Final Day of NaNoWriMo: Did I Win? 

Expected word count: 50,000

Final word count: 21,375

Percentage complete: 43% 

I lost. But, that doesn’t mean I didn’t try. One of my two Life Quotes – this one courtesy of my Uncle Tom – goes like this: Trying is the first step to failure. (In case you’re curious, my second Life Quote is: Life’s a bitch and then you marry one.) 

Although trying led to failure, I plan to write my book to its completion. 

What I have learned: 

I write best in the mornings. The earlier, the better. My best session began at 5 am and ended at 630 am. 

As much as I love having my daughter around, she is not conducive to a successful writing session, lol. 

Staring out the window is a helpful way to pass the time. 

I never struggled with writer’s block during the 21,375 amount of words I wrote so far. Hopefully that won’t be an issue coming up. 

The more I wrote, I noticed more ideas came, characters revealed themselves more, and the plot literally thickened. (That’s when I made that outline, ha.) 

I like seeing how other people write: especially their use of spreadsheets. However, there is no way I’lll ever do that. It’s not me. 

Not only do I have to concentrate on small things like scene-to-scene details and dialogue, I also have to make sure it matches up and make sense – aka continuity. I also have to think of overarching plot, what drives character’s motivations, backstories, themes, and much more. I’ve also drafted reading guide questions! (Yep, that’s the teacher in me :))

The big takeaway: without NaNoWriMo looming over me this whole month, I would not have written this much otherwise!

To wrap: I tried my absolute best, and for the 12 days in November I DID get a chance to write, 21,375 is NOT a bad number, I think! Look at it this way: 25,000 is half way, and I’m almost there. Lol. 

Just because NaNoWriMo is over, does not mean writing my book is over. I don’t think it will take longer than a month; maybe two. I might even have some time over Christmas break to write, who knows? 

Now, it’s time to look to the future too. I have written some articles for magazines, and am hoping to be able to share them with you soon! I’ll include any links as they come. 

How did you fare in NaNoWriMo? What was your final word count? Comment below if you’d like. Have a great day everyone 🙂