[NaNoWriMo] Go ... And Stop.

[LilyBLily]

I'm writing a romance, so when in doubt, I throw in a smooching scene.

Way behind at the moment because of a rotten cold that dragged on for the first two weeks of the month, but will catch up now in the home stretch.

[Al Macy (aka TromboneAl)]

One more short scene to go! Note the characteristic acceleration at the end. 5,391 words today, a new record for me.

[cecilia_writer]

That's a great-looking graph, Al. I often find myself writing much faster towards the end too.
I was so pleased to have got to 50,000 words at all - it unexpectedly happened on Monday - that I validated it immediately although I haven't finished the story yet. I paused to work out how many more chapters I would need, and will resume writing later today. It will come out at about 60,000 as it usually does, but probably not by the 30th.

[fleurina]

Wow, you're all doing so well.  It's a lot to do in a month. I did a private NaNoWriMo, as I had too many other commitments in the second half of the month to reach the required amount of words... My self-imposed task was to complete and publish a novella by mid-month - the result was The Chrismas Castle Ghost, begun on 1st November and released on 14th November.  It's not a pace I could keep up regularly - but I now know a doable amount of edited words for me, without tearing out my already thin hair, is 20K per month.
At the moment I'm taking a writing break but will start again on Monday 3rd December.
Keep up the fantastic work; I'm cheering you all on.

[LilyBLily]

I don't think 50k in one month of the year is a stretch, and I've even done it two or three times in a year, but spaced apart, and not every year. I can't do the crazy treadmill of full-time writing others do. I don't even want to.

I've only got 10k left on this year's NaNo and see no big issue with getting to 50k in the next three days now that I've recovered from my horrid cold. But then December will be revision time, not writing another new novel. I've got a novella to finish and I should in theory write another 50k novel in February or March to finish this series, really, I mean it, I'm done. But those are not my most productive months. Winter, ugh. For now, it's great to be as far along as I am on this story. We'll see what December brings.

[Al Macy (aka TromboneAl)]

I finished it today. 63K words.

At the start, I was saying "This is my last book!" but it was more fun at the end, so I'm already getting ideas for the next.

[Al Macy (aka TromboneAl)]

I wasn't talking about cheating. I was wondering what the point of sending your first-draft manuscript in to cyberspace when there's no real "verification" going on.

I think there's a way of verifying with the whole thing replaced by xxx or something (there may be instructions somewhere on the website) but personally I can't be bothered doing that. Probably too tired by verification time.

I did something like that. It only took a few minutes, and my 63K words looked like this:

On Dxc 3, 201x, Horxcx Sxully xrxivxd xt Gooxlovx xnd Shxkxwixh xn xttitudxx My dxughtxr, intxrning with mx whixx onxx brxxk xrom lxw school, showxd him into my officx.xWith xll hxr fingxrs xxtxndxd, shx touchxd xxxx middlx onx to hxr chin, xxxxn turnxdxhxr hxxd towxrx mx: xmxricxn xignxLxnguxgx for “good luck.”

[Angstriddengoddess]

I don't think 50k in one month of the year is a stretch, and I've even done it two or three times in a year, but spaced apart, and not every year.

I think it’s a mental stretch the first time, and Nano is worth its weight in angst if it helps people realize that yes, they CAN write that much in a month.

I was all set to write a particular story but promptly on Nov 1st I got hit with an Idea . I have to say that when you’re trapped in a car for 80 minutes a day, dictating your story produces an aMAZing amount of word per day. I hit 55k in a couple weeks.

One or two of them might even end up in the final version.

Even if they don’t, I know now I really can write that much. Maybe not every month, but it is possible.

[dgcasey]

I have to say that when you’re trapped in a car for 80 minutes a day, dictating your story produces an aMAZing amount of word per day. I hit 55k in a couple weeks.

I had thought about that technique when I was still working, but then my dictations would have been filled with tons of very colorful language. I wouldn't have been able to use much of anything.

