Today is the last day of November, and as the title of this blog may lead you to believe, I failed at NaNoWriMo this year.
Now, before I start with my epic tale of a fail, let me preface this by saying, I never should have even attempted NaNo this year.
So, there I was a little over a month ago on Facebook, reading a friend's status that said, and I'm paraphrasing here, 'I think I will do NaNoWriMo this year,' And of course, that lead me to think, I can do NaNo this year, so stupidly, I commented such. And, of course, when you put something on the internet, it is out there for everyone to see, and everyone to hold you to. And that is what people did.
As it does after October, November was fast approaching, and I had no plan for NaNo. I was panicing, but also, not worrying about it. But, eventually, I came up with a plan. I was not going to follow the traditional NaNo rules, but I was going to try to finish writing a novel I had already started and was very invested in. I had a good 50k words left in it anyway, so this was going to work.
November 1st rolls around and I do my job of writing the allotted 1,667 words. This worked for about three days. And as most people do, I have a plethora of excuses as to why I failed the rest of the twenty seven days. On October first, I broke up with my boyfriend and moved into my parents house. Trying to write while living at your parents is like trying to keep the sidewalk clear of snow in a freak blizzard, practically impossible. Then, my sister has two children, ages two and seven months. Now, I watch these children one to two times a week. And if you thought that the first senario was difficult, try writing with a two year old and a seven month old. Even more challenging. Then, my generous sister and brother-in-law bought me a house, so trying to write a novel when you are moving out of one house, into your parents house, out of your parents house, and into a new house, is rather challenging. Needless to say, November was not the right month to try writing a novel. But then again, excuses, excuses. I could have gotten my shit together and written the 50k words.
However, if it is any consolation, I did manage to write 17,000 words this month. Not near the 50k words I was supposed to have written, but I consider it a win. For whatever it is worth. 17k words is better than no words, and it just got me that much closer to the end of my novel.
Have any of you attempted and either failed or won NaNoWriMo? And if you ever plan on doing it in the future, may the odds be ever in your favor.
