The Final NaNoWriMo Break
Hello everyone, and welcome to the final NaNoBreak.
Here is the final post for you to rant about the process, brag about how long you have already been done, talk about your story or your characters…whatever you want. Consider the doors of the virtual café officially open.
It’s been an interesting journey, with many people dropping out in the first week and many more people finishing before the deadline. Now, as we in Australia either sit back and enjoy the last day or type furiously to get word counts met, people in the States are meeting their final twenty-four hours.
I’m spending my final NaNo hours getting other work done, because November 30th is the deadline for many things in my life other than NaNoWriMo. Once again I come to the end of November with a different number of words I expected.
However, I am not sick of the story, like I usually am at this point. My husband and I spent last night wandering around Melbourne so I could get some locations mapped and named for the story. I have never had to do that for a story before (the maps and landmarks all being in my head with other stories) so it was a fun experience.
All in all, I think NaNo is whatever you put into it. I consider it a way to get myself started on working on something, and I always start each year. I have to shake my head at people who take it too seriously – either because they think it’s a waste of time or because they think they’ll finally write a novel and instantly get it published. Either way, it’s a bit silly.
I finish this year’s NaNoWriMo once again happy to have participated in the event.
Congratulations to all who make it past the word count line and also to those who may not have but still stuck it out until the end.
November 30th, 2007 at 12:17 pm
I took part this year for the first time and loved it. It’s the first time that I’ve finished anything! It really helped me get into the habit of writing fiction every day. It was a lot of fun, except for last night when my son managed to get rid of 5,000 words on me :/
December 1st, 2007 at 5:45 pm
Congratulations on finishing, despite the loss of five thousand words. I think getting people to write every day is one of the biggest benefits of NaNo.
December 1st, 2007 at 7:43 pm
Writing every day would be easier if we all agreed not to be so hard on ourselves and enjoy the process.
December 1st, 2007 at 7:45 pm
Act as if you have multiple personality disorder: the writer who enjoys gets to be in front while writing, the editor who is harsh gets to be in front while editing.
December 1st, 2007 at 9:12 pm
JM,
I do have multiple personalities. Auria is my pen name, specifically created shutdown Linda (the real me). I even created a blog to quiet Linda down…but Linda has a big mouth.
December 3rd, 2007 at 4:39 am
Well there you go.
December 4th, 2007 at 7:44 am
That’s another thing I learned the hard way during November. Stop editing as I go along. It was so hard to stop but once I did, I really let myself go with it.
And yes, getting into the habit of writing every day is a huge benefit to it.
December 4th, 2007 at 5:44 pm
It can be good practice for any writer to quiet the editor. At least for the first draft.