Tuesday, November 24, 2015

NaNoWriMo 2015 - November 24

Well it finally happened, as I knew it would. I reached the goal for National Novel Writing Month and as you can see from the image, I'm a winner! It feels pretty darn good, especially reaching that goal during an intense month at work and some unexpected incidents at home. As I mentioned when I started this project, I had some trepidation about giving this a try, especially since it had been a few years since I've written any long form fiction. But it all came back to me. Yeah there's the self doubt and the crazy moments of feeling lost without a plot map. But there are also those wonderful moments when everything just clicks. I had forgotten how great those euphoric moments are. I really missed that feeling.

I'm making it sound like the novel is done. But it isn't.

I met the goal, but the story isn't finished yet. I've still got a journey to complete beyond NaNoWriMo. At this point the characters are about to face their biggest challenge yet from the main antagonist. Then they will strike back and attempt to finish her one way or the other. I gotta admit that  some of them are not going to make it (writing death scenes for characters I've come to like is always tough). But that is still a bit a way. Plenty of writing needs to be done to get to that conclusion.

So that means that NaNoWriMo may be over for me, but the writing isn't done. I'm planning on keeping my schedule and momentum up until I finish this draft. Hope to get it done my mid December and then let it sit for a month or two.

So allow me to celebrate a little bit tonight, but also don't let my momentum flag either. I want to get this novel done. I think it may be the start of something really exciting.

Music for this run:

  • Batman Returns - Danny Elfman
  • The Shadow - Jerry Goldsmith
Final Word Count: 50551

2 comments:

Richard Bellush said...

Congrats on powering through to the goal line.

Those who haven't done often underestimate how hard it is to keep momentum. Folks tell me all the time "I want to write a book" about something or another. Almost always they mean they want to have written a book, which is not the same thing.

Roman J. Martel said...

You are so right. In my opinion that is the hardest part of writing long fiction. I always have a lot of energy and enthusiasm for the first half of the story. But part way through I lose steam and interest. It is really difficult to sustain that mood and motivation. And having Thanksgiving hit right at the end of this is really difficult. I ended up taking a few days off, but I was able to get back in there on Saturday.