My First NaNoWriMo Experience

So last month I participated in my first NaNoWriMo. This is a challenge to write an entire novel or a 50,000 word chunk of a novel in November because it is National Novel Writing Month.

It was quite an experience and overall I'm happy with my progress even though I did not reach that lofty goal of 50,000 words. What did I learn? What did I write about? How many words did I write? Would I do it again? Well, let me tell you!

How did it go? 

I think it went rather well thank you.

What did you write about?

I've had a story idea for about two years now. I don't remember where the idea even came from. It has been growing and evolving that long and I just needed to get the idea out and onto paper. I wanted to organize it somewhat because it was just a jumble in my mind.

What did you learn?

I learned I need to plan this story out better, When I started writing I had a very vague idea what I was going to write and where this story was heading. At this point I think I can drop the very and just say I have a vague idea where my story is going and what I want to happen. Basically, I really need to outline better. There are a lot of things I want to change, but I learned a lot about writing and my story!

How many words did you write?

32797 words. Holy crap I wrote a lot of words!!

Would I do it again?

I would! I plan to do it again. I'm excited to try again next year!

What happened? or What went wrong?

Like I mentioned I did not plan enough. Also I burned out after three weeks of writing. I just was not prepared to write so much each day. It sounded doable but I really struggled after the first two weeks to stay focused. Next time I will know better what to expect.

Even when I was struggling, I enjoyed the fire the challenge of NaNoWriMo put under my butt. I was really motivated to write and I was making a lot of progress. I'm excited to continue working on my story and I have a much more defined idea of where the story is going. I hope to participate again next year and work on this idea in between now and then.

Did you participate in NaNoWriMo?