An after-action report on my participation in National Novel Writing Month –
I had high hopes. Oh, such high hopes. I had a team of fellow participants to egg me on, both in our community at large and specifically at school. The latter had even invited me to guest blog, and I posted a bit about my mixed anticipation and intimidation at the work and the goal.
So I started writing on the first of the month. Just after having caught a nasty cold on the 31st. I did manage to get to 2600ish words by the fourth, but for more than a week I just barely hauled myself to work, then came home and crashed. Death warmed over.
Then came Thanksgiving. And then the 15-page final paper in my course. And, and, …. I ended the month with less than 3100 words – not even two day’s scheduled output.
What are the lessons learned? First, have a stronger, more complete outline and plan before the beginning of the month. Second, don’t get sick. 🙁 Third, try not to procrastinate my other essential tasks (like school work, or work work) such that they busy out the Eleventh Month.
But the real take-home is – I Just Gotta Write. “Every day, day in, day out … No excuses, no slacking off” – for 365 days a year. I hereby announce the start of PerNoWriMulMo – “Personal Novel Writing Multi-Month”. I don’t have an exact word-count goal – yet – but I intend to Just Keep Writing.
I’ll keep you up-to-date on the results.