NaNo-NowWhat?

[cheekychook]

I was going to wait until the end of the month to pose this question, but since several people using the NaNo tracking widget have already crossed the 50k line and others seem to be making steady progress, I thought I'd ask it now. What is your NaNo goal and what do you plan to do when you're done? Will you stop at 50k? Keep going until it's completely done? How many words are you aiming for in total?

To answer my own questions---My nano goal was to hit 50k before we leave to visit relatives for Thanksgiving weekend, and I'm happy to say I reached that tonight, five days ahead of schedule. (Woot!). I plan to keep working on this project for the remainder of the month and then I'll go back and reread and see what needs to be filled in/deleted. I'd had the story planned out in my head for a long time, so there aren't too many undecided facets, but I write scenes out of order, so although there may not be many gaps in the plot, there are always sections I do need to fill in when I read it. I'm aiming for a total wordcount of under 100k so that I can avoid having to massively cut things to whittle wordcount (like I had to do on the book I'm currently querying). I haven't been reading my NaNo as I go, so I'm actually looking forward to doing that---I've been sending it my loyal beta readers and my critique partner so they can tell me if I do anything glaringly astray and so far they haven't mentioned anything bad. Maybe they're just being really kind. In any case NaNo has certainly been a pleasant change from the query-go-round. I finally feel like I've stopped spinning.

[sierramcconnell]

Originally I said I was going to try and fit in two books.

But I'm not done with this book. I need to close it, go back and add a lot of characterization that was missed, and I'm having way too much fun with it. I let myself go nuts with this one, unlike the other one I was working on. This one had a plan, a backbone, and yet I went what I call 'crack' with it, adding jokes and fun timing with it. I LOVE IT. It's hilarious and yet serious, it made me laugh, cry, and want to write it.

I'm going to continue it. I still want the green boxes on my calendar. So it's definitely going to continue to be worked on. If I start to stagnate on it, I can always work on the other book I had plans for.

The amazing thing I had happen this month is that we have a published author in our writing group who owns a publishing company. OMG.

[Down the well]

I'm always curious to know how much of what is written during NaNo is actually salvageable. I can't imagine writing that fast and furious. I'm an admitted pantser, but I also plod along at a tortoise's pace so I don't get too tripped up as I find my way. Speaking for myself, I know there'd be a lot of filler in my writing if I was trying to reach a certain word count everyday.

So how much of what you wrote will you keep? Or is it too soon to know?

[cheekychook]

I'm always curious to know how much of what is written during NaNo is actually salvageable. I can't imagine writing that fast and furious. I'm an admitted pantser, but I also plod along at a tortoise's pace so I don't get too tripped up as I find my way. Speaking for myself, I know there'd be a lot of filler in my writing if I was trying to reach a certain word count everyday.

So how much of what you wrote will you keep? Or is it too soon to know?

While it's too soon to know for certain, I honestly think I will wind up keeping the vast majority of this NaNo. Obviously there will be countless edits/tweaks and endless polishing needed (what work doesn't require that?) but I've actually been very careful not to write filler. I will need to add more than take away (as opposed to my complete novel, which I am still pulling words out of sometimes).

As I said, I've had the full idea for this story in my head for some time now, and I have the added advantage of knowing my characters---the NaNo is a completely stand alone piece, but the two main characters were in the novel I am querying---the NaNo story focuses on them at an entirely different phase of their lives/relationship so someone would in no way need to read or know anything about the first one to read/understand the second one. Given that I already know the characters, it's very easy for me to fall into writing them---I know how they speak, their mannerisms, how they handle things, their history---it's very comfortable. I can't write a word if I don't know who I'm writing about, what makes them tick and what's going to happen (the story arc).

I wasn't sure how I was going to do with NaNo (this is my first one). It turns out it works very well for me. I naturally write in complete scenes---microcosms of the plot that are often (almost always) complete chapters---so I tend to write in 2000-3000 word increments as my natural writing rhythm. Under normal circumstances I don't do that daily, but NaNo forced me to set that as my pace. I haven't reread yet, other than to find my place or check a fact here or there, but in a caution-to-the-wind moment last week I submitted my first 20k words or so to my critique group---more as a lark than anything else (normally we don't submit nearly that many pages at a time, I was just doing it as some light entertainment for the group more than for a line edit). There is another member of my group who is NaNoing and at our last meeting she started the group by making the announcement that having read my NaNo there was no way she'd be submitting any of her NaNo to the group, because while hers felt like a pre-first draft mine read like a polished 2nd of 3rd draft. It's one of the nicest compliments anyone's ever given me! Makes me look forward to rereading to see if I agree with her, but for now I'm trying to keep moving forward with it. On that note, off to Nano...

[Down the well]

There is another member of my group who is NaNoing and at our last meeting she started the group by making the announcement that having read my NaNo there was no way she'd be submitting any of her NaNo to the group, because while hers felt like a pre-first draft mine read like a polished 2nd of 3rd draft.

I would definitely fall into the pre-first draft quality if I worked at that pace too, LOL. Congrats on getting so much accomplished. I have a feeling, however, that your experience is not typical.

[Sommer Leigh]

I'm not going to end up hitting 50,000, but that wasn't my goal to begin with.

At first it was really just an experimentation in writing in first person, something I have never done. But once I got started and the world sort of unraveled, a lot of got me excited. And as soon as I got excited about the idea I slowed down and started really thinking about the story and doing more outlining/researching. I want to continue working on this beyond November, and it is more meaningful to me to spend more time on the back end now, even if I don't hit 50,000. I'm a little more than halfway done, and I'm pleased with a lot of what I've written, but I doubt I will keep much of it. I already know that research is going to change a lot of what I'd already imagined.

[sarahdee]

I'm not going to end up hitting 50,000, but that wasn't my goal to begin with.

At first it was really just an experimentation in writing in first person, something I have never done. But once I got started and the world sort of unraveled, a lot of got me excited. And as soon as I got excited about the idea I slowed down and started really thinking about the story and doing more outlining/researching. I want to continue working on this beyond November, and it is more meaningful to me to spend more time on the back end now, even if I don't hit 50,000. I'm a little more than halfway done, and I'm pleased with a lot of what I've written, but I doubt I will keep much of it. I already know that research is going to change a lot of what I'd already imagined.

I'm the same - no way I will hit the 50k mark as it was a writing experiment (for me a different genre/market than POV). I've been naughty though and while I have tried to stop myself editing, I have been doing some research as I go...

I think I may finish it during December and send to my beta readers to see if its a 'stick in the drawer and forget' or 'edit and try and do something with' job. Its a YA fantasy (I usually wrote adult crime) so I'm not sure if its good or pants.

Anyone know what a word count should be for YA book? I'm at 20k and around a third of the way through my story so I guess its going to come out at the 60 mark which seems short for my usual genre?

I have three WIPs that I stopped working on to do this so I guess I will go back to them.

[Louise Curtis]

I successfully wrote a NaNo novel last year (not my first time - if anything, the books I've written for NaNo are better than the others), and I've waited a few months (so I have fresh eyes) and edited and waited and edited again several times, then used a friend (I never waste a beta reader on a first draft), then sent it to a publisher (who was kind enough to give me comments that showed I still hadn't edited enough). I'm about to edit it a whole lot more, then send it off again.

[cheekychook]

I don't ever send out first drafts either---my NaNo was given out for entertainment purposes only---I was just pleasantly surprised (and by that I mean shocked) by the response. Every piece of writing, NaNoed or not, needs tons of editing. Some things could still use another pass by an editor even after they make it into published form. I'm sure I'll feel that way about my own work if it ever gets to that stage!