Nanowrimo 2019 wrap up

I wrote a blog post on my commitment to the Nanowrimo for 2019 at the beginning of November. This is a quick follow up to report back on how I went for the month.

Pleasingly I wrote every day, on average 8 pages a day, with a range of about 6 pages to 10 pages or so. I spent about 2-3 hours a day writing (this time included any planning time required). During the week I managed to spend the time quite easily and consistently, but it was a little more difficult on weekends with chores, outings etc planned. I also wrote on the few days in the last week of the month where I had a 3 day migraine, so I won’t be doing that again.

I went through quite a lot of pens (I took the photo above about 3 weeks in. I’ve since washed the pens shown in this photo and added a few more, so I can’t quite tell you how many I went through). For the writing itself, in the Nanowrimo month, I finished a 200 page A5 Chiyogami notebook, a 120 page Cahier dot grid notebook and at the end of the month I was halfway through the second Cahier.

For the quality of the text, I’m fully expecting that what I completed not just during this month but for the entirety of the first draft not to be spectacular. I don’t think I’m a brilliant fiction writer to begin with, certainly have no experience or practise! But that wasn’t the point of the initial draft (for me anyway). It was to get the story down and go from there. I just hope its not so terrible I’m stuck in editing for the next decade!

I really enjoyed participating in Nanowrimo this year. Based on my story plan, I’m not even a quarter of the way through my story at the moment, so its going to take me ages! But I did feel a sense of achievement. Going forward, I will continue to write every day, each week day and try to do some writing on the weekend, but if it doesn’t work out, then I won’t be too hard on myself.