For me it's been over for about three days. I got to 50,000 words on Saturday and just kind of dragged anchor at that point, though I knew I was only halfway through my novel at the very least. My own lessons learned:
1. I paced myself this time, though I was almost as loose structure-wise as I was in the second book. In the second book I wrote for a few days and didn't touch it for 20 days and had a mad as hell three day dash to 50,000, writing nearly 40,000 words of garbage to get there. I'm even afraid sometimes to read that book as much of a trainwreck as I felt it was. This time around, come hell or high water, I wasn't going to let the word count get behind. I was relaxed and though I didn't feel I had a great handle on the story, it flowed pretty well compared to sweating to the end. I liken it to the difference between undergraduate (book 2 dash) and graduate (book 3) level of effort.
2. I joked about trying to get to 75,000 or even to 100,000. Most days I pushed myself beyond the 1,667 word daily count to get to 2,500. There were a few days in November where I just didn't have time to write, and the extra word count helped. I knew in my head that 50,000 was my goal and when I hit it, I pretty much stopped all real effort in writing. I did enjoy pushing myself beyond the limits to get my word count high early on.
3. Having all the time in the world is an out and out fallacy. I had the entire week off last week just as I had last year and the year before. Yet I found myself struggling to dig in and find the will to write. It's a normal problem, and something I struggle with work. I hate being idle and once I am, I find it hard to get things done. When I'm busy I can move mountains and be extremely productive. Idle time is terrible time. Thousands of people quit their jobs to write the Great American Novel and thousands end up going back to work not writing anything of substance. Creativity is Work - albeit enjoyable work. You have to put boundaries on yourself and put your nose to the grindstone.
Things I'll do next year:
1. Plan a complete novel from beginning to ending.
2. Write 75,000 words.
3. Schedule and plan my idle time.
Next year will be a new book and a completely new effort at writing a novel.
{applause} Helpful insights and pointers and I enjoyed reading your experience as one who has walked the Nano path. Myself, I know better than to try to walk it -- not that I couldn't, I willfully opt not to against my better and higher good! --and thus suffer no disappointment in failing to achieve the goal. :) Twisted and counterproductive, sure, but it works for me. :(
Posted by: Allycatadventures.wordpress.com | 11/30/2010 at 06:06 PM