I Wrote A Book In 30 Days! - NaNoWriMo

For the first time in almost two years of this blog history, there was no new post by Friday(yesterday). I am really sorry for that. And the reason for this was because I was extremely busy, frustrated and lost in completing my book till yesterday 11.30 PM.

NaNoWriMo

NaNoWriMo:

NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month.This is an event which happens in November where anyone can register themselves and start writing their book. You must complete 50,000 words by 30th November to claim win.

You don't really have to write your novel on their site, but to claim win, you need to paste your content where the word count will be checked.

No, they don't publish your book or validate all books to see whose book is the best. You just get a certificate of completion which you can download to your laptop. The point of this event is to make people actually write and complete their book. You also get badges as you reach important milestones just like in any app or game.

NaNoWriMo Certificate

My Book:

My book is Dreamy Dan. It's about a slacker guy who goes on to meet his ancestors all the way back till the evolutionary stages itself.  (I am not sure if I am not supposed to reveal that already!)

My Experience:

• I felt that because my book plot demanded a knowledge of lot of history and even biology, I ended up spending way too much time on research. I wanted to make it a fictional story but based on actual historical facts.  The struggle is too real when you want to make it as accurate as possible.
• Know your plot and sub-plots before you start. I only had plot outline when I started and I had to spend lot of time thinking about sub-plots every day, which left me little or no time to actually write.
• 50K words in a month is 1667 words per day. I really feel that if you have a story, this is doable even if you have an 8 hour job.
• If not for the NaNoWriMo deadlines, may be I would have written better in many chapters. But knowing myself, if not for NaNoWriMo, I would have never even started Chapter 1.
• Last two days were chaotic. Last day reminded me of the Meghalaya trekking experience where I turned insane at the last steps after a long exhaustive day. It was exactly like that. When I had 1000 more words left, I couldn't think. I would forget the idea I just had in seconds. I was frustrated. My neck, back and shoulders were stiff. I pretty much wrote fillers or extended the existing descriptions. Ever overdid something that it ruined the complete experience? Last day was exactly like that, where it ruined my initial days joy of uncovering the plot points.
• Be proactive and write 1667 words everyday. It's far easier than writing 17K words in two days. 
• I just couldn't write when everyone was around. I woke up early to write. Good headphones(Thanks, Nandu!) will help a lot in zoning out the world and focusing on your world.
• Talking to someone about your story helps to some extent in resolving writer's block - Sound boarding, basically.
• Initially I tried to write perfectly. That took lot of time. I guess, we can write well easily only with more practice. Let go of perfection and write away. This is just like a first draft. 
• Check your word count on NaNoWriMo at least before couple of days. My notepad++ showed that I was done writing 50K words and when I pasted it on the site for validation, I was short of 1K words. I probably had too many "--" kind of symbols as dividers which were counted by notepad++.
• Too many coffees and lot of chocolates, cakes and chips made this possible.

My Progress:

Following is just my daily log which I didn't start till Day 10.

NaNoWriMo Progress

• Day 10:
• Only 5K+ words written. 
• Lagging a lot, no motivation to write.Lost in research - more and more. 
• Need to stop and get to writing, distracted by related but off topics.
• Muse is real!!!! 7K done

• Day11:
• Doubt if I can write this well or write at all
• Struggle-cant figure out this.

• Day 12:
• Wrote few words

• Day 13:
• 1600 ish words as plot was clear for what was being written - stuck again after that:(

• Day 14:
• 10K

• Day 15:
• Not 1K

• Day 16:
• MJ is forever - Annie are you ok!
• Google Earth rocks
• The best way to write is disconnected from internet and plugged in
• Leave the missing info and fill them later.

• Day 17:
• There's a bat in the house - it's 3 AM- reading parallax, immutable heavens, alchemy.
• 4 AM- happy coincidences.
• 6.20-Slow writing - just  about 13K. More thinking about plot than writing.
• 8.16-jazz is good.
• 10-15K

• Day 18:
• 17K

• Day 19:
• What's the point of the story again?
• What makes a hero?
• But is the hero happy?
• We need a flamboyant character, all characters so far are brooding serious characters.
• A villain

• Day 21:
• DNA?

• Day 22:
• 19K

• Day 24:
• 8 AM - 20K. Great, I should be finishing 40K  and I am not even close-50%.

• Day 25:
• 9 AM: 22.3K
• 1 PM: 23K
• 6 PM: 25K
• 26K

• Day 26:
• 28K

• Day 27:
• 29K
• 30K
• Plot twist
• 32K

• Day 28:
• 33K

• Day 29:
• 3.30 AM
• 5 AM-300 words only!
• 7 AM-34K
• 10 AM-35K
• 2.30 PM-37K
• 4.40 PM-38K

• Day 30:
• 4.40 PM-45K
• 11.30 PM-50K

 ~

Would I want to write again? Yes!
If you are like me, a procrastinator, I would definitely suggest to take up the NaNoWriMo challenge.

~