I Quit NaNoWriMo

November is finally over. It's a little bittersweet for me this year. I'm happy for each NaNoWriMo participant that meets their goal. It just wasn't for me this year.

I still stand by what I said when I finally decided to participate in NaNoWriMo this year. I knew I was not likely to finish. I tried anyways. Two weeks in, I made the decision to quit.

Failing is better than not trying. #NaNoSix #NaNoWriMo

— Ashley (@DixielandOkie) October 29, 2015

This past month has been a real crunch to get the upstairs apartment ready for my Mom to move in. Sweetie took off almost three weeks of work, people have been in and out constantly, and I'd been on toddler-watch without much of a break to write. Most of my writing got done late at night after everyone else had gone to bed. My sleep was suffering, and when my sleep suffers, so does my mood.

The first week was still awesome. I was meeting my daily word counts like it was nothing. Everything was going smoothly when we left on our trip to go visit my sister. I had compensated with my daily goals to account for taking a few days off for our trip and again for Thanksgiving, so I wasn't worried about that.

The thing you have to watch out for when you take a complete break like I did is the lost momentum. I tried writing on the trip back home, and only managed half the daily word count. I wasn't too worried, as I knew I could catch up easily still as long as I would sit down and do the work.

Then I got home and went through my mail. I had jury duty scheduled for the next week. That was the proverbial nail in the coffin for me. I decided to quit NaNoWriMo for this year before I became too stressed out. Sometimes when things spin out of control, it's kinder to let go of the things you can control. I've done it before, and that's what I did this time, too.

I still have all the benefits I've talked about that came with participating in NaNoWriMo. Meal planning is something I plan to continue. I got enough of the story figured out and out of my head that it's not plaguing me in quite the same way that it was. I don't regret my decision to write, and I don't regret my decision to stop.

Except I haven't really quit writing. It seems I can't. Sure, I stopped writing my fiction, but that just means I start writing in my journal more. And poems. And songs. I guess I'll just have to keep writing as long as my finger keeps itching.

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More about NaNoWriMo?
My Characters Won't Behave
NaNoWriMo 2014 vs 2015
My NaNoWriMo Essentials

NaNoWriMo Editing Plans

Yesterday began the new year. January. I have had in my mind that I would begin revisions of my NaNoWriMo project in January. I've never done revisions like this, but then, I'd never written a novel, either. I think I can learn as I go.

I had very little idea for my plot when I started writing in November. I had a couple of character names, and I knew something about my ending. I did not even know where to start. Now that I've written most of it, I think I know where my story needs to start, and it's not where I started it to begin with.

See, I have a tendency with fiction to simply drop my reader into the middle of the action and explain things as they come along later. My mother was always frustrated with this tendency when I was required to write paragraphs for school, because I never finished those stories that I had started. While I've only written short stories up until this point, I think using the same method will be best with a longer piece of fiction as well. And now that I know my actual story I know exactly which action scene to drop you into. Bwahahaha!

Also, I desperately need names. I have characters, places, and a few animals that I used descriptive titles rather than names the entire month because I could not think of their names. I finally did manage to name one of my places. I've gotten my last two name ideas from street signs. Any suggestions would be welcomed. I am at a loss.

To top it all off, as I skimmed through my rough draft, I came to the conclusion that I'm basically going to have to re-write this whole thing. There is so much that needs to change. That's OK, though. I had fun doing it in November, and I have a better idea of what the story is now, so I'm going to start working on outlining based on my rough draft, work up some character sheets, and probably add some more world building. I'm actually looking forward to this process.


Want to read more about my 2014 NaNoWriMo project?
Did I Write Feminist Literature?
What I Did To Silence My Inner Editor
NaNo Is Over. Now What?

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NaNo is over. Now what?

December is upon us. Once again I find myself wondering where the year went...and why I'm not more excited about Christmas. Seriously, have I grown up that much? November went by much too quickly, but that I understand. I was busy during November. Writing.

Yeah, I was one of those crazies that attempted NaNoWriMo. Short for National Novel Writing Month for those that don't know. It's a challenge...emphasis on challenge...to write a 50,000+ word work of fiction during the thirty days of November. I actually finished a day early. Yay me!

What will I do with my rough draft? I'm sitting on it for the month of December. Not literally sitting, it's on my laptop, and I have it on good authority that sitting on my precious computer would be hazardous for its health.

I have yet to decide if I will do revisions in January or not. It's chronologically the first of four stories, but it might make a bit more sense to go ahead and write the next two rough drafts at least so that I have a cohesive whole. I've asked my brain why it can't come up with anything simple, but I didn't understand the answer.

So...since I decided that writing is fun, and a good habit for me to have, I thought, "Why not start a blog?" I've done the journal thing off and on since I was a kid, and I always worry that someone will find it and read what I've written. Solution: post it for the world to see as a reminder not to write anything I wouldn't want to be read.

I make no promises to be interesting. I think I'm interesting, but that's good since I have to live with my own thoughts day in and day out. It's a useful exercise to empty some of those random thoughts. Somehow they don't feel the same if I've got them on paper--or computer screen. Will I do NaNoWriMo next year? Who knows? I'll probably always have a story to tell.


Want to read more about my 2014 NaNoWriMo project?
NaNoWriMo Editing Plans
Did I Write Feminist Literature?
What I Did To Silence My Inner Editor

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