NaNoWriMo 2020 Success!

This year has been a complete dumpster fire. But amongst all the anxiety, concern, pandemic baking and home schooling, there have been a few moments to celebrate.

I had one of those tonight at 5:42pm when I tracked my words for the day and officially crossed the 50,000 mark to win NaNoWriMo 2020.

This is my third time participating in National Novel Writing Month and the earliest I have ever finished. I have a few theories around why this year was special and dare I say, a little easier for me:

I wasn’t doing it alone. This year my oldest daughter, mum and aunt were all doing it as well. There is strength in numbers.

So proud of her.

I’d done it before so I knew what to expect. I was prepared with an outline that at least gave me a sense of where I needed to go. I tried to follow a routine of getting up early and getting my word count of the way early. And, most importantly, I gave myself permission to write crap. When I felt like the world weren’t good, I didn’t stop or try to edit, I just kept writing. That really helped.

I didn’t start a brand new novel. This was the biggest game changer for me. I already had about 20,000 words in this manuscript so I was forced to write my least favourite part of the novel (the saggy middle) during NaNoWriMo. That made me keep pushing through sections I otherwise would have given up on with the idea of “coming back to it later”. I can’t tell you how many books I’ve started that I’ve abandoned at that point.

If I stick to my outline, I probably have about 7,000 words left to write in this book. Which means if I keep writing every day in November, I could finish this first draft and get to move on to the editing/revising stage where I get to turn it into something resembling an actual readable book.

Onwards!

Portrait of a writer who just met her goal.

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