Wednesday, November 09, 2011

My Own NaNo - Done!

Whoo hooo! I have made My Own NaNo goal and finished my first draft - a day early, too.

Here are the details:

Total Word Count - 58,405
Total Days - 28
Average Word Count Per Day - 2085
Total Number of Chapters - 20

So now what do I do?

I'll print up a hard copy that I'll read and make copious notes upon. (I am old school that way.) I'll be revising and editing, and noting where I need "more", including whole new scenes. I'll be moving scenes and deleting others entirely. I'll be adding back story and a lot of description (because right now, there is pretty much none). I need to research some historical details, and I really need to make a map of the village and surrounding area, so those details are consistent. In other words, I have a lot more work ahead of me.

But here's the thing - I now have the journey all mapped out. To be sure, there may yet be some twists in the road and I will do at least two more complete drafts (if not 4 or 5), but I know who these people are, where they're going and how they're going to get there. I know who's important and who's not. And I have a couple of sequel possibilities to either work on more, or let die on the vine.

Somebody asked me how long the finished book will be. At this point, I'm thinking about 80,000 words, but I don't know for certain. I'll see when I get there.

Most important of all, though, I've proven to myself that even after a very long break with no writing at all, my imagination is still capable of creating a story and characters. I've experienced that rush of excitement when something unexpected happens as I'm writing, something that takes a character or a story to a whole new level.

If My Own NaNo had done nothing more than that, it would have been totally worth it.

2 comments:

Rebecca Alexander said...

That's brilliant, well done! I'm struggling to edit at the moment, none of the adrenaline of creating new story to drive me on. How do you keep motivated?

Margaret Moore said...

I think loving my characters and wanting to make sure I've done my best with them keeps me going much of the time. And there can still be surprises and little details I can add that I didn't have a chance to think about when I was just trying to figure out what would happen next.

Mind you, there are days - like when I've rewritten the opening paragraph about 15 times - when it's a tough slog. That's when I turn to chocolate. Or some other little reward, like a new magazine or book.

Best of luck with your story!