[Keith Ward]

I'm at 45,000 with two days to go. My biggest problem is time, but I'm too dumb to quit so I may as well finish 

[Jeff Tanyard]

Just wanted to pop in and say "good luck" to everyone pushing towards the finish line.   

[Angstriddengoddess]

I have to say that when you’re trapped in a car for 80 minutes a day, dictating your story produces an aMAZing amount of word per day. I hit 55k in a couple weeks.

I had thought about that technique when I was still working, but then my dictations would have been filled with tons of very colorful language. I wouldn't have been able to use much of anything.

It’s true that at one point the hero says, “That was a red light. Are you blind?” in the middle of a tender romantic scene. There is editing in my future.

[Rick Partlow]

I am at 62,000 words.  Should hit 66,000 by close of business tomorrow, which will finish out NaNoWriMo, though not the book I'm writing, which looks to be at least a 95K job.

[Al Macy (aka TromboneAl)]

I have to say that when you’re trapped in a car for 80 minutes a day, dictating your story produces an aMAZing amount of word per day. I hit 55k in a couple weeks.

I had thought about that technique when I was still working, but then my dictations would have been filled with tons of very colorful language. I wouldn't have been able to use much of anything.

It was a dark and get the F&*# out of my lane, you A$*^@*& stormy nightl

[Keith Ward]

I crossed the finish line with three and a half hours left in the month.
Congratulations to everyone who participated.

[LilyBLily]

Congratulations to all. I got there around lunchtime.

[elleoco]

Congratulations to all who made it. I promised to report here on success or failure, and have to say it was a fail for me. However, on the bright side, I managed 28,879 (Scrivener counter), which is more than I've managed in a month for several years.

[dgcasey]

Well, I only managed 68,266, which leaves me short of my 70K goal. But, I have one last chapter to write and I'll do that tomorrow and I see it being about 2500-3000 words, so it will take me 31 days to get there.

Oh well, there's always Camp NaNoWriMo in April.   

[VanessaC]

Contrats to everyone who "won" this year, and everyone who maybe didn't technically "win", but still got plenty of words down.

       

[Gerri Attrick]

Well done to everyone who took part - whether you “won” or not.

I was hit by a bad attack of the November blues and barely wrote at all, so I’m not sorry that I opted out this year.

[Kay Inglis]

Well done to everyone who took part this year.

Next year I plan to sign up.

[ragdoll]

Congrats to everyone who made their goals :D I fell way short but I should be wrapping the book I'm working on this week.

[Jeff Tanyard]

Well done to everyone who took part - whether you “won” or not.

Yep.  This.

Way to go, y'all.   

[Rick Partlow]

Final number was 66,121.

[Jeff Tanyard]

Final number was 66,121.

 

[Al Macy (aka TromboneAl)]

... it recommends trying to write a better first draft, something that I've been considering.

This time I didn't try to "just get the first draft down." That is, even from the start, I tried to make this a little better. For example, I took the time to think of better similes (e.g. Giving him caffeine would be like administering cocaine to a hummingbird).

I concluded that that's a good idea. My progress was slower, but the draft is better.

[Feliz]

Oh, I just noticed this thread. Congrats to everyone here, winner or not. I won at 51.5K words, but it was a book of smaller stories put together after I'd failed to write a full novel. I'd won only one other time in 2015 at 52.5K for a full novel, and it's just brutal each time. My longest of the multiple stories this year is almost 25K words, so I have a promising novella to work with, at the very least. I'm not sure if I'll edit it into a full novel; we'll see. NaNo was fun, though. It definitely kept me writing.

[Edward M. Grant]

I did my 50,000 words, then went back to start rewriting it. Been distracted by Christmas for the last week or so, though.

[cecilia_writer]

I've added another 11,000 or so words and reached the end of the story. Just editing now as I have caught some seasonal virus and had a few days off from my day job.
Unusually for me, there weren't any major continuity issues or plot holes in the first draft. I must have been concentrating really hard!