Well, it’s official: I won National Novel Writing Month!
Although this probably isn’t a surprise to anyone who’s been following along, since I haven’t shut up about it anywhere, I thought I’d do a final post for this year’s NaNoWriMo, wrapping up how it went!
I set out this month to write 50,000 words of a retelling of Persuasion by Jane Austen over the course of 30 days. My final word count was…
60,326 words!
Not only that, but I actually managed to finish writing the whole novel! In my last writing update, I talked about this as my new goal, since at that point I was pretty close to 50k words. I hit that target on Nov. 27, then kept writing like crazy despite the fact that it was already an incredibly busy few days. (Why did Thanksgiving have to fall on the last weekend of the month??)
By the time we got to Saturday, the last day of the month, I still had a ways to go and wasn’t sure if I would actually finish in time. But despite the fact that I had just worked a full day of Black Friday weekend in retail and hadn’t gotten much sleep the last few nights, I decided to press on. I ended up writing 6k words in five hours and typed “The End” at 11:54 PM.
It was a close call, but I did it. I wrote an entire novel, start to finish, in the month of November, which I’ve never done before. This is the fastest I’ve ever written a first draft. (It’s also the shortest first draft I’ve ever written, but still.)
Of course, this draft is still a bit of a mess. There are some scenes that I skipped entirely the first time round, that I’ll have to go back and add in eventually. The ending feels rushed, which I guess is what happens when you write the entire climax and falling action in one sitting. And there are plenty of themes and plot threads that need clarification and strengthening. Who knew that writing a retelling would be this hard?
2019 is my sixth year participating in NaNoWriMo and my fifth time hitting my goal. Here’s to many more!
What’s next?
Next up: this draft is being put on the shelf for the time being. I’ve jotted down some of the things that I know need work now, but I want to be able to return to it with fresh eyes, which means not looking at it for at least a month or two.
In the meantime, I’ll be returning to my dragon WIP that I spent most of the year writing! I finished my first draft in October and it’s been in the back of my mind ever since then. I have so many new ideas and I’m excited to start taking it from a mess to something coherent.
I’ve never seriously taken on revising for a project of this size, and I’m a little nervous to start out. I’d love any tips or resources that you have for revisions!
I haven’t started thinking about my writing goals for 2020 yet, but I imagine I’ll spend a lot of it working on the dragon WIP and probably eventually revising this Persuasion retelling. I have about a million ideas for what I’m going to write next, so I should probably start narrowing that down as well.
But for now, I’m basking in the glow of my NaNoWriMo victory!
I was kind of worried that writing this retelling would dampen my love ofΒ Persuasion, but luckily the exact opposite happened! And I’m really happy that I finally wrote this retelling that’s been rattling around in my head for the last year and a half. Even if I never do anything with it, I still have it as this self-indulgent thing just for me!
A few tiny excerpts from this project:
As usual, my best lines are basically stolen right from Jane Austen herself.
Writing music
So my playlist for this WIP is like 50% Mitski, 30% Taylor Swift, and the rest a jumble of other artists. It be like that sometimes.
- First Love / Late Spring by Mitski
- Please, hurry, leave me, I can’t breathe / Please don’t say you love me
- Shrike by Hozier
- I couldn’t utter my love when it counted / Ah, but I’m singing like a bird ’bout it now
- This Love by Taylor Swift
- This love left a permanent mark / This love is glowing in the dark
Did you participate in NaNoWriMo? Have you finished any writing projects recently?
x MargaretΒ
goodreads | twitterΒ | indiebound
Woot! You go, girl! Congratulations on hitting and speeding past that 50,000 mark! You should celebrate with a slice of really good cheesecake. π
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Ooh, I like the way you think π Thanks so much!!
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You’re very welcome! π
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HOT DAMN. A Persuasion retelling sounds amazing! Hurry up and finish this book, pleaaase π
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Thanks!! I’m definitely excited to finish it, and I’m glad you’re excited too! π
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Congratulations!!! Well done!
So…I didn’t realize we were buddies on NaNoWriMo and write in the same region. 0_0
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NO WAY! What a small world!! I didn’t go to many write ins so the chance of us having run into each other is slim, but still…wild! π±
And thank you, btw, and congrats on your own NaNo writing! π
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Aw… huge congrats on winning NaNoWriMo and finishing your whole book!! That’s amazing and I definitely feel like you should be screaming about it everywhere!! YOU FINISHED A BOOK IN A MONTH!!!! β€ That is so awesome!! Also well done on working on Black Friday!! π
I've never revised a novel so I don't really have any advise there but I wish you the best of luck with and I hope you share bits of your progress with it!!
I loved seeing your lines from your WIP, they are so good!! β€
Best of luck with your next steps!!
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Thanks so much!! π Haha yep, surviving work on Black Friday is a feat up there with finishing a novel π
I definitely will be doing lots of updates as I revise, I’m sure! Thanks so much, I’m delighted that you liked those little lines π
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WOAH CONGRATS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I HAVE NEVER FINISHED A DRAFT SO THIS IS INSPIRING TO FINISH MY DRAFT (outlook doubtful) BUT CONGRATS OMJG THIS IS AMAZING I LOVE HEARING PEOPLE FINISH DRAFTS IT’S JUST AMAZINNNNG!
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Thanks so much! π I’m glad that me finishing my draft could be inspiration to you. And you can do this!! Don’t give up!
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congrats, You must be really proud!! I tried NaNoWriMo but through circumstances like school exams I only got 25K words. I’m still happy about it :). that you got even more than 50K is amazing
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Thanks so much, I definitely am proud! And wow, writing 25k on top of school exams is a huge accomplishment π Congrats!!
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That’s incredible you wrote an entire retelling in a month! And I’m happy to hear it increased your love of persuasion π
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Yesss it certainly did π Thank you!! π
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Congratulations!! π I’m so pleased you managed to meet your goals, it’s amazing that you managed to write a whole novel in a month! You’ve definitely earned a celebration and a rest!
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Thanks so much! π I’d say a celebration and a rest sound great!
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Congrats on finishing!!!!! And you did cut it super short! A whole six minutes to spare after a whole month of writing is pretty impressive! Good job!
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Haha I know, I sure was cutting it close with six minutes to spare. But thanks so much!!
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