01 December 2009

Fuzzled Like A Fuzzly Thing - November's End

Wow! It's December! Can you believe it? I can't. The year has gone so unbelievably incredibly fast that it's almost too much to contemplate. So today that means we're due for a November wrap-up :)

I do apologise for my lack of posting on Friday and my late posting today. The last five days have been made of sheer insanity, what with training new people at work, spending a day making gingerbread houses, engagement parties, birthday parties, bridal showers and so on and so forth.

The good news is it's all over and everything went well, huzzah :)

So, back to November and the Ultimate Question: Did I, or did I not, win Nano?

A theoretically simple question, with a complicated maybe-maybe not answer. How can it be complicated, you ask? Well, it goes like this.

In November, I wrote 50,894 words. Of that:

* 1528 were on Hunter Hunted;
* 49332 were on HNOT; and
* 34 were on Jess. Yes, 34. That's right :P

Soooo. We can look at this in three ways.

1) The total word count for November is 50k+. Win.

2) The November wordcount for HNOT is less than 50k. Lose.

3) I actually wrote 686 words of HNOT before November; the total wordcount for HNOT is 50k+. Win.


Personally, I decided that the extra words in 1) made up for the false addition of words in 3), and entered HNOT for a win :D I squeaked in with (according to their count) 3 words and 5 minutes to spare, after an insanely busy day wherein I did a whole bunch of stuff plus wrote nearly 4700 words - my biggest day ever!



I do hope you all don't think too badly of me because of this :D hehe. To celebrate, I did a wordle of the manuscript so far.

So, what did I learn from the process this time around? Mostly that 1600 words a day is really Not That Bad any more. This time, I mostly didn't struggle at all to keep up with the wordcount (though having 2 days off per week helps; mind you, I had that in '07 as well). The first time I did NaNo the word count nearly killed me; I was writing an average of 175 words a day in 2007, peaking at 391 words/day in May.

This year, I'm averaging 376 words/day, peaking in September with 667/day. In effect I'm writing double what I was two years ago on average - which is actually quite a nice thing to know. Huh. *pleased* :o)

Aside from sheer wordiness, this NaNo has been a really squeeful experience for me in terms of writing progress. For the first time ever, a novel is flowing properly for me, and it's been absolutely fun to write. I always knew writing a novel was supposed to be fun; but now I know how that feels. Thanks to techniques I learned in How To Think Sideways and learning to really listen to my characters and let them direct the plot rather than forcing them into a mould, the book has been practically devoid of middle-of-the-book blues, and interesting things keep happening. It's all terribly, terribly exciting! :D

Where to from here? In December I hope to finish HNOT (another 20-30k required) and also pick up HH again, which I haven't touched since November 8. I'd really like to finish it this month if I can, and given it only needs another 5k-ish, that should be do-able.

Also, I'm taking Holly Lisle's How To Revise Your Novel course, so I plan on working through that with Jesscapades :) Who knows? Maybe this time next year I'll have not only 4 complete novel drafts (TBAEO, my first nano; Jesscapades; HNOT, this year's novel; plus a draft for next year), I might have two edited drafts, too! (Jess & HNOT) Fingers crossed, and here's hoping :o)

So. How was your month? If you entered NaNo, did you win? What was the most exciting thing you learned? And what do you plan to do in December?

11 comments:

Tricia J. O'Brien said...

I entered NaNo never having done it and simply curious. I had an idea for a YA that I'd been thinking about for a couple of years but no ouline. At first, I thought I'd never be able to write that much. But I surprised myself and wrote 50,455 words of it. Still need to write about 25,000 more but WOW. I did it. Feels great.
I like reading your take on it. I, too, felt like it was fun, like it was the way it was meant to be.

Beth Overmyer said...

Much 'zzahfulness, Inky! I'm happy for ya!

Wheee!

Verification word, btw, is hilarious:

Supiti. Supiti-doo-da! Ha!

Charmaine Clancy said...

You've done really well! I had to write like a maniac to get my word count, and I didn't have to squeeze in a day job as well!
I've loved this month, gave me an excuse to just write, let me know what sort of daily wordcount I'm capable of (although if I stick at that rate, I'd like to have weekends off). And I have my first finished manuscript for editing.
Now just one more chapter on Dog Show Detective, if I can remember the story?

Natalie said...

I think that absolutely counts a win. CONGRATULATIONS!!!

I wrote about 17000 words on 3 different projects, so definitely not a win for me. But I got some good words out of that and I'm happy with the experience.

Gay Degani said...

Reprint at FFC Amy????

Snazel said...

That is definitely a win! Your novel sounds wonderful, too. :D

Um, I was aiming for 80k, and I hit 66.69k. The number amuses me. *cough* And I haven't finished yet, and it keeps getting darker, but I still like it! FINISH SOON???

Tere Kirkland said...

Sounds like a win to me. Congratulations!

Good luck finishing up your wip!

Amy Laurens said...

Tricia - Congrats on your first NaNo win! That's awesome! Yaaaay! *\o/*

Beth - Thanks so much :D And lol @ word verification!

Charm - Yar, that was what I found best about my first nano too - all of a sudden I knew what I was /actually/ capable of, and it was a lot more than I'd thought :o)

Natalie - thanks! :) And so long as you're happy, that's what really counts. I think that's an emotional win, even if not a verified one ;)

Gay - Absolutely; I emailed you :)

Snaz - lol @ your wordcount, and great going! I've enjoyed reading your updates :D hehe. *high five*

Tere - thanks, I think I'll need it o.0 NaNo's over and the external motivation has disappeared...... O:)

Merc said...

It's definitely a win, Inkster. Way to go! :D

Though not doing NaNo, I still managed to write about 40k in November on various projects, which way surprised me. I didn't expect to get even half that.

This is what I plan to do in Dec.

As for learning, hrm. Definitely that a slower pace works well for me, even when I can do several k in a day. I'm probably happier with the drafts because I'm spending more time trying to get them decent as I write, so they don't suck AS much. ;)

That, and I also can write well collaboratively with Sparky. B-) (We can finish things, le awe! lol)

~Merc

Krispy said...

A little late, but obviously, CONGRATS!

I plan to SLEEP in December. Seriously.

Amy Laurens said...

Merc - sounds like a great plan. And it's weird, isn't it, how by taking the pressure off you seem to write just as fast or faster o.0 Bizarre.

Krispy - sleep, oh yes. This sounds wonderous indeed :)

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