Today, 30th November 2019, is the last day of NaNoWriMo. I have written at least zero words every day, but never let myself get more than a day behind. That was until this last week, when I caught the lurgy and couldn’t even think of the words to communicate with, never mind the words to put on the page. I caught up two days yesterday, leaving two days’ of words to finish on the very last day. My story was developing into something weird, if not exactly wonderful, and I didn’t know where it was going to go. But, buoyed on by Colin deciding to watch the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy, I opened up my laptop and got typing, only being distracted by the films occasionally. I finished just before (SPOILER ALERT!) Frodo betrayed Smeagel in the second one.
Yes, I finished it! For the first time in the seven attempts I’ve made, I completed NaNoWriMo.
I feel pretty pleased with myself, like I’ve accomplished something. The story itself will not be developed further because it really is very rubbish, but to write a good story was never my aim. My aim was to get into a habit of writing every day to a fixed target. Every time I achieved that daily goal, I felt good about myself.
I intend to continue the practice with my proper novel that I have been working on for what seems like forever. Whether that means working on the novel’s text itself or working on character development, I intend to write every day, including weekends if I am not doing something else that day. I hope that this will bring me closer to the end of the first draft, then I can get on with revising the whole thing in second draft and making it a complete, whole and worthwhile novel. Then it’s the scary bit.