I’m suffering from a brain freeze and I haven’t even had a Slushy drunk incredibly quickly. Today I finished NaNoWriMo.
I have now partly written a novel called Riven which I placed in the horror/thriller category when I signed up for NaNo. Interestingly enough, the book has turned out to be less about werewolves and more about life.
For those of you who wonder if it’s possible to write 50,000 words in 30 days that aren’t just 50,000 words of crap – the answer is YES, but you need to plan.
I have done NaNo twice before. In 2007 I wrote something which was readable but nothing special. I didn’t really think about the plot beforehand or even consider the characters. Last year I abandoned the whole thing half way through. I wrote about 15,000 words and gave up.
This year I planned the whole thing. Plot, characters, setting, everything. It made it much easier to write. I didn’t have to miss a few days figuring out which direction to take or spend hours thinking of names for characters and so on.
They tell you at NaNo HQ that if you want to succeed in writing 50,000 words in 30 days that you have to write 1,667 words per day. If you can write more than that – fantastic. If you write less consistently you get to the stage where you can’t catch up.
It’s tiring writing that much per day. It is an incredible exercise in self-discipline. Along with working and housework and helping with homework it leaves you feeling pretty fried. I am not sure I can actually string a coherent sentence together at the moment. I have completely neglected my blog and all the blogs in my reader.
So I’m going to sleep and recharge. And let my brain wind down.
And hope that this time my 50,000 words turns into something more.
