NaNoWriMo 2015 - It’s Over
Well it’s over. And I made it.
The thing is, looking over the draft I’ve produced I’m forced to ask myself the question: is this… english? Have I just inadvertantly written a Norwegian bestseller? It’s either that or my spellchecker has started highlighting all the correctly spelled words, which is unlikely.
So things I’ve learnt:
- It’s Easier than I thought it would be
- Well, that is to say: it’s easier than impossible. In the end all it takes is to make sure you write no less than 1667 words everyday. That’s a lot and it cuts into your time - it took me a couple of hours each day. Still - if you can actually sit down and bang on a keyboard then you should be good.
- It’s Much Harder than I thought it would be
- Good. Grief. I thought I was a reasonably creative person but I’m pretty sure I’ve wasted days this month staring at walls trying to think of something to write. I’ve ended up writing tens of thousands of words of utter rubbish just to make the deadline. My plot makes no sense and I’m pretty sure all my characters have morphed into a single, slightly sarcastic detective who now talks to herself. Not exactly literature.
So - did it work? Did I end up with a novel at the end of all this? Well - not exactly. I think it’s going to take an expert Novel Reconstruction and Development Crew to make anything out of the mess I made. They may even decide it’s best to put the poor thing out of its misery.
In the end, I think NaNoWriMo is more about facing up to a huge challenge and overcoming it. It reminds me a lot of a marathon. Like a marathon it’s more about finishing than how gracefully you can run it. So now that I’m here, gasping at the finish line, I can look back and maybe use what I’ve learnt. For one thing I’m hoping that this will finally get me writing a lot more regularly. Y’know - marathon training…
I’ll be doing it again next year and hopefully I’ll be more prepared.
Anyway… I think I’m all written out…
(P.S. It’s kind of amazing but Pretoria ended up well within the top 50 regions in the world (31st!). We were certainly the best in South Africa. Go team!)
