My hard-earned NaNoWriMo 2015 Winner Badge

Finally went over the 50 thousand mark yesterday in NaNoWriMo 2015. WooHoo! Glad that the ordeal is over. Here is my after action report on my experience in this holiest of writing challenges.
First off, I can say that the task was not an easy one and is not something you should undertake lightly. It was tough to slog it out and face the computer on a daily basis. We are friends now – the computer and I – we understand each other now, perhaps better than ever. In a way I am still on the Nano train – I started typing this post at 5 AM. Just because today is Thanksgiving here in the states, doesn’t mean I can’t do some writing – Nano teaches you that yes – you can always fit in some writing if want to. You will make the time.

Pros of Participating:

1. Develops excellent working habits: If you set your mind to accomplishing the task, you will make time to fit the writing in.

2. You get to finish something – I always said I would write a book someday. Thanks to Nano that day finally arrived.

3. You get to meet some nice people if you participate in the writer meetups.

4. Great sense of accomplishment – I am still on cloud nine.

5. You end up with a rough draft of a novel – how cool is that?

Cons of participating:

1. If you are a revisionist – Do you like to write a few paragraphs and then go back and edit them? NaNoWriMo is full speed ahead – no time for that nonsense.

2. You like to do a lot of research – If this is you, then you must do this before Nano starts.

3. Takes away from other projects – I fell behind on other projects, including this website, as a result of working on Nano. Not a positive thing.

4. Takes you away from loved ones – My wife and kids welcomed me back to the family last night.

Conclusion:

Am I glad I did it? Absolutely! Would I do it again? Perhaps. NaNoWriMo is a very time-consuming challenge and even though I am euphoric that I finished, if I did it again I would do things differently. Specifically, I would start many months before the November start date. The next time I would first produce an outline. After the draft was created, I would do the background research. My book is a space opera. I had no outline and just started hammering it out. My characters ended up riding dragons, horses, and fighting in zero-G. This lack of research led to a lot of struggling on my part because I did not have the background research done in advance to describe these actions and situations correctly. No doubt that I have a ton of re-writing to do in these areas to make the actions of the characters more believable. It was a great experience, and now I have a rough draft to a novel. Excellent. Who knows if anything will come from this book? Doesn’t matter. I want to develop my skills as a writer, and the only way to do that is to write. Writers write.

 

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