Now NaNo is over

I meant to post this earlier but was felled by the Dreaded Lurgy. Now it looks as though I'm going to live, it's time to assess my NaNoWriMo achievements.

First of all, the big news is that in the month of November I wrote a staggering 52,000 words. And I thought I would struggle to reach 30,000! I'm so pleased with myself. I haven't quite finished the first draft but I'm halfway through the final chapter. Nearly there!

So what has NaNo done for me?

Firstly it's given me the push to complete (well, almost) a first draft that's been dragging on since early summer. Giving myself permission to dedicate a whole month to writing meant that I had no more excuses not to write and I found that I enjoyed the intensity of having to produce 2k words a day.

It's also given me the confidence to know that I can write to a deadline. As an unpublished writer I have the luxury of time. But if I achieve my goal of selling to a publisher then I'm going to be facing deadlines. I needed to know if I had the stamina for that.

Another thing I've learned to do is focus on the story rather than the words. When I wrote my first novel it took ages because I spent so long agonising over the right words. I couldn't afford to do that with NaNo and I found it liberating. Time enough to get the words right when editing. For now all that mattered was to get the story down. Think I even used the word 'thingy' a couple of times!

Finally, Nano has given me a house that looks like the aftermath of a riotous teen party. I knew there had to be a downside...