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NaNoWriMo in Retrospect
Nov. 27th, 2013 08:49 amI realize November isn't over yet, so technically NaNo is still going on, but I reached 50,000 words yesterday, which means I won. My total word count according to the NaNo site's counter is 50,252 words, and I reached this goal working on two projects.
First, I worked on a series of Fairy Tale retellings with Queer main characters. I finished 7 of these, started 3, and have another idea for one (I just have to read Pinocchio first...Ace Gepetto, guys. Ace Gepetto). My current total word count for this, according to microsoft word, is 34,818.
The second project I worked on was actually my initial Novel idea. I began planning in October, but I got bogged down trying to figure out the outline, and that's when I opted to do Queerie Tales instead. The novel is a fantasy novel with mythology that was loosely inspired by Norse mythology. I wrote the first 8 chapters and started the 9th. The currently total word count is 15,296.
Even if I hadn't reached the NaNo goal of 50,000, I would still count myself as a winner, because I wrote. I have a tendency to get frustrated, to worry that my writing isn't good enough - even knowing that the first draft is supposed to be a pile of crap. I want everything to be perfect the first time around, so if I'm not deleting everything and restarting a hundred times, then I'm giving up entirely.
NaNo forced me to keep going. Wanting to reach the word count meant I couldn't scrap bits that didn't sound quite right. I couldn't completely delete my Snow White story and restart it because it's rushed and awful, I had to leave it for now and come back to it later.
I am feeling very good about my writing right now. I know that every story, every chapter, has issues. They're all first drafts, and they're not going to be perfect. But I'm going to keep going because if I don't, I will never finish. I'm going to try to keep up the rhythm I developed during NaNo - writing every morning - and maybe I'll finally finish something.
I'm very glad I did NaNo this year, and I'm definitely planning on doing it again next year.
First, I worked on a series of Fairy Tale retellings with Queer main characters. I finished 7 of these, started 3, and have another idea for one (I just have to read Pinocchio first...Ace Gepetto, guys. Ace Gepetto). My current total word count for this, according to microsoft word, is 34,818.
The second project I worked on was actually my initial Novel idea. I began planning in October, but I got bogged down trying to figure out the outline, and that's when I opted to do Queerie Tales instead. The novel is a fantasy novel with mythology that was loosely inspired by Norse mythology. I wrote the first 8 chapters and started the 9th. The currently total word count is 15,296.
Even if I hadn't reached the NaNo goal of 50,000, I would still count myself as a winner, because I wrote. I have a tendency to get frustrated, to worry that my writing isn't good enough - even knowing that the first draft is supposed to be a pile of crap. I want everything to be perfect the first time around, so if I'm not deleting everything and restarting a hundred times, then I'm giving up entirely.
NaNo forced me to keep going. Wanting to reach the word count meant I couldn't scrap bits that didn't sound quite right. I couldn't completely delete my Snow White story and restart it because it's rushed and awful, I had to leave it for now and come back to it later.
I am feeling very good about my writing right now. I know that every story, every chapter, has issues. They're all first drafts, and they're not going to be perfect. But I'm going to keep going because if I don't, I will never finish. I'm going to try to keep up the rhythm I developed during NaNo - writing every morning - and maybe I'll finally finish something.
I'm very glad I did NaNo this year, and I'm definitely planning on doing it again next year.
