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It’s the last day of November in The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Year… and I have not won NaNoWriMo. This month I’ve written 25k instead of 50k. However, I have finished the first draft of my middle-grade science fiction, which is a win in my books. I don’t plan on my novel being 50k, so I was basically setting myself up to lose from the get-go.
Let’s backtrack a bit! For anyone reading this who doesn’t know what NaNoWriMo is you can check out the website here, but it’s basically an online event that encourages writers to write 50k words in one month.
First NaNoWriMo
This was my first time participating. All I wanted to get out of it was a finished first draft. I could not be happier I achieved that. Now all I need to do is edit it… many, many, many times. Still, I got the words on the page, which gives me something to work with.
I would definitely consider doing it again. I don’t know if I’d want to work on a long project because of the time pressure, but 25k words was achievable without stressing too much.
My project
I’m very excited by my middle-grade novel. I started writing it in my Writing for Children class at university, and I always planned on finishing it – I just didn’t realise I’d have my first draft done one year later. It feels good to say I’ve now written two books. I don’t know how my laptop keys haven’t fallen off.
Your project
Did you participate in NaNoWriMo this year? And did you reach your writing goal? And was it your first time participating? I have all the questions and I’d love to hear from you! Or, if you’ve struggled to write during COVID-19 like I have, you might enjoy this post.