Hello! I hope this finds y’all well! This post is about my experience with NaNoWriMo 2021. (For those who don’t know what that is, it’s called National Novel Writing Month, and the goal is to write 50,000 words from 1 Nov to 30 Nov.)
My first NaNo was in 2007, and my first win (hitting 50,000 words) was in 2011. This was my first NaNo since I switched to focusing on writing full-time. As such, this year was a new experience for me. I knew what it was like to write a novel in a month while dealing with college classes, or a full-time job. And I knew that this NaNo would serve as an opportunity to see what I could really do. My current streak is 11 wins, including this past month.
NaNoWriMo Stats for the Month
For the first time ever, I actually managed to meet (and often exceed) the daily par of 1,667 words (50,000 words / 30 days = 1,667 words/day). There’s even a nice little badge for your profile on the NaNo website, which is surprisingly motivating. This is my first year getting all of the progress badges for daily updates and word count milestones.
As for word count, I hit 50,000 words on 21 Nov. This amount was split between two books. About 18,000 words went to finishing Book 9 of my current series. The other 32,000 words served as the start of Book 10. The rest of the month went toward trying to finish Book 10. Specifically, I wanted to get 50,000 words on just Book 10, which actually did happen. On the 30th, I ended up with 73,236 words written during the month. I didn’t quite finish the book, but I did get fairly close to a chapter I’ve been looking forward to for quite some time.
Even my daily words for the month were significantly more consistent than in previous years. Usually, my daily counts ranged from a few dozen words to eight (or ten) thousand on a given day. This year, everything stayed between the 1,667 par and about 3,500, with one exception of a 4,000 word day.
Using NaNoWriMo to Make Progress on a Pair of Books
I started Book 9 back in April 2021, during the first Camp NaNo session this year. The plan was to finish the book soon after April ended… and then after July’s Camp NaNo session ended… and then to finish the book before NaNo proper started in November. In my defense, I probably would have managed that last one if the draft’s length didn’t expand. I had planned on 50,000 words; it is currently 72,000 words. In any case, the first week of the month went toward trying to finish Book 9, which happened on 8 Nov. I managed to write almost 18,000 words that first week, and it was so nice getting into a flow with the book that had been not flowing well prior to that point. Although, in the book’s defense, during the six months between starting the book and finishing it, I did learn quite a few things that needed to be incorporated into the series at assorted points.
As things currently stand, Book 10 is at about 56,000 words with a bit left to go. I suspect this book will also end up somewhere around 70,000 words for the first draft. I can’t say I’m too surprised about that, since this book is the start of the final arc of my current series, but it does make it a little more difficult to actually plan. That said, after the delays I had with Book 9, I was really pleased with how quickly Book 10 was going. I am fairly close to the final section of the book, and I’m still working on it this month, though currently at a much slower pace. (I’d like to adjust my current pace soon, but I’ve been taking care of some other things that were delayed due to NaNo.)
The Experience of Writing Consistently during the Month
One thing that was really nice about writing consistently throughout the month (other than not having to have any 10k days) was being able to take the story in smaller pieces. Sometimes the writing for the day would be a chapter; sometimes it would be two or three chapters. In either case, having that kind of break allowed me to spend my non-writing time assessing where things needed to go with the story. While I knew the beginning and end of the book before I started, I only had a general arc of how the rest of the story would go. So, every day or two, I would take time to figure out the next handful of chapters as I tried to connect the beginning to the end. Since I’m currently writing the chapter before the ‘end’ section of the book, I think the method worked rather nicely.
Another nice thing about my lead from the start of the month was that I could relax on certain days. I still managed to get at least 1,667 per day, but some days, I didn’t get much more than that. (At least one of the days ended with 1,683 words.) I had days where I wrote more than 2,500 words, but frequently I dropped back down to less than 2,000. Having the ability to do that while still remaining on track for the month was useful. I definitely tried to make the most of the time I had available.
Unexpected Bonus: More Time to Read
While I was making a lot of progress with writing, the smaller amount of daily writing time gave me the opportunity to focus on other things throughout the month. A good bit of time where I wasn’t actively writing or plotting, I was reading. Over the course of the month, I read a three books. Two of the books were Star Trek books: Peter David’s Double Helix: Double or Nothing and Diane Duane’s My Enemy, My Ally. The third book of the month was Mercedes Lackey’s The Gates of Sleep, part of her The Elemental Masters series. Since switching careers, I’ve definitely been trying to read more consistently as well. For the past month or two, my goal was to “read something” everyday (with the implication that the something was part of a book). Sometimes that meant I would read five pages and then move on to something else. Sometimes I’d read a twenty-page chapter. Sometimes I’d read a hundred pages because that’s where my mood was. Any of those counted toward the goal, and that kind of relaxed goal seemed to pay off.
The Plan Now, Post-NaNoWriMo
So, currently I am thinking I’ve got about 15,000 words to go before I finish Book 10. I’m hoping to get those drafted over the next couple weeks. Then I plan to start on Book 11, though I still have some planning to do for the final arc of the series. Still, Book 11 and Book 12 should be pretty spiffy once I get the outline/timelines fleshed out a bit. Other than that, I will continue reading. I’m currently working on the sequel to My Enemy, My Ally called The Romulan Way. I’m also working my way through The Fire Rose by Mercedes Lackey. It is kind of a prequel to The Elemental Masters series in that the series wasn’t branded as such until a few years later.
There will be a Camp NaNo session happening in April 2022, but with a bit of luck, I will finish drafting the current series before then. Then I get to embark on some of the other series I have planned.
If anyone would like to add me as a writing buddy on the NaNo website, my username is fantasy_writer42, and you can find my profile here.
Thanks for reading!
~ Theresa
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