NaNoWriMo word count goal: 50,000
NaNoWriMo word count reached: 22,033
NaNoWriMo grade: F
So, National Novel Writing Month for me this year was not exactly spectacular. I didn’t even reach the halfway point, which is probably one of my worst showings so far. The thing is, though, I’m not too concerned about it because, while I didn’t get much done on this particular project, I still got 22,000 words done and I did not slack off on my other projects. In fact, ironically, I felt I got more writing done on the other projects when I was working on NaNoWriMo this month. Funny how that works out.
I think the fact this post isn’t going up until well after the end of the event is a good indication of how crazy it’s been. And that’s okay. While I don’t intend on continuing my NaNoWriMo piece right now (I’d rather go back to fully concentrating on the other projects), I still have a good chunk of something started, waiting for me to pick it back up when some of these current projects reach completion. It’s always a good thing to have a lot of options, I feel, so NaNo helps me create some cushion to fall back on in the future.
Looking back, I think the real issue with getting further toward the 50k goal was a lack of enthusiasm for the piece itself. Coming up to NaNo, I didn’t know what I wanted to work on, especially since I was working on so many other things, and I just went with a random idea that had popped up in a discussion with my boyfriend. It was a cool (secret project involving injecting our food with chemicals that give some people super powers), but it wasn’t planned out, it wasn’t developed, and, more often than not, I was just rambling on with whatever came to mind that day. There was no real story or endgame, just a concept and that, I feel, was the ultimate reason why it didn’t get very far. I just wasn’t “feeling it.” Towards the end of the month, a plot turn occurred and started to give it some momentum, so I definitely have somewhere to go next time I decided to dig it up.
So, dear readers, how did you fare this November? Did you participate in NaNoWriMo? What were the results? What plot did you concoct and do you intend to keep working on it through December, or is it being shelved for a future project? Let’s hear what you’ve got!
L.S. Engler 
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