As you know, today is the last day of NaNoWriMo! I hope you had a blast whether you made it to 50,000 words or not. I hope you carved out a chunk of words on your manuscript and are that much closer to The End.
I for one, did NOT make it to 50K, but I also set out knowing I probably wouldn’t. Even still, I am quite proud of the words I did write.
The story I worked on was a lot of fun, and I’m planning to come back to it in the future to finish it.
What I learned during NaNoWriMo 2022
As usual, I had good days and bad and as usual, I learned a few things from this past month of feverish noveling.
- I can still log multi-thousand word days – my best writing session was over 3700 words.
- I can still pad my word count with overwriting, -ly adverbs, and wordy placeholders when I can’t think of the word I actually want (like: insert the word for when someone smiles at you in a way that you know they feel pity for you?)
- I can still write long-form fiction! It was a legit fear of mine, after having been away from long-form since December 2021.
- I still struggle with coming up with names. Luckily, I have the internet at my disposal and Scrivener actually has a name generator. Did you know that?
- My non-process process still works for me. You see, I typically use NaNoWriMo to tell myself the story I want to write. To figure out who these characters are. At first, they seem all over the place, but the more I write, the more they reveal themselves. The more real they become. A weak female character suddenly becomes the strong lead when she kills her husband to run off with her lover in some crazy turn of events that’ll eventually lead to her undoing. Or his. Or everyones probably. I write horror. There’s a lot of undoing.
- The badges you earn on NaNoWriMo’s website are ridiculously motivating. For me. I want to get them all! Remember when I talked about rewards in episode 8 about breaking bad and creating good habits? This is what I’m talking about! These badges are exactly the kind of small rewards that keep us motivated.
If you already logged your session for the day, CONGRATULATIONS! Look back at what you have accomplished over this past month with pride.
If you have not yet logged your last session, there’s still time! Go set your timer and get those words in! Get that last session logged, then see the paragraph above and celebrate!
If you did not reach The End on your manuscript, keep going! Adjust your daily goal to something that works for you. The wonder of NaNoWriMo doesn’t have to end here. Look back on your daily word counts over the past 30 days, average them, set some level goals (remember, from the Plan for Anything posts (Part 1 & Part 2)?) and keep going. Toucan20 your way into December and beyond.
Finish your book with the Deluxe Tracker Tool
If you want a tracker that has stats and charts and graphs that look very similar to the ones on the NaNoWriMo stats page, check out my Deluxe Tracker Tool.
Set your timer. Go write!
