NaNoWriMo: Post-partum thoughts

That's me in the red hat.

I fell 1800 words short of my 50,000-word goal for my first ever NaNoWriMo. Which is totally okay--no, really! I got so much out of doing this I don't know how to express my gratitude to the organizers. Here are four things I loved about my foray into this terrific exercise. And then three things I didn't.

Loved:

1. I realized I really can write 2,000 (good) words per day. Before NaNo, I considered a 1200-word day really spectacular. And I didn't do it that often. Certainly not every freaking day. This month I learned that I can whip out 2,000 at a sitting, feel good about what I've written, and still want to go for a jog afterwards. I plan to keep doing it.

Hello there, little
newborn novel.

2. NaNo allowed me to push everything but writing firmly out of my life. I cancelled doctor's appointments. I all but stopped blogging. I spent minimal time on Facebook. It returned me to what's important: the work-in-progress. Hard to say enough good about that.

3. There's an end point, and a goal. It's only thirty days. I can do anything for thirty days. And the discipline inspired discipline in other areas. When I went running, I broke my run into "500 word" increments. And kept going until I hit 2,000.

4. It forced me to plan. There was no way I was going to try to write a novel-in-a-month by Seat-Of-Pants. The prospect of NaNo pushed me to put together a really good outline and synopsis before I started. I will never again not plan fully before starting a novel.

Didn't Love, so much

1. I missed being able to muse. To dream. To research. There just wasn't time for it.

2. I missed being able to tinker with the nuts and bolts. I missed the fun of the craft. To perfect a sentence. To convey an emotion in just the right words. To ace the arc of a scene.

3. I worried about dead ends. As in life, the course you take will determine the outcome. I felt choices closing off before I'd had a chance to fully evaluate them. Yeah, you can always go back and revise (and I certainly will). But I do feel like certain choices you make in fiction have a tendency to set themselves, like concrete. And digging out that concrete isn't always so easy. One bad choice can lead to others, and so on, until you're so mired you can't back out. That was a worry. It didn't happen, I think, but it did create some anxiety.

So, NaNoers, how are you feeling? What were your triumphs and your tribulations? I'd love to hear all about how you did. Congrats to everybody, even to us who didn't (quite) win.

And: I'm glad to be back. It goes without saying, I hope, that I really missed my bloggy buddies.