NaNoWriMo – the results

This November I took part in NaNoWriMo, or National November Writing Month. The goal was to write 50,000 words in a month, which works out at 1667 words a day for 30 days. I’ve never written that consistently before. In fact I’ve collected data from the last six months and even thought I’d set the goal to write 1000 words a day on average I’d write 15 days a month and no more than five days in a row.

This month I did 50,000 in 25 days, 25 days in a row. Every day out of the last 25 I’ve written between 1000 and 5000 a day, and average of 2000 a day. You may have noticed I’ve said every day a lot. This is exciting to me.

In fact, daily writing has become such a habit I get antsy if I haven’t done my 1000 words yet. My original plan for NaNoWriMo was to get the writing out of the way so I could take the Thankgiving weekend off, but now I feel the need to keep this daily 1000 words going. I’ve completed Rex & Eddie 2’s first draft now so I guess tomorrow I’ll write Rex & Eddie 3. I’m gonna keep it slow and not do too much more than 1000 words a day as I don’t want to run out of steam.

Here’s my states from the NaNoWritMo site:

Things I learnt:

1) I can build healthy habits.

2) By getting ahead on the good days I can give myself some leeway later on.

3) Going to events with other writers on the same quest really empowered me. There was something about the energy of 30 people in a room tapping away that fed me. Support is important.