November 30, 2009

Hallelujah! I felt the breeze on my face as I crossed the NaNoWriMo finish line half an hour ago. Getting the words to validate took three tries, but it finally clocked in at 50,093 words. Phew!

It was a good month for writing, but like many of you NaNo writers, it had its bumps and interruptions. In the second week, I had a personal setback and got sick, and by the time I was better, I was nearly 10,000 words behind. It was catch-up the rest of the month.

Challenges

Like you, we had Thanksgiving last week. Although we had five people staying with us for three days, I got up early each day and wrote. “Luckily” I woke up by 4 a.m. each time and was done writing before our guests were up for the day. (And they were so easy to have around–that made a huge difference.)

The only real glitch came on Thanksgiving Day. I went to boot up my desktop PC where I prefer to write–and nothing. I stared. I prayed. I looked to see if I’d turned off the power accidentally. I fiddled with it. No luck. It was dead and fried, and a tech person assured me it would cost more to fix than it would to get a new PC.  So I finished NaNo on my laptop, and I have the backache to prove it.

I would never venture to a mall on Black Friday, but we found a great deal on Saturday, so this weekend I also set up the new computer and started learning Windows 7 and the Microsoft 2007 Office programs. Thank heavens for online tutorials!!!!! I’m sure I’ll love it in a couple weeks, but right now it’s like playing hide ‘n’ seek. (My favorite commands are hiding and I’m seeking.)

Flexibility Required!

This month, in order to write NaNoWriMo’s 50,000+ words, I typed in my office, in the car, in the living room, in my closet, in bed, in the library, at my granddaughter’s house, and once in a coffee shop, just for fun. The name of the game is flexibility. My novel isn’t quite finished, but I will continue to work on it at a slower pace until the rough draft is done.

How did you other NaNoWriMo writers end up? How was your experience? Are you glad you did it? Will you do anything differently next year? I know you still have twelve hours to write, but after you finish, share! Share!

11 Comments »

1. 

   Glad you made it, Kristi! I finished my novel on Saturday at 58,266 words. It was quite a rush! I learned a lot about myself and what I am capable of as a writer. Good luck to everyone in the final few hours!

   Comment by Emily — November 30, 2009 @ 11:27 am

2. 

   Wow, Emily!!! That is so impressive! Congratulations! What did you learn about yourself?

   Comment by Kristi Holl — November 30, 2009 @ 11:58 am

3. 

   Wow! You did it inspite of your setbacks. I had very modest goals — to finish and revise the first third (20K) of my novel to send out to my teacher at ICL and I did it. Moving forward.

   I realize that I need to write more in the hurly-burly of life and not wait for those perfect moments.

   Comment by Vijaya — November 30, 2009 @ 3:57 pm

4. 

   Oh, my goodness, Vijaya! That was NOT a modest goal you accomplished. Finishing and revising 20,000 words in a month is huge! Revising takes longer than just doing a rough draft, and it takes more “thinking time” too, where you sit and muddle over changes. Give yourself a big pat on the back.

   Comment by Kristi Holl — November 30, 2009 @ 4:26 pm

5. 

   I also blogged about the aftermath of Nano and what I learned. It’s funny, flexibility we both came up with. :0) With three kids, one of them 15 months, I found out I had to be more flexible.. and CONSISTENT. I know it seems easy to know and realize, but I did not realize how lacsadaisacal(darn no spell check)I had become in my persistence of writing EVERY day, no matter what.

   Comment by Kristi Faith — November 30, 2009 @ 5:55 pm

6. 

   Kristi, our experiences were so much the same, despite our personal circumstances and seasons in life being very different. I think, as moms, we learn to be flexible whether we want to be or not. Thankfully, that lesson “sticks” throughout your life. But the consistency!! Argh. It still feels like a self-indulgence to write before meeting other people’s wants and needs, and it’s still a challenge for me.

   Comment by Kristi Holl — December 1, 2009 @ 8:22 am

7. 

   Congratulations, Kristi! You so inspire me and make me look like a whiner!
   jane

   Comment by Jane Healy — December 1, 2009 @ 8:31 am

8. 

   Hi Kristi,
   Awesome to read you did it. I am sorry to say I didn’t get there this time around. I did mange 5,000 and I have definitly improved my habits around writing. I’m not dwelling on this NaNoWriMo but and planning head for the next one. I will succeed…
   

   Comment by Ally M — December 1, 2009 @ 9:29 pm

9. 

   I made it! Thanks to my encouraging daughter and a husband (who was in the Middle East for most of the first half of the month but made up for it by helping out around the house and with kids a bunch when he returned).

   I learned more about discipline in writing during this month than all the other years I’ve been pussy footing around about writing (put together). Even though it was much more difficult than I thought, it was a great experience and I’m glad I stuck with it.
   Next year I think it will help to have a better plot outline in place before starting. But still some interesting things did come out of “flying into the mist”.

   Comment by Stephanie — December 1, 2009 @ 10:26 pm

10. 

    Congratulations to everyone who took a stab at NaNo this year. I know my first year I dropped out fairly early–I wasn’t ready in a lot of areas. Last year I made it, but “flying by the seat of my pants” is NOT how I write best. I probably threw away about 40,000 of the 50,000 words. This year, though, I gave it more thought for a couple months prior, made more notes, had a better sense of direction, and I THINK I have some good stuff buried in there. I learned a lot about discipline in November too! I also realized how slack I’d become. And now…December!

    Comment by Kristi Holl — December 2, 2009 @ 11:40 am

11. 

    Congratulations, Kristi, and everyone! It’s a great accomplishment–even if you didn’t write 50K. I also finished NaNo this year–my first in 4 years of trying. I also learned to be disciplined and to push through even when the day was busy, I wasn’t feeling well, or I thought the writing was awful. After looking through some sections, I’ve been surprised to see some fresh, immediate prose in there that probably wouldn’t have come out if I’d had the luxury of leisure. I don’t want to lose the momentum, so I’m keeping up the habit of daily writing in December, on a different piece while November’s cools, but am bringing the daily word count way down.

    Comment by Marilyn — December 3, 2009 @ 11:26 am

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