NaNoWriMo
has come to an end, and I have failed miserably in the goal of generating
50,000 words for my novel. It isn’t the first time this has happened, and I
dare say it will not be the last. Still, I’m coming away from November with my
head held high, and I would encourage all of you other writers that “failed”
the test to do the same.
At
the end of the day, I added 25,000 words to my book. While this was less than
the goal, it was still a good chunk to tack on to the work I’ve been doing all
year. In the past I have tried to bear down and push to the word total at the end
of the month, but this year I learned a very valuable lesson.
Sometimes, it is
better to recognize defeat and throw in the towel.
Before
you start saying that I’m being defeatist, hear me out. Writing is NOT a
production-line, assembly-style process. You can’t make the magic happen, no
matter how much you want it to. Though I am inspired by my novel right now and
continue to plough forward with it, I am not 1,700-words-a-day inspired. I know
that to create something truly special, sometimes you have to be patient. I
would have loved to completely NaNoWriMo, but it made more sense to step back
and breathe. In the end, I know my project will be stronger for it.
