NaNoWriMo-ish: end-of-month check-in
Dec. 1st, 2018 03:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
starfishstarHURRAH, congratulations to everyone who set a writing goal for the month of November and survived it! I've still never done an actual NaNo, but this is probably the biggest set of goals I've ever set myself for a month. I wrapped up last night on the dot of midnight, satisfied but exhausted. How, truly, do people do actual NaNo?
To recap, my goals for the month were:
–write 20,000 words (stretch goal of 30,000 words)
–complete at least three fics
–do at least a tiny bit of original fiction writing
–write every day
And I can now report that I did ALL OF THE ABOVE:
– Wrote 28,190 words! \o/ I didn't find my groove until late in the month, so it's a bit frustrating to think about how easily I'd have hit that stretch goal of 30,000 if I'd just had *one* more good day early in the month, in place of one of the bad ones. The entire last week was a strong run of 1000+ word days, so if I'd done a couple more of those early on... But, whatever, I'm still happy with it. The first time I ever set myself a month word goal it was only about 15,000, the next time was 20,000, so it's very much an upward trajectory. One of these days I'm going to achieve a true NaNo, I swear it!
– Completed not three but seven fics, in five different fandoms, four of them fandoms I'd never written in before! Also got lots done on two longer Harry Potter fics that had been languishing for a while, plus nearly completed a fic in another new fandom. Having a word count to meet, and thus being forced to keep casting around for anywhere I can keep putting words down, has been useful. :-)
– Did some writing for two different original fiction maybe-novel ideas that I've had around forever. Still don't know if anything will come of them, but at least I made myself think about them again, which was the point!
– Wrote every day of November.
Thoughts:
To answer my own question above, I think part of how people manage to do NaNo is that they pick ONE PROJECT for the month. They have to write a novel in 30 days, so every single day they just work on the novel. (I mean, not that that's easy by any stretch, but at least it's a clear and focused task.) I was trying to meet my word count goal via lots and lots of small fics, which was frenetic, always jumping back and forth between projects. And there just aren't as many words to be had in a one-shot, even in lots of one-shots, as in a novel! So I was always having to find a next thing I could work on, and a next thing. And the whole idea of NaNo is that you get a bad, messy first draft down, to be shaped into a proper work later. But because these were fics for fests with looming deadlines, I also spent a lot of time editing – which doesn't add much to the word count! So whenever I finally do NaNo, I can see why it really needs to be a novel-length project, not this scrambling around to find enough short projects to add up to a whole.
And please allow me to sing for a moment in praise of BETAS! Glorious betas! Writing in so many new fandoms meant many more than usual scrambles to find betas for each of them. I am always floored by the people who will step up and offer that, from friends to distant acquaintances to literal total strangers willing to take me on as a complete unknown. It's killing me that I can't name and thank all the betas who've been so kind to me this month (because that would compromise anonymity in the relevant fests), but, THANK YOU. You're the best.
To recap, my goals for the month were:
–write 20,000 words (stretch goal of 30,000 words)
–complete at least three fics
–do at least a tiny bit of original fiction writing
–write every day
And I can now report that I did ALL OF THE ABOVE:
– Wrote 28,190 words! \o/ I didn't find my groove until late in the month, so it's a bit frustrating to think about how easily I'd have hit that stretch goal of 30,000 if I'd just had *one* more good day early in the month, in place of one of the bad ones. The entire last week was a strong run of 1000+ word days, so if I'd done a couple more of those early on... But, whatever, I'm still happy with it. The first time I ever set myself a month word goal it was only about 15,000, the next time was 20,000, so it's very much an upward trajectory. One of these days I'm going to achieve a true NaNo, I swear it!
– Completed not three but seven fics, in five different fandoms, four of them fandoms I'd never written in before! Also got lots done on two longer Harry Potter fics that had been languishing for a while, plus nearly completed a fic in another new fandom. Having a word count to meet, and thus being forced to keep casting around for anywhere I can keep putting words down, has been useful. :-)
– Did some writing for two different original fiction maybe-novel ideas that I've had around forever. Still don't know if anything will come of them, but at least I made myself think about them again, which was the point!
– Wrote every day of November.
Thoughts:
To answer my own question above, I think part of how people manage to do NaNo is that they pick ONE PROJECT for the month. They have to write a novel in 30 days, so every single day they just work on the novel. (I mean, not that that's easy by any stretch, but at least it's a clear and focused task.) I was trying to meet my word count goal via lots and lots of small fics, which was frenetic, always jumping back and forth between projects. And there just aren't as many words to be had in a one-shot, even in lots of one-shots, as in a novel! So I was always having to find a next thing I could work on, and a next thing. And the whole idea of NaNo is that you get a bad, messy first draft down, to be shaped into a proper work later. But because these were fics for fests with looming deadlines, I also spent a lot of time editing – which doesn't add much to the word count! So whenever I finally do NaNo, I can see why it really needs to be a novel-length project, not this scrambling around to find enough short projects to add up to a whole.
And please allow me to sing for a moment in praise of BETAS! Glorious betas! Writing in so many new fandoms meant many more than usual scrambles to find betas for each of them. I am always floored by the people who will step up and offer that, from friends to distant acquaintances to literal total strangers willing to take me on as a complete unknown. It's killing me that I can't name and thank all the betas who've been so kind to me this month (because that would compromise anonymity in the relevant fests), but, THANK YOU. You're the best.
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Date: 2018-12-04 08:04 pm (UTC)Oh, yes, when that symbiosis between writer and beta happens, it's a gorgeous thing. It doesn't always happen, but when it does, it's beautiful. And feels really deep and meaningful; I absolutely understand why you still mourn that friendship.
And yes, asking a stranger to beta! Asking a stranger for help doesn't come naturally to me, but learning to do it has been good for me, and good things have come of it, too. :-)