Note: This was written shortly after NaNo ended, in November, but I haven’t been able to get it transcribed and posted until now. Enjoy anyway!
Thirty days. Fifty thousand words. One incredible journey.
Welcome, my friends, to the wonderful event that is known as NaNoWriMo!
The National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo as it is more commonly known as, is a crazy writing event that has been running for around eleven years. The goal: To write a novel of 50k words or more during, and only during, the month of November.
It’s a huge task; something that requires dedication, time and most of all, the unstable desire to win at all costs. Every year, hundreds of thousands of people join up, all hoping to cross the finish line and declare themselves victors over the world of noveling. But many fall by the wayside, and only a small fraction (less than twenty percent) will actually be named official winners.
I first heard of NaNoWriMo in 2006, I think, incidentally the first year that the event really went “mainstream” and became more well-known. I heard about it too late in the month to participate, but I thought it was an interesting and intriguing idea. I’d always wanted to write a novel, so this challenge seemed right up my alley and would be something I might want to do someday.
The next year, 2007, I was right in the middle of moving across the country, and naturally undertaking such an enormous task was not an option. So, once again, I had to postpone my dreams and say, “Next year.”
That “next year” was 2008, when I participated in my first NaNoWriMo. It was such a crazy, insane month; it’s hard to sum it up in a few words I wrote a story that I’d had in my mind for several years. I’d been waiting for an opportunity to get it written…now was the time.
Going into that November, I was really feeling the pressure to actually finish. It just wasn’t a project to me. I’d tried to write novels before many times, but I’d never gotten far. If I couldn’t do it during NaNo, with tons of support and a killer deadline (I work well under deadlines.
), I didn’t think I’d ever be able to do it. It was make it or break it time.
Well, thankfully it wasn’t break it time. Spurred on by my own ambitions and by some healthy, fun competition from fellow NaNo’ers, I crossed the 50k threshold on Nov. 16, 2008. During the rest of the month, I went on to write 15k more, for a total of 65k. For someone who was hoping just to win, I went far and beyond my own expectations. It was exhilarating and so rewarding, and I couldn’t wait to do it again.
Well, another year did pass, and here November was again. This NaNoWriMo was so different from last year in so many different ways. I thought that since I’d done it once before, I knew what to expect and doing it again would be a breeze.
Wrong!
I’ve since learned that every writing experience is different. So much is dependent on not only what you’re writing, but also a whole host of other things; the people you have around you, the place you are in life, and other variables that are beyond your control.
One of the biggest things that made things so difficult this year was my novel itself. Last year, I wrote a very light, fluffy, fun book named Golden Dreams. It had it’s moments, of course, but all in all, it was quite upbeat and cheerful. Plus, I was writing about a sport that I enjoyed and knew fairly well, and t hat sport figured very heavily into the story.
This year, novel, named Spirals, was so different. The only thing it really had in common with Golden Dreams was the fact that it had an Olympic level sport in it. But even though my main character was a figure skater, her sport was not as prominent. Her life and character outside of sport was much more important, and that is what was difficult to write.
My story was heavy, folks! Lots of tears and grief and sadness. I discovered that the mood of one’s story can have a profound effect on one’s own mood and enjoyment of said story. In that respect, this NaNo was so much less fun for me to participant in because my story itself wasn’t as fun.
But, again, that isn’t a necessarily bad thing. I feel much more satisfied and rewarded as a writer with Spirals than I did with Golden Dreams. I think it’s a good story, and someday, Spirals may go places.
But I’m skipping ahead of myself. I know t hat back in November, I said that I was thinking about blogging during NaNo. I didn’t, obviously. Every time I thought about blogging, I’d smack myself upside the head and say, “Hey! Instead of blogging, you could spend the time, oh, I don’t know, maybe actually WRITING YOUR NOVEL instead!!!”
So yeah. No blogging.
But, I’d like to re-create that week-by-week style a bit and recap my NaNo experience from the beginning. So sit back, and enjoy!
The Lead-Up:
I started to get excited for this NaNo around September, I think. Which is a little bad, because it’s hard to maintain that growing level of excitement and anticipation for such a long period of time.
This year, I knew exactly what I wanted to write. I’d be doing another story I’d had in my mind for years; one I’d thought about writing last year but had postponed because I deemed it “too depressing”. Ha. ha. How little I knew. :p
As September went on and October began, I got more and more excited. I got all my material on order. I got my profile on NaNoWriMo.org all set up and ready to go. I donated for the very first time, and wore my golden halo proudly. I was so ready for November!
