(Yes, I know we had winner badges, but I liked this image so much more.)
I’m looking at my novel with a proud grin on my face. Yes, I’ve made it! I won NaNoWriMo!!!
Hundreds of people are cheering with me as we typed the final words with an imense feeling of self-fulfillment like we’ve never experienced before. To me, it felt natural, since I’ve been working steadily for the past week. Sure, there were days when I didn’t (regrettably) even open Word, but thanks to a good deal of planning, I end up with the necessary amount of words.
Is it finished, you ask? Not at all. I wonder if it’s half done, actually, but I don’t think it is. Though I wrote many scenes and advanced a lot on the characterization, there’s still a lot to write. I won’t be getting rid of this novel for a long time…
Facts about my novel
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it doesn’t have a definitive title (“Of dreams you gave to me” is just something I made up in one second);
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it doesn’t have a definitive genre (although it certainly has a lot of romance and fantasy);
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its 50000th word was “coisas”, which means “things” in English;
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it was written in Century Gothic 8 until day 20 or so, when I changed to Calibri 10;
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its first four pages were written in English so I could show them to, among other people, my mentor;
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it’s written in first person view.
What’s for me now? If you take a look at this graph, you’ll be able to see how much I’ve progressed through the entire month:
As you can see, there were a few days where I wrote nothing at all. I need to write about those days, as well as all the others, so I can know what went wrong and learn from this experience.
Also, there were days where I worked well. Just take a look at the last three days ;)
December 22, 2008 at 12:58 am
I find this post to be truly inspirational, as I can sense in-between the words of this post how accomplished you truly are feeling, and I find that energising!
I wrote little past the first few days, being too busy with my university studies. (Of curse, this is nothing but a very lame excuse as I had plenty of free time!)
However, I tell myself, that even if I failed NaNoWriMo this year, I did not completely fail as I first of all created something, and that I second of all realised how much fun writing can be!
For the moment I am not working on my NaNoWriMo-story, as I have another story which I love so much more! (I am a multi-tasker of the very worst kind.)
Seeing how you progressed through the graph makes me believe that I can accomplish something as well, do I only set my mind to it. So, what does it matter if I work slowly, I tell myself, do I work?
It does not matter, as the point of it all is to tell that story which is hidden in one’s mind, and which one wishes to tell!
I am very happy for you–delighted, even!–and I am glad to know that your story is not yet finished. What kind of strange thing to say is that, you wonder, but I have a reason for being so inconsiderate: As I know how wonderful your writings are in English, I can only imagine how many more times beautiful your story must be when told in your mother tongue. When it is finished, your story, when you feel content, please do try to get it published, for I already know that it is a story the world will adore.
Much luck with everything in the future!
December 30, 2008 at 9:59 pm
It makes me so proud to have accomplished that: to make you feel the same thing I felt when I won.
Ah, the university apologize :P Worry not, for I have used it a lot too!
Multi-tasking is not necessarily bad. I too find it impossible to focus on a single story at a time which, once again, reflects my lack of self-discipline :P Just try to stick with that story and then, when you feel like, go back to the NaNoWriMo one. Or cheat a little and complete it next November =)
Thank you for the encouragement on my story! It feels ever so great to read your words, always <3 It will need a lot of tweaking and editing before it’s ready to be read by other eyes than mine. Only then I may think about publication. In the end, I will have achieved my goal already, which was to write a novel (or its foundations) in a single month.
♥