The whole point of NaNoWriMo was to finish the second novel.
I didn’t have to start from scratch, I had a decent head start over 10,000 words, but it was still a push. I had days where I wrote a hell of a lot. I had days where I wrote zero. Today I finished. Because I had the head start I won’t say I “won” but I am feeling pretty dang good about writing 40,000 words in a month.
Reflecting back now that I’ve written “the end,” here’s what stood out the most.
- This was much easier than the first one. I knew my world better. I knew my characters better. I put less pressure on myself. I trusted myself. The framework was already in my brain.
- I feel a lot better about this one than I did with the last one at this stage. That might be because…
- I wrote this one linearly and I wrote the first one in scenes. The story just told itself in my head and I hit the keys. I feel very, very lucky. So now that the story is told, I feel much better about it actually being readable than the jumble of scenes that were in some kind of order with the first one.
- The first book is forever changed now. In writing this one (the second in a series) I figured out a lot of answers I should have known about in the first one.
- I am already daydreaming the third one. When I finished with the first one, I didn’t want to think about anything for awhile. Now I already have the plot of my third adventure mapped out in my brain (but not on paper, that would be insane!)
November is for creating, December is for editing. I kind of dreaded the editing process before, but I’m anxious to sink my teeth into my first book’s draft and really straighten it out next month. I have time off over the holidays, and I am looking forward to holing up with my laptop and some kind of caffeinated beverage and making the changes I know I need to make. These changes will be good. They’ll make the story better. I feel better just thinking about them.
The plan is:
Book two rough manuscript done in November [Check]
Book one revisions ready by 1/1/18
Book one agent queries start to go out in January
Book three rough draft starts in February
Book three rough draft done by July
Grad school starts in August
Okay THAT gives me a bit of a headache, but my sophomore energy is off the charts right now. I’m feeling optimistic and happy and just LOVING NaNoWriMo!
How did you win this month, 50k words or not? Tell me in the comments!
The Merry Manuscript 