Author’s Log: NaNoWriMo Retrospective
Well, it's been a while since NaNoWriMo ended, and I am getting into full Christmas mode! I got some lights for my aloe plant, I'm going to paint my own Nutcracker, and I made my own gingerbread cookies for the first time ever. I am living my best life. But before I fully move into my Christmas Elf mode, I want to talk about my NaNoWriMo experience this year.
First, as I said before, this was my eighth time taking part in the challenge and my sixth win, which feels great, especially since I won early this year. That has never happened before, so I have something else I can say I've done during NaNoWriMo.
Beyond that, I'm just proud of the progress that I made with this series. I think that writing all of the books at once worked very well for this because it allowed me to put elements into each book that I wouldn't have thought of otherwise. For example, a very special character gets added to the story during the eighth book, but they get a cameo appearance during the first book, a nice little Easter egg. Adding in things like that excites me as a writer, and I hope people pick up on those small details.
Next, when it comes to writing, I got to learn more about my writing style and schedule. For instance, I know I can write 1,667 words in two hours. If I just sit down and dedicate the time to it, I can get it down. But while this is great for writing speed, this definitely did lead to a lot of material that I know I will cut later on. Like there are just some plot points in the first book, in particular, where I know I'm going to have to reconfigure the entire story to delete some of the repetitive things going on in the story. But that's why zero drafts and first drafts are called discovery drafts. You can get a glimpse of what really works for a novel and what you should probably leave in that draft.
Throughout this process, I've also discovered the joy of having multiple projects happening at once because what I want to write changes on a day-to-day basis. Like there were some days when I wanted to write really fluffy and drama-free scenes and bask in the glow of the cheesy romantic things my lead couple was indulging in. But then there were days when I wanted angst and to break some of my characters emotionally. Like there is one scene in Book 3 that I had too much fun writing when it caused one of my characters so much pain. But that just fits in with my two moods. My two favorite shows are literally My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and Bones. I cannot think of two shows that could be less alike, but that is pretty much who I am as a person.
So, going forward with my writing journey, I think there are a few things that I want to keep on doing:
Continue having multiple works-in-progress (WIPs) because my writing tone changes from day to day, so to keep myself working, having stories of different themes always give me something I can work on.
For my zero drafts, I should have my initial brain dump draft where I get as many ideas as I can about my current WIP on the page. After I finish, I can go back and fill in the blanks with things to finish the zero draft.
Use talk-to-text more often, especially in the zero draft phase. Later down the line, I'll have to think about grammar and keep my text from rambling too much, but when I'm just trying to get ideas on the pages, this allows me to get out the rest of the work without thinking too much.
Set end-of-day deadlines more often to get work done. I honestly do get more done with my writing when I have that midnight deadline to work toward.
Just have fun with this phase of the process. I can fix everything later in my next draft, but if I don't make this first draft in the first place, nothing will get done later.
Well, I think that about covers it for my NaNoWriMo 2022 retrospective. Overall, it was a great year, I made great progress with my books, and I see myself participating again as usual for the yearly November novel escapade.