And then Worlds came.
Worlds (The Artistic Gymnastics World Championships, if you didn’t already know) killed my NaNo anticipation completely, as wonderful as that competition was. I re-discovered my love for gymnastics, and suddenly I was spending more time on gym forums than on the NaNo site. Suddenly, I was regretting that I was writing a skating story and not a gymnastics story instead!
As October drew to a close, my excitement began to come back, but it was came slowly, and not to the extent that I had thought it would be. I had a definite conflict of interesting my new job which I had just started, plus I was expecting o not having as much time to write as last year.
As the hours ticked down from October 31st, I was very uncertain and unsure as to how NaNoWriMo ‘09 might end up playing out. At that moment, I would be lucky just to get to 50k, let alone the 65k or very distant 80k I’d been hoping for.
Week One
NaNo started out a little quietly, without any major fuss. I was still regaining my excitement for the whole project and wasn’t feeling the hype and adrenaline rush that you normally do at the start of NaNo. What if I ever got my passion to write back and this NaNo fizzled before it even began?
Then came Menelve, my Screnzy partner, fellow NaNo-er and late-night chatter came along. “Why don’t we go for 10k in two days?” she suggested.
Ha ha. Are you freakin’ KIDDING?!?!?!
But here’s something that I discovered about myself during November: I am incapable of backing down from a challenge.
Oh, I hated it. I fought and protested it. I told her, “No way, Jose!”, in that many words. But mo matter how hard I tried, by the time the sun rolled around on Nov. 1st, I was already plotting on how I could realistically get to 10k by the next night. Against my will.
But I did it. Not by midnight, but before I went to bed on the 2nd. And you know what? It was just the shot in the arm that I needed to get my NaNo started and on the right track.
I managed to keep the pace up, and was able to drag myself across the 25k line before the week was out. I was half-way done…I should have been ecstatic! But I was miserable.
Well, not really. But the ‘un-fun’ part of my plot was coming back to bite me in the rear. Because I was writing in first person, I had to try and conjure up all the emotions of my main character up inside myself in order to describe them perfectly. I remember when I was writing one particularly emotional and sad scene, and I was thisclose to bursting into sobs. I’ve NEVER done that before with writing.
My actual novel was progressing nicely, but the writing experience itself wasn’t very fun and exhilarating…it was hard!
Week Two
After pushing to get to 25k by the end of the first week, I started the second week on a high. I cranked out the next 5k to make 30k so easily; it was insane. I was doing so well, and everything was going great!
And then I hit a brick wall.
This, my friends, is why I firmly believe that every NaNo writer hits their own version of the infamous “second week slump”, regardless of timing or word count. My second week slump lasted from 30k to 50k for me. Ouch. And it was so frustrating.
I kept writing, but I had no motivation. I’m a person who really thrives on friendly competition and needs it to stay motivated to push ahead. It had worked so well for me last NaNo. This time, though, thanks to my huge push early on, I had “out-written” all of my other writing buddies and there was no one to really challenge me.
So I had to find a way to challenge myself, and I did that by committing to make it to 50k by Sunday night. That would be 14k in three days; more than I’d ever written in that span of time before. Figure in the fact that I was also working on those days, or would be away for a significant portion, and we’re taking a pretty difficult job.
It was really daunting, but I sat down and got it done. I was able to finish in good time on Sunday, and beat my previous NaNo record by one day.
I was so proud of myself, not only just for finishing, but for setting my own goal and making it. It showed me that I didn’t necessarily need others to push me…I could push myself.
I’d completed the NaNo challenge…but not my novel. I still had SO much left to write, and two weeks in which to do it.
Week Three
Week Three is when NaNo really got fun for me, to be honest. I’d gotten my 50k, and the pressure was off. Now I had to finish, but that was becoming more and more doable, and a lot more enjoyable.
My direct competition with other NaNo’ers was pretty small. I’d had to go outside my group of close writing friends to find other Narniaweb NaNoWriMo’s who were on the same pace as I. But even then, my stupid overachiever status kept me from feeling any real motivation from them, so I was back to self-motivating. But it was more satisfying and fulfilling now.
