NaNoWriMo

NaNoWriMo

Can it be possible that I have not written for over a year? Surely not? Why did I start this blog? To encourage myself to write. What have I been doing then? Well, writing actually.

I started by joining a website in June 2012 called 750words, I fell in love with the silly badges that they give you on your profile. First you are a egg, then I think a penguin or a turkey gradually you progress with each day of writing providing you don't miss a day. You write 750 words a day and it tells you some great fun stats about your writing, amount of swearing and such. You can get badges for writing every day in under twenty minutes or without distraction for ten days in a row. You get badges for... well, I won't spoil the surprises should you like the idea of collecting virtual badges then go and take a look at the website for yourself.  

Well, one of the badges is called NaNo. I had vaguely heard of National Novel Writing Month before and always thought it might be something I had a go at but never quite got there. On the 750 words site you get your NaNo badge for writing 50,000 words in a month, any month. I needed it for the set you understand, I became virtual badge obsessed and the incidental benefit - that I was for the first time in my life, writing every single day, like I always wanted to. All for a little badge with a hamster on it? Bizarre. I am now a Space Bird, with 530 consecutive days under my belt.

I managed to write 50,000 words of mostly rubbish in March this year to collect that badge and it made me look into the 'real' NaNoWriMo which is held in November every year. This year about 300,000 people from all over the world took part and attempted to write their novel and complete 50,000 words before midnight on the 30th November.  Of those 300,000 about 42,000 actually managed this extraordinary feat, and I was one of them! This sentence deserves an exclamation mark. I am trying to use them a little more sparingly, like a real writer ha ha, but... I was one of them!

I had a very vague idea  a story, something to do with the stories my husband tells me from his childhood, something to do with a young lad living in todays technology/internet fuelled childhood and the difference between the two. The benefits and drawbacks of both.

What emerged were characters I fell in love with, a difficult month in which I did very little else but think about my novel, plots and sub plots fell onto the page from goodness knows where, characters were formed and some I liked and then loved them, and some I almost wanted to finish off because I didn't like them. I became a god and could decide on their fate according to my whim.

The NaNo website is wonderful, full of support, ideas, forums to go to to rescue your plot, ask for ideas, character names, anything, absolutely anything at all. I buddied up with some other folks from around the world and could follow their progress. I could have asked for moral support from them too but to be honest I was just obsessed with writing my story and didn't have much time for anything else.

I wrote 50,019 words in 25 days (Unusual, I am normally so 11th hour) So now I am a NaNo winner. What did I win - well, nothing actually. But glory glory glory - all in my own head too as the family are not that impressed to be honest. Oh Yes, and I also won a 50,019 word, rough, oh so rough, draft of a novel that maybe possibly could be something one day?

I have bought a book on self editing, I will keep you posted - hopefully without you having to wait another year.