Friday, December 2, 2011

The end and the beginning

Well, that's it. NaNo is over. I've managed to finish my novel at 96 000 words. Of course, you should cut back about 1000 words since I actually wrote two endings for it.
As I expected, NaNo was fun. This year, I wrote over 30 000 words more than last year. Hunters ended at 62 000 words in December, and added up to 73 000 after the edits.
Saving Grace ended at 30 chapters + epilogue and 95 000 words. I actually hope to keep the word count this time  adding another 10 000 words to it would be a little catastrophic at this point, especially since it's an Urban Fantasy and has to be easy to read.

Here are a few facts about this year's experience:

- my biggest writing streak was 7000 words in one day
- I had 4 days in which I wrote absolutely nothing
- I officially finished the novel today, Dec 2nd, when I wrote both epilogues
- Writing the ending made me cry - that doesn't happen to me. I'm hoping it's because I put a lot of feeling into it.
- I ended up liking Grace a lot. Even if she messes up a lot, she's the kind of character that learns
- I've put meaning into this one. I hope that people will learn something from the experience
- I've read almost the entire story in a day - I couldn't remember half the stuff I wrote there. It was fun - like reading it the first time. Then, I did the ending.

Right now, I'm starting the editing and revising process. The story is already in the critting cycle - and pestering people with typos and wrong words (ooopsy). I'm so nervous because I don't know if people will like it.

It feels weird, now that it's over. I guess I'll need a couple of days to get used to the idea that I don't have to write anymore :) Anyway, I throughly enjoyed the NaNo experience, and I certainly hope I will be able to do it again next year.

How was it for you?

5 comments:

  1. I think you did so well to write 96,000 in just over a month, Steph! And the first chapter already has me hooked. Now, if you could just point some of that "write 7000 words in one day" juice in my direction, that would be brilliant ;).

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  2. Lol, that's easy Coral. I wrote them on Nov 30th, and they were a little over 2 chapters of climax. That had me going ;) I can write like the wind if the words flow and the idea works.

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  3. Gha! I thought I did good getting 50K done. 96K ... wow ... I bow before the master! Well done, and congratulations. That's such a great feeling to have a novel finished, isn't it? Celebrate!

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  4. That's fantastic going! I've started looking at Saving Grace on CC. Liked it a lot, and am trying to work out what I can usefully suggest in the way of feedback.

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  5. @Steven: Thanks. I can't believe I managed to write so much either :p

    @Ian: Thanks. I hope you'll like this one :)

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