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NaNoWriMo 2020: Aftermath
Dec. 1st, 2020 08:37 amI failed at NaNoWriMo this year.
I did really well until Day 22, managing to stay within my daily targets - or just a day behind. But then on that Sunday, a week ago, an aunt arrived to visit us for a week and brought along my cousin and his girlfriend. My careful morning routine was unsettled and I couldn't regain it anymore. Then, to make matters worse, I got sick about three days ago and started worrying I had COVID (symptons: fever, sore throat, headache, lack of energy.)
It's the start of December and I'm feeling much better today. I'm going to re-read everything I've written up until now and get back into my novel. Hopefully I'll have my draft complete by the end of this month.
One thing I noticed towards the end of the challenge was that although the planning was helpful in the initial stages, giving me a direction each morning, it became a hindrance towards the end. This is because I started getting precious about what I was writing. If I was simply making up random stuff as I went along, I could have finished NaNoWriMo by simply typing stream-of-consciousness for the last week (and ending up with very little material to work with later.)
All in all, I think it's a good challenge; you always learn something new about yourself as a writer. I tended to start around 7:30AM write 888 words, take a coffee break, and then write another 888 words. Sometimes I did that second burst of writing in the afternoon. This worked well for me and I plan on sticking to it in 2021.
I did really well until Day 22, managing to stay within my daily targets - or just a day behind. But then on that Sunday, a week ago, an aunt arrived to visit us for a week and brought along my cousin and his girlfriend. My careful morning routine was unsettled and I couldn't regain it anymore. Then, to make matters worse, I got sick about three days ago and started worrying I had COVID (symptons: fever, sore throat, headache, lack of energy.)
It's the start of December and I'm feeling much better today. I'm going to re-read everything I've written up until now and get back into my novel. Hopefully I'll have my draft complete by the end of this month.
One thing I noticed towards the end of the challenge was that although the planning was helpful in the initial stages, giving me a direction each morning, it became a hindrance towards the end. This is because I started getting precious about what I was writing. If I was simply making up random stuff as I went along, I could have finished NaNoWriMo by simply typing stream-of-consciousness for the last week (and ending up with very little material to work with later.)
All in all, I think it's a good challenge; you always learn something new about yourself as a writer. I tended to start around 7:30AM write 888 words, take a coffee break, and then write another 888 words. Sometimes I did that second burst of writing in the afternoon. This worked well for me and I plan on sticking to it in 2021.
