Irene Smith

Did I finish my NaNoWriMo novel?

A glance at the widget on the right will tell you that yes, I did. The amazing thing is that I wrote 14 thousand words between the end of the day on Saturday and five o’clock on Sunday afternoon. Over the course of the entire weekend, I wrote close to 20 thousand words. There were times when I wasn’t sure I would make it, but I did it and I’m glad.

Did I make the goal I set for myself of having the best novel so far? Not that you can tell right now, but the seeds are there. Next month (January) when I sit down to edit, I don’t expect to have a bad time of it. Actually, I’m sort of looking forward to editing. I’m also looking forward to my next project although I don’t know what it will be as yet.

Life is good sometimes. But now I’m tired. I need, no my body demands, more sleep.

My novel is coming along. I am progressing but not as quickly as I should. On the other hand, the weekend is nearly here and I expect to get caught up and maybe even get ahead then. In 2004 I was nearly 20k behind on Thanksgiving and I ended up finishing on the 29th. I plan on finishing by next Wednesday. Maybe I will finish this weekend. Who knows?

I always seem to go through a period with every novel where I absolutely hate it. Now that has passed and I will start churning out words again. I know that, I’ve seen it happen three times already and yet every time it happens I panic and twice I gave up altogether.

The truth is that this year’s novel is the best I’ve done so far. This year’s novel will be published if I have to submit it to 50 publishers to do so. Somebody is going to publish this novel.

I think the most exciting thing for me this year though has nothing to do with my NaNoWriMo novel, it has to do with the fact that my 12-year old son is also writing a novel this year. We gave him a 5,000 word limit this time, but he is doing it. Best of all, the story he is writing is extremely creative. I’m having fun watching it grow. Maybe he won’t have to wait until he’s almost 50 (or older!) to have a book published. Here’s hoping.

• Whew! 13,434 as of… oh heck, three in the morning again. Guess I’d better get to bed. #
• @damienmulley Something’s wrong there. I have Vista on my computer and it has never taken more than a few minutes to unzip a file. #
• @unwriter Congratulations! That’s great. You’re still ahead of me. #
• @Yvonne Thanks. It feels good to be on the mark for a change. Usually I’m a couple of days behind by now. #
• Wouldn’t you think I’d sleep more than four hours? Went to bed at 3:30am and wide awake at 7:40am. Time to start writing again, I guess. #
• My Science Fiction story is reading more like a western with space ships instead of stagecoaches. Now what do I do? #
• Hooray! I made it to 16,145 before noon. I still can’t believe I did so well. #
• Going in a little while to visit my Dad in the nursing home. I hate myself for not doing this more often. I love him but I hate to go there. #

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• OK I did it. I hit the 10k mark today. I didn’t think I was going to catch up until the weekend but I made. I have 10,009 words to be exact. #
• Now by the end of Friday I have to make it to 11, 667 words to stay on track. #

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This time I’m raising money to promote not only literacy, but writing, a subject that is certainly dear to my heart. If you believe that people should be encouraged to tell their stories, that the more you write, the better you will write, then please contribute what you can so that NaNoWriMo will continue to be possible. More and more people every year discover the pleasure and pride of writing a novel in a month and we can help that continue by making a contribution. It doesn’t have to be much. Just $5 will make a difference. Please click on the item below and do your part…

So, today was the third day of NaNoWriMo. How did I do? Better than expected. I started the day verbally constipated. Each word produced was a minor victory. I couldn’t seem to string together more than two or three sentences before stopping to check my word count, to stand up and take a break, to do anything except write. At dinnertime I had managed to work (for my job!) for four hours, to sleep for four hours and to spend at least an hour watching television.

I started writing at about 7:30 and by 8:30 I still had more than half my daily allotment to go. Between 9 and 10 I managed to do the rest of it plus about 350 words. My goal for today was to get to a total of 5,001 words. I actually made it to 5, 358 words before I called it quits.

The best part is that I left off at a point where I knew where I was going and what I wanted to say. I quit reluctantly rather than writing until I was exhausted. I feel good about my story and where it’s going. I know what I’m going to write tomorrow. What more could I ask for?

Tomorrow’s goal: 6,668 words. My hope? 7,000 even at the very least. I’d love to get to ten or maybe even 12k but that is probably wishful thinking.