And just like that, NaNoWriMo 2019 is over. It’s the last week (+ two bonus days.) As always, this week overlaps with the Thanksgiving holiday, which means family and food and probably a bit less writing time for most. Before I reflect on NaNo as a whole, I’ll recap this week’s progress. I started this week with a total of 8,409 words.
11/22 – I didn’t write this day.
11/23 – I wrote 237 words in my novel.
11/24 – I wrote 349 words in my novel.
11/25 – I wrote 505 words in a blog post.
11/26 – I didn’t write this day.
11/27 – I didn’t write this day.
11/28 – I didn’t write this day.
11/29 – I didn’t write this day.
11/30 – I wrote 364 words in my novel and 424 words in a blog post.
My total for this week was 1,879 words, which brought my NaNoWriMo grand total to 10,288 words.
My goal for this week, that I set last week, was to write/finish a chapter in my novel, and I accomplished that. I use Scrivener for my novel, and I have a different icon for the chapters based on their degree of completeness. The yellow warning sign means I haven’t even started. The thought bubble means it’s in progress, and the check mark means it’s done. It was very satisfying to change a thought bubble into a check mark, and mark another chapter down as complete.
So overall NaNo reflections.
-I didn’t hit 50,000 words. I didn’t even get close. But it’s been a long time since I’ve written more than 10,000 words in a month, so I’m actually really happy with that progress.
-I didn’t write every day. But I was much more aware of trying to make time for writing every day. It was always in the back of my mind, and I squeezed it in where I was able. Again, I’m happy with that and consider it a win.
This list looks like a lot of things I didn’t do – I didn’t hit the word count, I didn’t write every day. But my main goal at the beginning of NaNo was just to do my best, to write more consistently than I normally do, and to be gentle with myself when I failed. So I’m being gentle with myself, and accepting the small victories where I can find them. This was a hard month, in my personal life, so I’m extra grateful to have achieved what I did.
I hope NaNo went well for you, and I hope you were gentle with yourself at any setbacks or “failures.” And I hope you keep that mindset in December, January, and beyond.
Ink Stains & Blank Pages 