Camp NaNoWriMo has officially ended as of…well, many hours ago. I have to admit that I have never been so happy in my life that a session of NaNo has ended.
Losing 44,619 words of my manuscript five days before Camp ended was probably the worst experience in my life. Dramatic, but true. I was determined to win Camp so I pledged to myself that I was going to write 45k words in four days. 45k because Kris was able to get the first 5k words back for me and I say four days because there was no way I was going to be able to write anything as soon as I lost my entire novel. I needed a brand new day to start fresh.
Monday July 28, I wrote 15,029 words. Tuesday July 29, I wrote 10,019 words. Wednesday July 30, I wrote 5,016 words. Yesterday, July 31, I nearly died, but I wrote the last 15,036 words bringing my novel to a total of 50,112 words. Of course, Kris told me to validate my novel twice because I technically wrote 90k in one month. I just didn’t have allย the physical words to prove it. So, I did and my NaNo stats look really weird because I had 44,619 for July 30 and then on July 31 the bar shoots way up and says I have 94,731.
Let’s keep in mind that these last four days I was constantly screaming in my head:
It was true. It was fairly “easy” to rewrite the novel because I wrote notes of all the scenes in order as I wrote them the first time around. Of course, before I lost the novel I realized the story was taking a different direction and I was getting lost. I took this rewrite as an opportunity to get my novel back on track and I spent a lot of my time moving the scenes around (I wrote them on sticky notes inside a notebook) trying to make some sense of it all.
It worked. To be honest, I think this version of the novel turned out better than the first. There was just one problem… I had finished the novel before I hit 50k.
I have many ideas for myย Detective Florence series and I always pictured the entire series to be in a set of trilogies. Of course, now I’m wondering if the books need to be in sets of twos or many they don’t need sequels to each other at all. However, the first novel is fairly big with about 92k words and about 291 pages, but I’ve only edited the first draft, so it will most likely be less. Now the second novel is about 50k with less than 200 pages.
I think I’m going to write the third book pretending it’s going to stay a trilogy and see where that plot takes me. In other words, editing these novels is going to be just grand! (<—Please note the sarcasm.)
So, now I have another novel written, my third NaNoWriMo certificate, and a very sore wrist. I love writing and wish I could do it all day every day. The binge writing was fun and interesting to say the least, but… I am never going to do that again.
However, if you want to look on the bright side, at least I realized I can hit a deadline if I really set my mind to it.
But… Let’s be real now. Why did I want to win Camp soย bad? Well, to complete another manuscript, of course. Yes, but also because Kris and I told ourselves that if we BOTH won (and we did — go us!) we could buy Mario Kart 8. Now I’m just waiting for her to get out of work so we can play it together.
Congrats to everyone who got through yet another month of NaNo! ๐
Yay congratulations! Happy August as well. You definitely deserve to buy and play Mario Kart 8. ๐
Thank you! ๐
We had Target gift cards so we basically got the game for free, which is a plus! We bought it halfway through the month as an incentive and I think it’s been mocking me way more than it has been mocking my sister.
Free stuff is always awesome. ๐ Haha incentives are great. It usually makes you work harder, which you have. I’m happy you’re rewarding yourself after writing so much in one month, especially these last few days.
I’m happy I decided to reward myself, too. I worked hard; I deserve to sit my butt down on the couch and play video games for the rest of my life, lol!
Yes, publish your books and live the rest of your life playing video games. That’s a very sustainable lifestyle. ๐
I think so. ๐
Best of luck!
Thank you! ๐
But I really hope you’ll keep writing.
Of course I will! I don’t think I could stop even if I wanted to.
Awesome. That’s the mark of a real writer.
I like to think so. ๐
Wow, what an achievement! ๐
Thank you! ๐
I think I would have spent a week crying if I’d lost that much work! ๐
Oh, I did that when my flash drive died a while back and I lost EVERYTHING. I think I was able to get over it quicker because this time around it was just one novel and I’ve dealt with this issue before.
Congrats on the epic victory. I think there’s a blue shell joke in there, but you won anyway.
Lol, thanks! I’m proud, but so glad it’s over! ๐
That’s a dramatic victory! Congratulations! (I couldn’t attempt that many words per day — my wrists would have given out for sure!)
My left wrist is killing me! I’m going to try to lay off writing for a few days…lol
Congrats on the win! That victory should be especially sweet considering the lost words. I had that happen one year in December – my computer crashed just after I’d finished NaNo. I felt like curling up in the fetal position and just staying there, well, forever. I can’t even imagine how I would’ve felt in your shoes. Good for you for plunging ahead and not letting it get you down!
Thanks! Yeah, l was glad l put it in my mind that l was going to rewrite it in four days and actually stuck with it.
I’m sorry to hear your computer crashed a while back…it really is a horrible feeling.
Holy shit. That is completely INSANE. You’re like one of those people who on the second day of November are like “Hey, I’m done!” I just cannot fathom writing that much in one day. I think the most I’ve done in one day was 11,000, at that was at the start of the story when I was super motivated to write it.
Seriously though, congrats. That is amazing that you wrote all that in just 4 days. To avoid losing your novel in the future, I’d create a Google account and use Google drive to back up your novel every other day or so to make sure you can’t lose it. I would go insane if that happened to me.
Thank you! ๐
I think l did go insane and l’m pretty sure that was what motivated me to rewrite it all in four days…lol.
wow – that’s awesome! Congrats! i’m totally jealous you get to play Mario Kart!
Thank you! Mario Kart 8 is such a great game! ๐
Wow, I’m so happy for you!! NaNo is always a challenge, but even more so if you have to binge-write most of the manuscript, haha ๐ Congratulations on accomplishing this huge milestone – you deserve that video game. ๐
Thanks! It was an interesting end to the month, lol.