NaNoWriMo – the end? 44,811 words

NaNoWriMo is over! Well, the month is over at least. It’s December 1st and I’m at 44,811 words. It’s so close and though it’s very cliche – a lot like my writing haha! – it really does seem far away.

I do think that I will finish it. I will be working on it this weekend, and trying to keep doing a little bit per day until I’m done. I don’t know if ‘finished’ will mean 50,000 words or whenever the story is done. I suspect that I might need more than 5,189 words to finish the story, but maybe not. Then there’s the editing process which I do hope to do, not because I think that anyone wants this book, but because I think it would be something good for me to do.

What have I learned? A lot. I’ve learned that outlining would have been really helpful and given me a bit of a roadmap for times when I felt really stuck. Also, if you don’t end up outlining, you end up writing like the 50 Shades of Grey lady. No one wants that. I think I should also pay a bit more attention to characters at the beginning, so just more planning ahead overall.

I think I should also be more willing to let myself be weird or strange or be completely ridiculous. For instance, my favorite parts of the book are written from the viewpoint of a tiny house sparrow watching the zombie apocalypse take place. Those parts were such fun to write. And other bits where I let myself be free and write things like, “The douchebag frat boy’s name is Cody, because, of course it is . . . ” I just crack myself up sometimes.

Overall, it’s been a really fun, and sometimes stressful month. When I hit the 50,000 mark (hopefully within the next few days, I don’t want to let myself slack off, too much), I’ll let you know. And when it’s done and edited, maybe you can read some of the good bits.