NaNoWriMo: It's over and I made it.
written by Julie R. Neidlinger 2 comments link this post
You'll be happy to know that now that November is over, you won't have to put up with so many post re-runs. The huge and overbearing monkey on my back, otherwise known as National Novel Writing Month, is over and gone.
I've been getting emails all month from curious readers wondering how I was doing with my NaNoWriMo novel challenge. I didn't answer because, to be blunt, I was doing terrible. I didn't keep up with the daily word count that I set as a beginning goal, my story was perfectly awful, and to make matters worse, my entire writing group was beating my pants off as far as word count! I'd put them up to the challenge and they responded with fervor.
I was shaking in my pants.
My sister would call, and towards the end of the phone conversation she would ask me how the novel as coming.
"It's terrible. I have my character stuck in a store fixing sewing machines."
Or someone else would inquire to me directly and I'd answer with a dejected face.
"Right now he's arguing with a guy in an alien museum over how to be a board certified UFO-ologist. It has to do with accurate details and probing. There's a proctolgist in there, too."
They'd raise their eyebrows.
"Before that I had my guy get into an argument with an insurance salesman about insurance for circus performers. The clowns, in particular."
The eyebrows would go higher.
"Well why'd you even ask," I'd snap.
Thanksgiving came and I was at a paltry 32,000 words. I never even attempted to resume writing until after all the family had gone home, which was Sunday, November 27. On Monday, I began typing but I only managed to whack out 3,000 words. All the other work I'd put off during Thanksgiving, from designs to various paperwork, had to be done, too.
I had Tuesday and Wednesday left. Tuesday, however, didn't work out because I was called in to sub. Today dawned bright and early and I was in a panic. There I was, at 35,000 words the last day of the 50,000 word contest. All the others in the writing group had made the mark.
For once, I just wanted to finish something.
And so....I did.
That's right. Today I typed 15,000 words and my hands and brain are numb but I made it. Thirty minutes before the deadline and I hit just over 50,000 words.
Now, some of you have requested frequent updates, excerpts and even access to what I wrote. That, my friends, won't be happening any time soon. I am so sick to death of the hideous beast I have written that I'm going to let it sit for a few months before even considering it again.
I was under pressure people! I wrote whatever came to mind! Japanese tourists! Cheesecake! The zoo! An atheist who owns a Bible Bookstore! A man at the Salvation Army who hates positive afirmation posters! It's all in there! It's a hideous monstrosity!
However, being forced to sit down and barf up a story, no matter how bad, was a great thing. Just like the NaNoWriMo site says, the contest puts an end to the one-day novelist, the writer who says "one day I'll write a book." I'm already thinking of a much better novel idea to start on my own time with no deadline, and I know I can do it.
After all, I just wrote my first novel.
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Copyright (c) Julie R. Neidlinger 11/30/2005 11:32:00 PM
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2 Comments:
Congratulations! YOu saw it through, and, although you're exhausted on every level, you DID it.
That's great.
Definitely put it aside for awhile and go back to it with fresh eyes, so you can read it as though someone else wrote it.
By 
Devon Ellington, at
December 01, 2005 8:09 AM
Sorry to be fiveminuteslate dot com, but...you won?! You won, right? Or maybe I don't understand what "winner" means. But the NaNoWriMo 2005 Winner sticker on your photo clued me in.
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