NaNoWriMo 2014: Week 1

Okay, so we’re closer to Week 2 at this point, but I do want to focus on what happened in the first third of the competition.

Firstly, 18,000 words by Day 9 may be above average, but that means it’ll be harder to motivate myself later when I need to keep putting effort out there. Also, despite feeling relaxed that the writing is flowing, I’m getting worried because fifty thousand words will not be enough. That’s the point of NaNoWriMo, isn’t it? To finish a novel in a month has always been the goal, but most young adult novels are around 100-150,000 words. Even if I reach the word goal that doesn’t mean the novel will be completed or not have a bunch of sub plots added to it during the revision.

 

Nevertheless, too many words is a good thing. It’s always better to have too much to work with then be scrambling for those last 2,000 words when the novel ended fifteen pages ago. What I’ve learned in the last week and a half is that I may win NaNoWriMo 2014, but I may not have a completed novel.

That’s okay.

Actually, that’s great.

I can keep writing all through December and finish the novel in time for the new year. I will have enough fluff and details that some can get cut out and make room for more character development and plot builders elsewhere in the novel.

For anyone still writing (and if you started you should be!), don’t take those pep talks for granted. Most of the authors they send our way have been through NaNoWriMo at least once in their career. Writing a novel in a month is insane, but if you can’t think of finishing a story, just think of getting 50,000 words on paper (I think a recent pep talk focused on this too). Writing daily is what NaNoWriMo ultimately teaches us to do, and if we are serious we need to write at least a scene a day, a plot point, a sentence.

My Week 1 was fantastic, which means my Week 3 will be torture. I can’t wait to die when I reach the point between the conflicts and the climax when the novel gets still and little happens. It’ll be even more fantastic.

Keep writing fellow NaNoers! And if you’re more of a reader, be sure to support the NaNoers in your life, because we all know we need some.

More word updates: Dystopian Wonder's Twitter

Pep Talks: NaNoWriMo

Bored and Need Real Literature: This Guy