My focus in the event began to shift from my own NaNo success, to the success of others. Now that my own win was secure, I was determined to help and cheer on as many others across the line as possible. As the “advertiser” of NaNo on Narniaweb, I became more and more excited as I tracked others success and saw how many were winning, or were coming close to winning.
One of the most exciting and special parts of the whole “encourager” role involved my dear friend who goes by the name Ellesar online. She had chatted with me nearly every night that month, and a fair bit last year during my first NaNo, and this year I was able to see her cross the finishing line to win her first NaNo ever. I can’t take any credit for her accomplishment, but it was just so exciting and fun to be there and cheer her on.
Other NWeb NaNo’ers crossed the finish line or neared it in Week Three, and I got more and more excited. NWeb had participated in NaNoWriMo before in various capacities. But never with this amount of participants, or with this degree of success. I couldn’t wait to see how we would shape up once NaNo was over.
As for my own writing, the week was fairly uneventful. I just kept going; smashing my own expectations with every 5k written. I’d gotten over the hardest part of my novel, and my plot and writing was actually becoming (gasp!) enjoyable!
Week Four
All month, I’d set Week 4, or Thanksgiving week, as the cut-off. I knew I was going to be extraordinarily busy that week, and I mentally told myself that no writing could be counted on to get done during that week. So I had my own deadline, apart from the NaNo deadline, and it was coming fast.
Week 4 was here, and my novel wasn’t done. Just getting to 50k wasn’t enough; I had to finish. It was Write A Novel challenge, not a Write 50k challenge. So I kept writing, even though the week got busier and busier.
As I went on, I surprised even myself more and more by just how successful I was. I would have been happy with finishing my novel at 50k. But here I was, past 60k, past 70k, and with 80k fast approaching. By all calculations, I became the NWebber with the highest word count, which put me officially in the “Certifiably Insane” category. It was all really surprising and pretty humbling. I didn’t realize I had it in me to write so much.
I finished my novel on Thanksgiving day, at 82k. I took the weekend off, and then used Monday, the very last day of NaNo, to finish an abandoned scene and make my official word count 83,071. NaNoWriMo ‘09 was over. And I’d surpassed even my most wild imaginations.
The Aftermath

After one Screnzy, two NaNo's and three years of use, I have a feeling that this keyboard is about to meet it's reward...
After the dust settled, the results and stats emerged and they were staggering. We had around 50 participants from Narniaweb, with 33 winners. The success rate was incredible! Together, we wrote a total of over two million words.
To me, that was almost more exiting than winning NaNo myself. Thirty-three individuals had just experienced the incredible joy that is writing a whole entire novel. That’s a feeling that is so hard to describe, and now completing this challenge for the second time, I was thrilled for everyone one who won as well, especially the first-time winners.
In my own personal front, I’d done what I thought was nearly impossible and learned some things about myself. I learned that i don’t need endless amounts of time to write so much in so little time…around 95% of my writing was done only between the hours of 8pm and 12am. That’s four hours of writing a day, and I averaged over 3.5k a day. And I know that I can write more, because mathematically, I can write over 3k an hour, if I really need to. And I didn’t even go near that pace this NaNo. That encourages me, because I know that with even less time and more obligations, I can still write 50k in a month, maybe ev3en more.
I’m much more satisfied with the result of this NaNo, novel-wise. This was a much harder story to write, but ultimately a better one. I didn’t execute it as well as I would have liked, but I think this story has potential. And someday, maybe, this novel could go places.
As for the future? Upwards and onwards, I hope. In the spring I’ll begin revising and editing, with the aim to get a free proof copy published in June. That’s as far as this little NaNo will go, for the present, but who knows.
I hope to participate in my second Script Frenzy in April. I’m not exactly sure what I’ll be writing, but one possibility is a screen adaption of this year’s NaNo.
And next November will be NaNo ‘10, hopefully! Lord willing and circumstances allow, I hope to write for my third year. Seeing as I will likely be very, very busy with the looming VdT release and whatnot in early December, I’m fairly sure that whatever I write will be fairly simple and easy. Maybe a sequel to last year’s NaNo, or a little nonsense novel based on my pet child “story”.
Whatever it ends up to be, I’m excited. I’m a writer; co-author of a full-length book-to-movie adaption and author of two novels.
…. 
I’ve always wanted to be a writer, and someday a published author. And slowly but surely, thanks to a little program based in San Francisco, my dream is coming true.