NaNoWriMo Wrap-up
November came and went in a flash, the end result of writing every day for a month was… (insert drumroll) 42,000 words.
Not quite the 50,000 word target, but it was enough to give me a sense of achievement and an understanding of my limits. The main thing I learned was how to outline a story and stick to it whilst diverging where needed. This process was most apparent when I got towards the end of the story and encountered the patchy notes I didn’t flesh out before November came; I hit a severe slowdown at chapter 23.
At the end of the day I want to shout out the NaNoWriMo community, it’s been a great motivator for me and even though I didn’t actually participate in the community side of things, it was fantastic to see so many people dedicating themselves to something they love.
As it stands I still have about 15,000 to 18,000 words left to go in my first draft.
Truth of the matter is I probably could have had it done by now, but there is this game that I got hooked on again. Satisfactory. It’s a factory building game, Where you build factories with conveyor belts and trains. It’s right in my wheelhouse of nerdy shit and I love it. The problem, of course, is that the free time I was spending in the evenings writing was entirely soaked up by this fantastic game that I cannot recommend enough (If you’re into that sort of thing).
God help me, as of publishing I’ve hit 70 hours since the end of November
So the moral of this entry? I don’t know. Live más?
I don’t think there is a moral, I think that this exercise has taught me some things about planning, time management, and creative output. It also coupled nicely into a book I'm reading called Deep Work, which is about shaping your life around being able to create sections in your day to day where you can focus solely on one task, push away distractions, and commit 100% of your energy to a project. It’s fascinating, however implementing the life lessons to reality is a tricky one. When I’m done I will give a fuller review of my understanding here. It’s not for you, it’s for me. So please don’t read it. This all hinges on me playing less Satisfactory.
So what’s on for 2023? Great question, me. I had initially thought it would be great to have that first draft done by the end of 2022. In hindsight that was ambitious. I’ve never done well with grandiose plans for change. 2023 will be about small and achievable goals. And my writing specific ones are as follows.
Finish the first draft of ‘Unnamed Fantasy Heist Novel’ by the end of January.
Complete first round edit of the Novel by end of June.
Add in a blog entry once a month at minimum.
Outline my next story project, either a Cold War Music based thriller, or a World War II tale of a man who wants to listen to his favourite radio station.
Compete in the NYC Midnight Short Story competition again.
Enter all four Furious Fiction contests.
Add at least six stories to this website.
Participate in NaNoWriMo 2023 and hit the 50k word goal.
That seems pretty achievable, I think.
Stay beautiful and look after yourself and each other. xoxo