NaNoWriMo 2021 - Thoughts and Review
Yesterday, I hit my personal goal of writing 75K words in 20 days. I did it in 18 since I took last weekend off. Going into this self-challenge, I wasn’t sure I could. Yesterday, I learned I could and a lot more. Here are some of my thoughts.
First, I thought it would be a difficult and grueling month. In actuality, I wasn’t stressed or stuck. In past years, I found it a slog to churn out 1667 words a day for 30 days. This year I had to write around 3.4K words per day. I managed over 4K. I’m not sure if this was due to the story, my focus, or some other reason. I don’t know. But I learned I am capable of creating a first draft in less than 20 days, and could probably do it in 15 if I pushed myself.
Next, I wrote using sprints of 20 minutes each. I followed each by a break of varying length. On normal days, I start writing around 9A.M. and finish anywhere from 6 to 10P.M. I find a solid chunk of time within the day, depending on my schedule, and write only then. I learned I could write longer each day.
About the story itself:
First, I mentioned that the story wasn’t what I planned to write when I set the goal. The general idea is still there, but I ended up with something new and more full than I had thought I would. For the most part, I let the characters drive the story. They took me down alleys and side streets that I wouldn’t have thought of in planning, and showed me landscape of plot twists that had me, figuratively, agog.
Next, fine-grained structure of the story is intricate and complex, but not convoluted or confusing. The overall arc is there, but woven into many mini character arcs. This feels, to me, to be the best thing I’ve written so far.
Next, the story shifts between the character’s perspectives. I’ve written alternating POV stories, but never like this. This story is an ensemble story. It has multiple and varying numbers of characters. I shift points of view a lot. Sometimes the POVs overlap. Each of my main characters has a POV. The overarching story is told from this fluid POV. This may be confusing to readers. I’m still concerned this could be a problem. Readers can deal with an alternating POV which happens and between 2 or maybe 3 characters. I think I have worked in a solution.
Finally, the story didn’t end the way I had planned, even up to a few days ago. Again, the characters took me some place I didn’t see coming. I’m not sure I’m satisfied by their ending, but I like it. It’s more open-ended than I had hoped it would be.
About the characters:
As I said, this story has an ensemble cast. I tend to write ensemble-based stories. I don’t know why. I just do. This story has a larger ensemble than I’ve ever used. Going in to the story, I didn’t even know which one was the true protagonist, the central character. Despite this, each character developed differently, had different issues, wants and desires. They work. They became real. One character stood out as the key character. It was a strong character. This could be a problem. Readers like knowing who the hero is within the first page or two. This helps them identify with the character and keep reading. I may need to address this problem in rewrites/editing.
What next?
I plan on setting this novel aside for a year, as I do with my first drafts. I’m going to relax and only do some minor free-writing until after the Thanksgiving Day holiday. Then, I’ll pick up my WIP. Somehow, it doesn’t seem as interesting in retrospect. Time will tell.
Word up!