Yesterday I completed the National Novel Writing Month challenge! At the beginning of November (when I couldn't resist picking up the gauntlet, perhaps because I saw it as some kind of antidote to babybrain), I had no idea what writing 50,000 words would feel like, or even if it would be possible. I discovered that it is possible, but only with the aid of the stats page on the website, and a particularly competitive personality. And a baby who will sleep for at least forty five minutes at a time. And by cutting down on washing and feeding myself. And by risking my relationship with Phil by sitting in front of my laptop for far too long every evening.
50,000 words is a lot of words - it works out at about 66 pages on NeoOffice. If I am to actually turn it into something I'm proud of, it will take a lot of editing. I imagine that if I edited out all the crap I might end up with a short story, ha ha.
Here is a Wordle word cloud of my text - giving greater prominence to words used most often (yes, the main character happens to be called Walter - how did you guess?!):
If I were to do it again (would it be possible with a 14 month old? Are there enough naps in the day by that age?) I think I would probably do a bit of planning ahead, rather than just writing what came to me on the day, though I did enjoy the freedom of the stream-of-consciousness method. And I would have to make sure I didn't fall behind right at the beginning as I did this time, 1667 words per day is much more do-able than 3000, which is what I was having to come up with towards the end.
That blip (above) on day 15 was when I was convinced I would be able to write more than I actually did, which shows how optimistic I was feeling at the time!And that's the last you have to hear about it for the time being :D
Goodness me, well done indeed! That's a fabulous achievement, even if it is a load of crap (which I'm sure it isn't!!) :) It would've been a fabulous achievement even without a new baby, so with a wee Megan it's astonishing. When I had my first baby I didn't really feel like doing anything but staring at him!
ReplyDeleteOh hang on, that's not quite true: I was doing an OU course. But once he was born I just couldn't be bothered to put the effort in, and all my assignments were awful.
Anyway, congratulations again :) Fantastic.
I'm going to try it next year.
I think you counteracted your babybrain EXTREMELY well!!!!! :-)
ReplyDeleteWow, Emily, I'm very impressed. I couldn't manage 750 words a day on the other site I told you about but then my mind is flitting about, angsting about what it's going to be like to have another human being in my life so I'm not concentrating on anything just now. Bravo, wordsmith extraordinaire! x
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