NaNoWriMo 2023 FINISHED

NaNoWriMo 2023 has come to a close, and I'm not sure if I'm relieved, sad, energized, or a combination of all three.

Probably all three.

I finished last night at 51,767 words, including 36 hours (36,000 words' equivalency) of revisions of the part of the draft from last year.  For the first time ever, I kept my word count above par for the entire month, and received the daily update badge.

The final write-in of the year went off without a hitch, but also somehow without much fanfare.  I almost regret that, looking back at it.  We have one final event, a TGIO (Thank Goodness It's Over) party on Saturday, and then we're done until next year.

I've already set up a new project goal on NaNoWriMo's site to complete the novel, hopefully by the end of the year.  Once I removed all the revision "words" and added back words I wrote in last year's draft, I had 72,030.  Some of those still need to be cut from this year's draft, of course, but all in all that's more word count than I was expecting.

Since I think I'm only about halfway done with the story, it also means this is going to be a longer novel than I thought it would be.  I set my overall goal to 100,000 words, but I'm really going for a range of between 100,000 and 120,000.  If I reach 120,000, that would be about 400 pages in book form, which isn't a bad length.

My goal is to write at least 1,000 words a day and hopefully finish the book by the end of the year.  I'm hoping that on good days, I'll actually get significantly more than 1,000 words a day, and make up the difference between 100,000 and 120,000 there.  But ultimately I decided it would be better to set the goal at the lower end of my range and overshoot it, than to set it higher and not reach it at all.

I'm planning to schedule my writing time first thing after my coffee every day whenever possible, so that I can get it done and out of the way on days where I'm not inspired to write more than 1,000 words, and to give me time to continue writing on days where I feel motivated to do so.

With any luck, I can finish this draft by the end of the year, and start on revisions and other tasks after the holidays!

Winning NaNoWriMo 2023

When I posted my weekly goals yesterday, I didn't realize I'd be "winning" NaNoWriMo later that night!  I had 2,324 words to go to reach 50,000, and I thought it might be a little too much for one day.

But I was on fire at my write-in last night, and clocked 2,326 words - reaching 50,002 total words for November - by the end of the write-in.

I'm quite pleased, and I'm hoping this year's writing progress will translate into a lasting habit.  Last year I maintained the daily writing habit until the holidays, and then never got back to work after the holidays ended.  This year I'm hoping I can keep it going longer, and part of my plan is to start scheduling writing time earlier in the day, possibly first thing (after coffee, of course).  Putting it first will set a precedent in my life, send myself a proverbial message, and also make it less likely that my sometimes shifting, hectic days would result in writing time getting cut.

Only three days left of NaNoWriMo 2023, three write-ins remaining, and then we're into December!  It's been a crazy month, and as surprising as it was when I realized November was almost over, I think I'm ready for it to be done.

NaNoWriMo 2023

Even though I was blogging on a semi-weekly basis about my preparations for NaNoWriMo, it was still a bit of a shock when it was finally here.

If you didn't already know it, I'm an ML, a Municipal Liaison, for the Denver region of National Novel Writing Month.  ML just means I'm a regional coordinator, so with the help of a couple other MLs (Denver is a big region!) we coordinate local events, send out emails, and just basically do our best to help everyone stay motivated.  We have a really active region, and it's probably at least in part due to how many local events we have every year.

Our kickoff party Tuesday night - where we all start writing at midnight on November 1st - was a success, though a little small still post-pandemic.  We had 33 people at the highest count I got, up a few from 28ish last year.  (Before the pandemic we used to get 50-60 at weeknight kickoff parties, and 100+ on the weekends, so we still have a ways to go to return to pre-pandemic levels of participation.)

Right now I'm using a read-and-revise of what I have of my novel so far to familiarize myself with what I wrote last year, and then I'll skim what I wrote in previous years, since I'm planning to rewrite all of that pretty much entirely for this draft.  I'm hoping to finish the novel this year, and revise and self-publish next year.  You can track my progress on my NaNoWriMo profile, and also on my novel's blog, RubyRansome.com.

I feel like I'm on a good track so far, for just being a couple days into the month.  I've been working steadily on the read-through and revisions over the last couple days, and hope to finish by the end of the weekend so that I can get to work on new writing.

Right now, I have four write-ins scheduled per week (Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays) with only the Wednesday ones not being "my" write-ins, so it's setting up to be a busy month!  Last year I tried to get the badge for updating every day, but lost that when I failed to write and update my word count on Thanksgiving.  This year I'm hoping to get that badge, and I'm also going to try to get the badge for making par (1,667 words) every day.

Into the breach once more, my friends!  Wish me luck!