A Draft in Two Parts
November 2023 was the first time I participated in NaNoWriMo during the month of November. I’ve writted 50,000 words in a month before, but not as part of the whole global community of writers participating in it. It was an inspiring experience. Being a part of a such a large community of writers motivated me despite the fact that I only managed to make it to one of the local “write-in” the entire month, and didn’t participate in any online sprints. However, I did watch many of the YouTube videos other writers put up where they encouraged and supported others on their nanowrimo journey.
During that month, despite having three birthdays and hosting thanksgiving, I wrote 52,000 words. It taught me that I could write on a consistent basis without burning out.
I hoped to finish the draft in December, but it didn’t work out with the holidays and travel, sickness, and another birthday. Plus I decided to take some professional development courses. I wrote 8,000 words in December.
January I started to work on a few projects including writing, this blog, writing and researching queries, and I joined a writing group, which has been extremely supportive of my writing and growth. I managed to get in 11,000 words in that manuscript. I was hoping to get the manuscript done by Feb 3, but I’m a few weeks late.
It’s sitting at about 82,000 words now. It feels amazing to have completed it. Though it’s still got plenty of work to do, finishing a draft is a big deal. It took me a bit longer than I originally hoped after starting so strongly in November.
Comparing the writing I did in November with how I did in the other months helps me determine what sort of schedule of novels I may be able to release going forward.
During January and February, my goal was about 4,000 words a week where as in November I was 10,000 at least week. In november, I didn’t work on any other projects. In Jan and Feb, writing was just one of the projects I was working on. It took me three months to finish 30,000 words and only one to write 52,000.
Some other differences included the motivation of the competition with myself. “Winning” nanowrimo was a goal I wanted to reach. It helped me keep on track when I might have been distracted otherwise. I prioritized it. I minimized house projects and didn’t try to blog or work on a website or any other projects related to an author business. I also didn’t have any major illnesses or snags. Though I didn’t perfectly match my plans of what days I would write how much, I came pretty close.
In Dec, Jan, Feb I didn’t have the drive to “win” anything. I had other things going on that had taken on a back seat and now where a priority. It wasn’t pellnell to the finish line. My kids were on school break for a good chunk and we had more hiccups in the health department. I also added in research and writing queries and the writing group and this blog. This are things that will help me on my writing journey, but the did detract from the writing itself. I did not work as quickly on the story and took more mental health days. I also think part of the issues was I had written pretty much up through my outline by the end of November. I had the ending in mind, but a short bridge between that and the ending I hadn’t yet outlined or figured out. So I had to take some time to consider how it would work together.
I’m glad I experienced working on multiple projects at the same time. It was realistic for what my working life will include in the future. It might be nice to see if I could work on a draft and finish it in six-eight weeks. And then work on other things in between.
I started reading Deep Work by Cal Newport. I haven’t even finished the first chapter yet, but already I can see how I set myself up for success in November. The prep work I did, though minimal really, along with minimizing distractions and focusing on one project, I reached my goals and hit my targets, producing a consistent and high word count.
Writing or any creative career is challenging because there is no one path forward to success. It’s not as simple as getting into a good college and then working hard to get into a professional degree of some sort. There are no set steps of schooling or academic benchmarks that need to be met in order to succeed as a writer. It’s hard to know what aspects are vital and what are merely nice. As I navigate this path forward, I know the writing is a priority. Nothing else I do will work if I don’t write a book worth reading. But that isn’t the only important thing. If I write a great book, but never send it out into the world, then it is just as lost to the world as if I never wrote it. Balancing the writing with the other aspects of this business is a learning process I’m just starting out in.
I don’t know the path ahead. The journey is shrouded in mist, but each step brings in a little bit more light and and little bit more confidence. I am determined to keep going. If the road shifts and turns, I will shift and turn along with it. For now, I’m going the traditional publishing route, but I have not ruled out self-publishing either. I don’t know what of these tasks will bring me the most impact. I will stick with writing because I enjoy it, because my words matter, because somewhere out there someone may gain something from reading them.