is to finish that before Christmas. To do this I’ll set the same target of 1667 words per day – starting from December 1. If anyone else wants to play along, I’d love to hear from you.
What have I been doing with all of my writing time in the interim?
I’ve updated this site with links to travel posts that have previously been published on and anyways.
I’ve organised the web “pages” so it’s easier to navigate, with links from a single picture rather than having to plow through reams of words. There’s still more to do, but it’s looking ok.
What else? I’ve written and scheduled some content for the astro site which had been sadly neglected during my writing blitz, and also started doing some planning around production deadlines for 2018. I’ll share some of that with you over the coming weeks as we close out the year that was.
Did you do nanowrimo? If so, how did you go? Are you finishing November with more words than you started with?