NaNoWriMo Wrap Up: I Won’t Be Doing This Again

It’s Dec. 1. National Novel Writing Month ended yesterday, and I completed 50,000 words in the allotted time frame.  My word processor count said I’d written 50,236 words, though the NaNo validator on the site only validated me at 50,210. ( If you decide to register and validate your word count on the NaNo site, be sure to go over a little, because there’s a discrepancy. I’m not sure if ~30 words is typical or atypical of the discrepancy.)

Here are my take aways from the experience:

I need variety. The word count didn’t bother me so much as the fact that I needed to write 1,667 each day on that specific project. When they do job satisfaction surveys, autonomy always correlates to job satisfaction. People who have the opportunity to pick and choose what they work on within their day tend to be happier at their jobs. NaNoWriMo allows for NO autonomy. You’re working on that book and if you get the hankering to work on something else, you really can’t do that until you meet the word count quota for the day. That’s a very oppressive writing environment for me, and I hated it. I dreaded working on my story toward the end because of that daily grind.
Outlining/story planning are important. I got stuck at one point, and generally, if I get stuck while writing, I quit working on the project and write a different project. Usually, after a few days, I’ll have worked out what I need to do to move forward on the original project. You can’t do that in NaNo, or you fall too far behind. So, at one point, I had to just stop writing story content and write a complete synopsis for the story. This helped me somewhat get back on track.
You get junk you can’t use if you push through to meet your word count. I wrote  stuff I know I’m not going to use.  The stuff I can’t use isn’t complete junk. However,  I went down the wrong path in the storytelling because I wasn’t sure what I wanted to happen. That’s when I sat down and wrote my synopsis (because I could tell what was happening wasn’t working). But, I’ve got about 5k of stuff that doesn’t really fit into the new plan. (And yes, that 5k is included in my NaNo total, because I wrote it, and NaNo is about the writing. Editing comes later. Plus, I  might be able to use some nuggets of it later, even though most of it will have to be scrapped.)
You’re not done, generally. Yes, you can declare yourself a “winner” at 50k, but the story usually isn’t over. I know mine isn’t. So, it’s a fairly hollow victory, especially if you’ve got a lot to revise and a lot more to write.
You do have more to work with. Even though I wouldn’t do it again, I am glad I have more content to work with. Getting my synopsis done helped a lot.
You feel burned out after NaNo. I participate in a bunch of online groups of writers and many of them participated in NaNo. Most of the people who completed it said they felt burned out after the process. They needed a break from writing. I don’t think that’s a good place to be, especially if your 50k hasn’t even finished your novel. This feeling of, “I’m so done” was persistent for me throughout Nano. There were days when I had time to write more, but I just said, I don’t want to do this. I don’t want to be doing this. Even right now, I’ve decided I’m not going to be write anything in December. I’m going to edit and revise two other novels, and format some books for CreateSpace.
I’d rather feel fresher. Ultimately, I’d rather go slower, alternating between a couple of projects and the occasional blog posts and write two books over the course of 3 months than to try to hunker down and plow through one even if I’m stuck. I’d feel fresher, more content and happier about the work by tackling it on the days when I’m excited about it. And for me, that is unlikely to be every single day for a 30 day period. There are days I’ll write 3,500 words on a project, nothing on it the next day and 2,500 words on it the day after. That’s so much more effective, for me, than trying to push out 1,667 words on what should have been a zero day.  I don’t have problems finishing novels, so NaNo isn’t going to push me to just get my novel done.  I think it’s best to leave NaNo to people who enjoy it or need the pressure to spur them forward. I won’t be doing it again.

I’ve been chronicling my NaNo experience by week. Each Sunday, I posted the word counts for the week, but here’s a wrap up. It lists the NaNo  word counts for the entire month.   This is just my word count for NaNo. I had a couple of blog posts and other items I wrote during the month, so my  November word total was just a little bit higher than the NaNo project at 55,298. If you’ll notice my Nov. 30 was just enough to push me over for NaNo.  I had time to write more, but I was so done with NaNo at that point that I just quit.

Nov. 1 – 2,158

Nov. 2 – 2,007

Nov. 3 – 819

Nov. 4 – 2,339

Nov. 5  – 1,828

Nov. 6 – 1,368

Nov. 7  – 2,556

Nov. 8 – 1,878

Nov. 9 – 1,900

Nov. 10 – 1,690

Nov. 11 – 2,178

Nov. 12 – 1,965

Nov. 13 – 1,249

Nov. 14 – 1,885

Nov. 15 – 1,184

Nov. 16 – 616

Nov. 17 – 1,866

Nov. 18 – 1,920

Nov. 19 – 124

Nov. 20 – 0

Nov. 21 – 2,661

Nov. 22 – 2714

Nov. 23 – 1703

Nov. 24 – 2

Nov. 25 – 2588

Nov. 26 – 825

Nov. 27 – 3089

Nov. 28 – 1808

Nov. 29 – 2164

Nov. 30 – 1152

——————-

Total – 50,236

So, that’s my NaNo wrap up. Did anyone out there do NaNo? How’d you do? Do you feel burned out or energized?