Thoughts on Finishing NaNoWriMo
Nov 30
Here I am, on the other end of November and I have a large chunk of my first novel written. 50,000 words is a lot and I can’t wait to finish the book and start the editing process. I will probably slow down some since we are in the holiday time of the year but I will finish. Here are some of my thoughts on finishing and a few things I have learned in the process.
- I can write every day and enjoy it – One of the primary reasons I participated in this is that I wanted to see if I would enjoy writing day in and day out. If I had my choice I would write for a living. So I wanted to see if it might be something I would like to do. Well, I really enjoyed it. I can’t say that every day was a bucket of berries but I really enjoyed the process. I enjoyed pushing through parts I thought were boring and finding ways to make them interesting. I enjoyed having a hard time starting a chapter, pushing through, and ending up with something I liked. And the good days were even better.
- I can finish what I start - This is a really important part to me. I am sure I am not alone in the world of incomplete goals and tasks. When I start something, my interest in it might fade or I might not make enough time to finish. Whatever my excuse, I sometimes don’t finish the things I start. I am trying to change this about me and this month of writing was a big step in the right direction. I finished what I started.
- My inner editor does not have to get in my way of writing – This has been one of the biggest barriers to me finishing what I start when it comes to writing. I have started several books in the past. I would write a chapter and then edit it. Then edit it again. There is nothing wrong with editing, I was just doing it at the wrong time. NaNoWriMo forced me to kill my inner editor. He was not allowed out of his box. As a result, I wrote over 50,000 words in a month.
- I do have time to write – Time is one of those quantities in life that will be spent one way or another. We cannot save it. It becomes very important, then, to be intentional with the way we spend it. If writing is more important to me that watching TV then I need to be able to turn off the TV and write. I told myself that I would write everyday of November until I reached my goal. I did that except for two days. I had time to write almost everyday. I just need to remember that.
- I don’t have to be happy with every part of my story to keep going – This goes back to the inner editor thing. I know there are parts of my story that are not good – at all! I had to learn to be OK with that and move on. This brings me to my next item.
- You can always edit junk but you can’t edit a blank page – This is a sage piece of advice for writers. Sometimes I would sit there trying to decide what to write, not wanting to write junk. This is fine as long as you don’t sit there and write nothing at all. As long as words were appearing on the page there was something I could make better later through editing.
- The story doesn’t always go in the direction you planned it to – before I started the November month of writing abandon I planned out how I thought the story would go. I had an outline that wasn’t extremely detailed but it did give me direction. Sometimes though, I would find my characters dictating what would happen. They would say something or do something unexpected and reveal a part of the story I hadn’t thought of yet. So even though I planned what I thought would happen as I got to know the characters better they changed that and it was always for the better.
To sum up, I would say that NaNoWriMo was a very rewarding experience. It has moved me closer to my goal of being a published author. It is a small first step but a step in the right direction is never bad. I look forward to participating next year and to finishing the novel I started in this one.
Just for fun, here is a Wordle of the novel so far. Enjoy. (click to enlarge)
Brian
