NaNoWriMo 2009 - That's a Wrap!

[ladyseishou]

Let us celebrate the occasion with wine and sweet words.

- Plautus



So how do you plan to celebrate?

The clock has struck midnight in my part of the world and so NaNoWriMo has come to a close for me this year. All-in-all, it was a pretty fantastic ride and I have 58,000 words to celebrate!

Certainly my novel needs much work before I will be able to say that it is finished but finish I will! For as Scott Westerfeld advises: Finish everything!

There will always be a part of your brain that wants to give up when characters aren't behaving, when you don't know where to go next, when the inspiration has faded.

But if you wind up not finishing ninety percent of what you start, guess what happens. After a few years you'll have written 100 beginnings, 40 middles, and only 10 endings. Which means you'll be great at writing beginnings, only so-so at middles, and you'll suck at endings. Which means you will almost certainly keep faltering between the middle and the end of every story, which means you'll keep giving up and not finishing . . . Rinse, repeat.

And that's a hole you don't want to fall into. So finish, even if you know this story isn't going to win you the Nobel Prize—it's good practice to type THE END.

Many thanks to Nano Writer otter_nanowrimo for the quote!

But today I celebrate!

Today's image was created by Nano Writer cheyinka (thanks!) which beautifully captures the spirit of the day! What are your plans Nano Writer now that the month is done? For me, I plan to sleep and spend time with my family! And I have a "shrimp" dinner reward to collect!

So for the while Nano Writer, celebrate!

Comments

[cheyinka]

I finally finished (57,038 words at the end), with only two "[a scene goes here]" to boot! My plans are..... hmmmmm, haven't decided on how I'll celebrate yet. I might go out to lunch tomorrow, that'd be fun.

[ladyseishou]

Only two? I think that I have three including one that might be more like a chapter (or left out altogether depending on the rewrite). Did you make it out to lunch?

[cheyinka]

No, I didn't, but I did have lunch out today and it was nice :)

I've started madly pruning my novel - chucked out 2500 words so far. Deliciously, I'm still above 50K. I like that. :D

[nightbird]

Sleep! For God's sake, sleep! That's my celebration. (At least before I buckle down and finish the story, which may have another 15K at least to go from a little under 51K now.)

Also, getting out of the apartment. I hear that's nice.

Well, and I also bribed myself to finish with the promise of these.

Congratulations to all writers, and again, thank you, ladyseishou!

[ladyseishou]

Those are great shoes! I've been doing a lot of sleeping. I might try that getting outside thing too ;-)

[st_aurafina]

Cake! And wine! (I have an early Christmas party tonight, coincidentally.)

Thank you for this great comm, btw. I wasn't always able to comment, but I found the posts really inspiring. It's so nice to know you're not on your own during this confusin time.

[ladyseishou]

I love your icon! ^__^

[insomniac_tales]

I actually took a break from the novel 5 days ago when I crossed the 50k line. It was pulling teeth to get the last 3k out so the break was much needed. That and school is going to take precedence for the next few weeks. Pesky thing that school.

That being said, I have a very good foundation for a novel and in the coming weeks/months I'll keep adding to it until the story is fully told. It's far from done, considering that 50k barely touched where I wanted to go with this story.

Needless to say, it was nice to have another nanowrimo win after a few off seasons. Congratulations to everyone who tried as well as those who conquered. We all accomplished something this month, even if we didn't finish.

[ladyseishou]

Exactly right! ^___^

[lurkingcat]

I'm out seeing friends tonight. (Okay, it's my regular weekly roleplaying game but there will be chocolate!) Then I'm going to sort out the Christmas shopping. And then I'm going to put my nose back to the grindstone and finish my story, because 55K seems to be only two thirds of the tale and I'm determined not to leave this hanging around unfinished on my hard drive :)

[ladyseishou]

Well I guess that counts as a celebration since there was chocolate ;-) Good luck with the Christmas shopping!

[dragonjournal]

Tonight, we're going out to dinner, because this has been a HELLISH month. Plus, the flatmate and I are going out and doing errands for most of the day. Because we hear this outside thing? Might not be too bad.

Then, it's back home to the writing, and preparing for tomorrow's job interview.

Other than that? Life once again returns to the normal daily grind.

[ladyseishou]

Hope that the interview went well!

[angryoldhag]

Moving! We just got a call today that we got a house! Wheeeeee! As for the novel. I steemed right on with the editing. It was scary at first, to cross away parts and stuff but I got a book that's a great help with checklists and I'm gradually getting used to it.

[ladyseishou]

Congrats on the house!

What book do you have? I've been reading through Manuscript Makeover: Revision Techniques No Fiction Writer Can Afford to Ignore by Elizabeth Lyon which has some interesting ideas...

[lassarina]

I finished, and even added another 2000 words yesterday that never made it into my NaNo counter. I probably have about 6000 words to finish off the base story, and then there are a couple of things I know I have to add to, and then it's off to the editors with this one. (Their suggestions will probably add 25% to the first draft; I am a bare-bones first drafter, though you wouldn't know it by my word output.)

Perhaps my reward will be decadent chocolate.

[ladyseishou]

Good luck with the additions! Sounds like you have things well in hand! And chocolate is always a good carrot for me ;-)

[lap_otter]

Thank you.

Anyway, you're the one that found the quote, in the end.

[ladyseishou]

Ah, but you had the most of it! And I really like Scott Westerfeld's writing blog. So thank you again for the reference!

[ladyseishou]

Leftovers are good - only problem is that they don't last more than a couple of days around my family ;-)

And it seems to be a general consensus of opinion among writers that it's a good idea to let your first draft sit a while before editing. So you're in good company!

[river_kate]

I went out for a great lunch in a favorite restaurant, bought some books to read and began putting my grossly neglected apartment in order.

[ladyseishou]

Oh my yes! I'm barely getting out from under all the books and printouts that have buried my work area! Good luck with the clean up!

[twistingthetale]

Well I've done the red wine and chocolate thing, so now I'm catching up on some books and TV programmes that were neglected during NaNo. I'll be away from 11th - 14th December and doing absolutely nothing, and although I've printed and read my novel from start to finish now and corrected a few errors by hand, I'm not planning on doing anything else with it until the New Year.

[ladyseishou]

Sounds like a great plan!