Surviving NaNoWriMo

I did, in fact, make it.  Barely.  I was vexed by the fact that the site temporarily went down in my final stretch of Sunday afternoon wordcount, and when I resorted to what Word told me the wordcount was, it lied to me.  Or, at least, exaggerated a bit compared to what the NaNoWriMo site decreed.

So I pasted what Word told me was 50,000 words and the robots counted and spat back the number 49,911.  Ouch.  And I had come to a pretty good line to end on, so I didn't want to drag it on beyond that.  Fortunately, we live in an age where backing up and inserting things is a matter of a few points of the mouse.  (How did people manage to write novels on typewriters?  What did they do when you needed to add a whole new paragraph on page 98?  I shudder to think of it.)  So I took a few scenes that had been written in haste (given that was, well, nearly all of them, it didn't take much digging to find such) and added some marginally more detailed descriptions.  I nudged the word count up, paragraph by paragraph, until it reached 49,995.

I added five words: "Good riddance to bad rubbish."

And thus I obtained my nifty winning certificate.

It was a shameless, wish-fulfilling, self-indulgent romp and I did enjoy writing it, even when I was pounding out words for hours at a stretch over Thanksgiving weekend and neglecting to shower.  I am, however, neither egocentric enough nor masochistic enough to want to inflict the results on, well, anyone who isn't me.

So what was the point?  The point was, I got to spend time with some really fun characters, try out some ideas and discover how nonstop bliss needs a little disruption to be worth writing about.

After this little vacation, I hope to return to my waiting manuscript and revise it with a new eye.  I'm a little more aware of my own weaknesses as a writer after this particular effort, and perhaps I can work on strengthening those weak points in my revision, even if what I'm revising is completely different from what I just wrote.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

NaNoWriMo: The Aftermath

 I made it! That's really the overall feeling that comes out of this year's effort--I made it. How did I manage this with a full-time job? I know I've done it, repeatedly. But this year it was harder than it's been in a while. I lost a couple of evenings doing things that were not writing, and that days that I did write were under 1,000 words for a long stretch. One day, I only wrote 93 words. But I persisted, had a couple of high-volume days, and hit 50,000 a few days before the 30th.  The story is nowhere near complete--my outline is 26 chapters, plus epilogue, and I left off at the start of chapter 19. My master plan is to return to Christophina's Garden , create a new outline for what's been written and what has yet to be written, and then finish the thing!  After that, I'll finish up Christophina's Moon  and then work on revising all three books simultaneously to sift out the continuity errors. If I'm clever enough, I may be able to come up with
Read more

NaNoWriMo Day 30: The End

 Wordcount (final): 52,176 First line of the day:  She’s asking so she can cash in on the hype while it’s still hyping. Last line of the day:  I look at the texture I’m working on, put Lenny in my pocket and go to the guest house. Bad summary: Young woman has phone conversation with art dealer. Makes sense in context:  I feel stupid the moment I ask that question.
Read more

NaNoWriMo Day 22: Just the Stats

 Word court: 39,064 First line of the day:  It probably doesn’t help that we got under the covers, because we were cold on account of being nude. Last line of the day:  “Speaking of landmarks, would you be willing to incarnate as Xenix long enough to sell the Green Man Gallery plot to me? I want to set up a link to Turris Solis there.” Bad summary: Newlywed couple hosts reception for wedding party. Everybody gets along quite well. Young lady contacts charity, plays in virtual worlds, and makes dinner from the leftover reception food. Makes sense in context:  The Johnson-Reeds arrive just in time to hear Uncle Robbie laughing hysterically and emerging from the dining room waving a chicken nugget around.
Read more