I won.

I fucking won.

It’s taken four attempts over four years, but I finally did it; I won at NaNoWriMo. Today is the 30th, the last day of the challenge, and minutes ago I finished my novel’s first draft. Checking my word count, I found myself at the plump number of 50,200.

I’m so happy about this whole thing. NaNoWriMo is a great exercise of creativity for me, and to find myself actually able to complete it successfully this year, it gives me hope about everything. If I can write fifty thousand words in a month, what’s to stop me doing any number of other amazing things?

The month, in graph form.

Here’s my “graph” for my word count for the month. It shows how many words I managed to do each day. The grey diagonal line represents where my word count SHOULD be each day to keep on target.

This is nothing compared to the whole of Adelaide though, which at this current time has roughly eight and a half million words of fiction altogether. Makes my fifty thousand look kind of paltry in comparison.

What do I win?

This is something I’ve been asked a few times when I tell people I’m writing a novel in thirty days. “Why? What do you get out of it?”

Apart from being able to say I wrote a novel? And that I did it in no more than thirty days? To me, that’s enough. However, the kind people of CreateSpace apparently reward winners with five free paperback copies of their novel, which is fantastic.
Additionally Scrivener, a word processor designed for novel writing and screenplays, is rewarded to winners for 50% off the normal price.

Those are awesome incentives, but I’m just happy to have made it through successfully.

What to do now?

Well, it’s over. I’ll be able to resume semi-normal life, and maybe put a bit more time into playing The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
On a more serious note though, I plan to edit and rewrite the majority of the novel to turn it into something that a person can read without ripping their eyes out in pain and anguish, and see where it goes from there.

I cannot wait to do this again next year.

Things slowed down this past week, to the point that last night, I fell a few hundred words behind quota. I know it’s easily fixed, but I feel bad that I let it happen. It would of been easy to pump out a few paragraphs, but honestly I couldn’t think where to go with the story where it was, and still is. Today I’ll be using time at work to write down a few pages of notes of where the story could go so that tonight I can write the couple of thousand words I owe.

I suspect a major reason behind this drop is the release of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, which I’ve taken to playing, because hell it’s an Elder Scrolls game and they’re fantastic. The worlds are immersive and it’s easy to forget all about things like NaNoWriMo when you’re busy fighting a dragon then absorbing it’s fucking soul.

It’s a great game, but I’m going to have to try to force myself to push it back a bit so I can get these fifty thousand words done by the end of the month.

Rather than do a video, I’ve decided to stick with what I know, and that would be writing a blog post.

So we’re a couple of days into week two and things are going excellent. I’m currently sitting at almost 18,000 words and going strong. This is courtesy of the NaNoWriMo word sprints available on Twitter, who have helped massively.

I really feel confident this year. I’m doing well, and provided I can keep going at this pace, I should hit fifty thousand words early.

As usual, here’s my NaNoWriMo profile, where you can see my progress.

I hereby pledge my intent to write a 50,000-word novel in one month’s time. By invoking an absurd, month-long deadline on such an enormous undertaking, I understand that notions of “craft”, “brilliance”, and “competency” are to be chucked right out the window, where they will remain, ignored, until they are retrieved for the editing process. I understand that I am a talented person, capable of heroic acts of creativity, and I will give myself enough time over the course of the next month to allow my innate gifts to come to the surface, unmolested by self-doubt, self-criticism, and other acts of self-bullying.

During the month ahead, I realize I will produce clunky dialogue, clichéd characters, and deeply flawed plots. I agree that all of these things will be left in my rough draft, to be corrected and or excised at a later point. I understand my right to withhold my manuscript from all readers until I deem it completed. I also acknowledge my right as an author to substantially inflate both the quality of the rough draft and the rigors of the writing process should such inflation prove useful in garnering me respect and attention, or freedom from participation in onerous household chores.

I acknowledge that the month-long, 50,000-word deadline I set for myself is absolute and unchangeable, and that any failure to meet the deadline, or any effort on my part to move the dealdline once the adventure has begun, will invite well-deserved mockery from friends and family. I also acknowledge that, upon successful completion of the stated noveling objective, I am entitled to a period of gleeful celebration and revelry, the duration and intensity of which may preclude me from participating fully in workplace activities for days, if not weeks, afterward.

-James

This is an excerpt from No Plot? No Problem! and a sort of joke “contract” for NaNoWriMo. I felt like posting it on here and “signing” it to kick off the novel-writing month that begins in five minutes.

Whelp, in just over six hours this year’s NaNoWriMo begins for me. This marks my fourth year attempting it, and the third year going into it with no semblance of a plan. I have no plot, characters, or even vague ideas. I’m going with hovering my hands over the keyboard and seeing what comes out of it. Will it be good? Probably not. Will it make sense? I sincerely doubt it. Will it be fun? Well shit I hope so.

I bought the official NaNoWriMo handbook on Kindle, No Plot? No Problem! to see if it has any handy tips or good motivational tools. Surprisingly it’s actually interesting to read, and is getting me pumped for the event.

I’m debating whether or not to bother making personal log videos or not. They were really only for me to talk about my progress out loud but I didn’t really make good use of that. We’ll see.

Wish me luck. Also, add me as a writing buddy if you’re participating too.

Oh god what do?!

In this video I apologize for the sound quality and the humming of my netbook. I also tell you what you should already know if you read this site at all, and point out that I have a Wolfenstein 3D blog of sorts (which you would also already know).

Speaking of which, it now has a .com type thing! http://WolfingTime.com for all your Wolf3D needs. If you’re anything like me, you have a lot of needs. You needy needy person.

Now, I’m going to drink some water and calling my girlfriend.

This year I fell behind in NaNoWriMo and realize there is no physical way for me to reach the limit now unless I both stay up until midnight tomorrow and write consistently over one thousand words each hour.

As such, I’m officially throwing in the towel for this year. I’ve learned that I’m going to have to dedicate more time to this next year, and maybe have a plan before I begin so I don’t lose precious time like I did this year. Furthermore, I’ll have to endeavour to actually attend an Adelaide Write-In in 2011. Meeting fellow writers was something I had planned to do this year but failed to do so due to other plans cropping up.

In the meantime, I don’t know what I’ll do with my current story. I might finish it, or it might lay on this hard drive indefinitely. I haven’t decided yet.

Fucking NaNoWriMo, you win again!

Just another quick video on my NaNoWriMo progress. I sound so shit because I’m tired, and attempting to be quiet because the housemates are asleep. Bleh.

This is my first time using a webcame to film a video in quite a while. I actually quite like how it turned out, considering it actually takes advantage of the youtube window and fills the whole thing, as you can see. NO BLACK BARS FOR ME.

This video is just an update on my NaNoWriMo progress. Well, what there is of it anyway.