I did it. It's over. I won. Yay! As I write these words I feel a mixture of excitement, exhaustion, and (yes, already) nostalgia. I spent the last thirty days writing the first draft of a ya novel and (on average) 1,667 words each and every one of those days--a feat a wonderful community of writers around the world partcipated in. I've loved searching for "#nanowinner2016" on social media and reading about other successful NaNo winners proudly and excitedly displaying screenshots of their thirty-day progress or their winner's tee shirts. And I'm not going to lie, I've spent a lot of the past two days bragging about my win to everyone I know and feeling sad that it's over. I got so used to living in the same story for a month that now, on December 1st, I don't know with myself. I didn't add to my story for the first time in weeks, and the knowledge has left a strange emptyness I hadn't expected. I want to write. I may have written 50,000 words, but my story isn't finished yet. And I want to see it finished. This will be the first time I've ever written an entire story--beginning, middle, end, and all--and I know I can do it. Now that NaNoWriMo is over for the year, in retrospect writing 50,000 words in one month seems like it was kind of easy. I mean, I, of all people, finished, so how hard could it really have been? Well, it was hard. Juggling college courses, writing for NaNoWriMo and for colleges courses (writing majors don't get a free pass every November), preparing for finals, celebrating Thanksgiving, and attemtping to have some semblance of a social life while also remembering to leave the apartment to buy groceries in order to eat dinner every night was one of the greatest tests of my time management skills (and my dedication). Ever. Period. But my goodness was it worth it. Clicking that "validate novel" button was one of the most gratifying moments of my writing life, and watching thirty days of stats and hard work change to "winner" was awesome. I don't care if it sounds cheesy. I don't care if it sounds exaggerated. It's true, and I'm so glad to have had the opportunity to participate in NaNoWriMo this year and actually had the drive to finish.
There were many moments when I didn't think I would make it to 50,000 words. I dropped below the recommended "par" of 1,667 words on November 9th, and there were a few days where I simply didn't have time to write. Even on those days I threw several dozen to one hundred words in just to keep myself grounded in the story and so that it wouldn't feel like I was giving up. I have a hard time with falling behind, and it's the reason I didn't finish last year. I convince myself I'll never catch up, and eventually I stop trying. But this year I kept going, even when I drifted further and further from the daily goals. Even when I was over 5,000 words behind, I made myself write. And after several days of writing 2,000+ words, I managed to catch up on November 28th and finished exactly on time. So, this post is a lot of me talking about me things. "I did this." "I'm so proud of that." But the thing is, I've never accomplished something this big before. I've always been more of an editor, and I'm good at it. Catching spelling and grammar mistakes is second nature to me (ask anyone who's ever been around me while I'm reading a book), and paying close attention to plot consistency and character development is what I do. I've never really thought of myself as a "writer." NaNoWriMo was my own personal challenge to break my own mould and try my hand at doing something huge. I mean, until now, my largest piece of writing was about 20 pages long. My NaNoWriMo document contains over 215 pages. And, as I said, my story isn't over yet. But with so much of my story written--a story I've been wanting to write for almost two years now--I know the rest will come much more naturally than the beginning and middle did. Soon enough, I'll have a complete first draft of my first ever manuscript, and I'm not sure I could be more excited. NaNoWriMo is over, but the never several months--which the lovely people who run the whole show call the "What Now" months--are for revision, for strengthing your manuscript and adding everything you wanted to in the first draft but didn't know where itwould fit into the story. Plot holes get covered, character relationships that made no sense at first are clarified, and those scenes that just won't work are rewritten and torn apart and rewritten once more. To be honest, revising my entire manuscript almost seems more daunting than actually getting it all out on the page in the first place, but it's another new endeavor I'm excited to tackle. It's only been one day since NaNoWriMo 2016 ended, but I already can't wait to participate again next year. There are so many things I love about the event. The supportive community of like-minded peole is far more extensive than I originally knew, and the weekly regional "write-ins" provide a comfortable and fun space for writers to get together, write, and discuss their stories. There is no shortage of prompts or pep talks, which are sent at least once a week to participants to keep them motivated and, most importantly, having fun. The days may blur together as the words fly from our fingers, but knowing that there are so many people around the world and right at home writing with you is nothing short of amazing.
1 Comment
Rachael
12/18/2016 01:29:30 am
Good for you!
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Who Am I?Introverted bookworm, vegan foodie, casual runner, writer/editor, envier of tiny houses, Hufflepuff/Pukwudgie, and self-declared nerd. Creating Order From Chaos
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December 2016
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