Tears and Joys of NaNoWriMo

Gabriel Holt is one of NHT!'s rotating troupe of teen bloggers.

We have now reached week four of National Novel Writing Month, which, if you didn’t catch Dianna’s post, is the mystical month of November in which people attempt to write fifty thousand-word novels. This post is about my own experiences with NaNoWriMo.

This will be my fourth year attempting NaNoWrimo, but my first year attempting it in earnest. I have started past years with only a vague idea of what I wanted to write about, which of course led me to a complete lack of motivation and planning. Needless to say, I did not win those years. I started to develop some wonderful stories, but somewhere along the way I lost the drive and the knowledge of where I wanted my plot and characters to go. I always start with these wonderfully exciting ideas, but after I work with them for a while the excitement tends to peter out and die. This is naturally one of a writer’s most common ailments. Read more, after the jump!

Last year, I set my expectations a little lower and participated in the Young Writers’ Program. This one was a little more my speed; instead of having to write fifty thousand words, you get the opportunity to set your own word-count goal. I decided on a safe thirty thousand – not excruciatingly long like fifty thousand, but not too short. That year I also spent more time planning where I wanted my novel to go. Because I’d adjusted my goal according to my ability and prepared myself better, I felt a lot more confident about tackling the project, and I ended up hitting my goal by the end of the month. I had tasted my first NaNoWriMo triumph.

The problem with last year was that I had a great start on thirty thousand words, but I only ended up with a third of the actual novel storyline finished. This year I signed up for the regular NaNoWriMo again, and inspired by my previous success, ploughed through the first week at full speed. I planned as I went, and my characters surprised me in wonderful ways. I hit fifty thousand words at the mark of nine days. It was an exhausting sprint, but I hit my word-count goal.

So why am I writing this post? Like last year, hitting my goal did not guarantee the end of the novel. I am still unwinding my story, and I doubt it will be finished before eighty or ninety thousand words. I know I have it in me to finish it up, but I seem to have hit a wall and only written a measly eight thousand words in the past couple of weeks. I have not, however, given up hope for my novel. If I wrote fifty thousand words in nine days, I know I can finish in the time I have left.

Who else wants to take the challenge? There are still plenty more days left in the month, and it is never too late to sign up for NaNoWriMo.