It wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be. No, I am not smoking crack. Really, writing a novel in a month wasn't that difficult. Some caveats to the above statement.
1- Writing is a whole lot easier to write when you are fairly certain no one on the planet is ever going to read it. This draft will never see the light of day. Eventually, you will see the highly polished, revised version, not in its current state of "steaming pile".
2- This would have been easier had I had a plot in mind (and characters and a direction and a setting). The first couple of days can be tossed out the window. I didn't figure out my plot until halfway through. Oh, and write down the names of your characters once they have one.
3- Falling behind is a really bad idea. Sure, I have proven that I am capable of producing 10,000 words in a weekend, but I cannot sustain that pace. I could barely scrounge the mental capacity to write the last thousand words. Along this same vein, no matter how good your intentions, you will not get any writing done on Thanksgiving or after date night, book club, or MNO.
4- When aiming strictly for a word count goal, contractions are not your friend. I added 700 words to the count by converting 75% of the "n't"s to "not". I added 200 more by eliminating "'m".
5- My vocabulary has gone to sh!t. I used to be able to use verisimilitude and fait accompli correctly in a sentence. I believe I used "just" and "even" most frequently.
6- Life continues to progress while I am typing furiously. The house is a mess. I don't want to talk about the laundry monster. The wind and snow storms and power outages and fallen fences didn't help productivity.
7- Leave the house to be really productive. Starbucks does wonders for my creativity, either as a solo effort or as part of a write-in. [Editor's note- Could I get Starbucks to sponsor me? Really. As often as I go there and mention it in this blog favorably, a gift card here and there would be awesome. Thanks so much.]
8- Excuses are really easy to make, but they don't put words on the page. Maybe I should apply that to the rest of my life. Think of what I could accomplish by not playing Bejeweled Blitz.
9- Do not assign your students anything major during the month of November. That really sucked.
10- When writing an emotional scene, don't do it in public. I got many odd looks while I was blubbering in the corner.
This was an awesome challenge, and I look forward to doing it again next year. The local NaNoWriMo affiliate has write-ins year round. I will indeed attend some of those. And now, to get some exercise. I've been sitting on my behind for the last month, and it is starting to grow. Time to get moving again.
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