Did you write during the NaNoWriMo challenge?
I’ve never participated in NaNoWriMo but I’m curious about those who have. Knowing how other writers handle the pressure of spitting out 50k words in 30 days fascinates me. Because I agonize over every sentence and rewrite too many paragraphs. Y’all gotta tell me your secret. How do you manage to write so fast?
You’ve probably heard about the terms, plotter, and pantser, but me I’m a plodder. Often taking one step forward and two steps back. I write one word at a time, plodding along as if I’ve all the time in the world. Sigh…
I really need to learn how to speed up my writing and not get squirrelly over every jot and tiddle.
Do tell!
How many words do you write every day?
Did you finish the challenge?
Did you quit? Why?
How do you manage to balance life responsibilities and the pressure of NaNoWriMo? Especially over the holidays!
Did participating in NaNoWriMo lead to a successful novel?
Don’t want to write a long comment?
That’s okay. Just type- “I DID.”
I’m also curious as to how many writers participated in NaNoWriMo, successfully or not.
See, I have lots of questions, and can’t wait to hear about your experience.
For those of you who’ve been living under a rock and don’t know what NaNoWriMo is all about, I’ve added a few links.
Didn’t write this year, but I followed my NaNo Buddies who did. (I won in 2014.)
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Cool. Did winning help with the publishing?
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Not directly, but writing 50K words in 30 days shows a level of discipline that could be used for marketing oneself as an author. That and a personal challenge were my reasons for wanting an actual “win.” Otherwise, the NaNo process is not the best way for me to write books.
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I understand, don’t think the NaNo process would work for me either. Guess I need to work on my discipline.
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In the end, what matters is how your book turned out, not how you wrote it.
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Good point.
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Nope, I didn’t finish this year. I’m a planster (think that’s what it’s called, meaning part plotter, part panster). So I planned what would go in each chapter, but I got 25,705 words and my novel took an unexpected turn which threw me off. I was already a few days behind so I just stopped there until I can figure out how to proceed. I have a problem writing every day with the day job and falling asleep right after dinner some nights. The days I write, I can write 2K or more easily.
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2K that’s impressive. But sounds as if you’ve half-way there. Good start.
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Thank you, Jean. I know I can do it because I last year I wrote over the 50K. I’m not so sure November is the best month to do it though.
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Nov is a rough month for me too. Too much to do and too many distractions. LOL
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I made it to the end! This is the first year I’ve ever done NaNoWriMo. It was a blast, but a lot of work!
Here are my answers to your questions:
How many words do you write every day? I wrote as few as 700 one day and over 10k another (that was crazy)
Did you finish the challenge? Yup! I finished my whole book on Nov. 23. It felt so good!
How do you manage to balance life responsibilities and the pressure of NaNoWriMo? Especially over the holidays! I planned it out big time! I kept a blog journal and updated it each day so people could see how the progress was going. I also took three weeks off work and took a writing retreat. That helped. 🙂
For me, the key is to have the story planned out ahead of time and then to not worry about making it perfect. Just get it down. Once it’s down, you can always correct all the problems!
Thanks for your post!
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Wow! I’m impressed. The retreat sounded like a big help. Congrats! Be sure and let me know when your book is published.
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Book one in the series is scheduled to be published April 2 of this coming year. This one I wrote this past month is book III and it’s coming out in November of next year! It’s been a fun journey!
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Thanks for the heads up, I’ll keep an eye pealed.
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I made it! But I didn’t finish my WIP….I’ve got about 30,000 more words to go! 🙂
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Sounds like a good start! Congrats!
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Thank you!
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