During November, the world of reading and writing is inundated with posts and blogs and articles about NaNoWriMo (or National Novel Writing Month). It is now December, and NaNoWriMo is officially over, but the comments and articles still abound. This year was my first year in attempting the challenge. And while I didn’t accomplish the 50,000 word goal, I think I did well for my first attempt. To date, I have managed 35,000 words and averaged about 1,000 words a day (to keep you from doing the math, participants are supposed to write 1,667 words on average per day). Some days I wrote 150 words, and some days I wrote more than 3,000. During my Thanksgiving break, I wrote diddlysquat. I was too busy cooking, eating, and just generally making merry.
I have a decent start to what I think is a decent story. Will I get it published by one of the Big Five (Big Three after all these crazy mergers are done) and will I become the next Erin Morgenstern? Probably not. But will I finish? I certainly hope so. It is six days into December, and I’ve written a bit on my book every day of this month so far, and I want to keep it up. The story still plays in my head every night, just begging to be put down onto (electronic) paper.
I look forward to participating next year and, if not winning (the term used for finishing the 50,000 during the month), improving my word count.
What about you? Did you participate in NaNoWriMo this year? How far did you get?