NaNo Completo

I know it's December 1st and NaNoWriMo 2010 is almost 24 full hours behind us, literally yesterday's news. Rest assured, I completed the 50,000 word goal within the month. The 50,000th-ish word crossed the finish line at approximately 22:29 EST on 11/29. Plenty of time!

It's awesome to know that I accomplished something I'd set out to do. It's even cooler to know that thousands of people out there did the same thing and that some of those novels will be published some day soon! But not too soon...

A common misconception about NaNoWriMo is that once you've hit your 50,000 words, you magically have a complete novel. That couldn't be further from the truth. In some cases, people's stories may in fact be finished. But rushing through 50,000 words in a month means you will have a heap of editing and revising to do. Around the end of NaNoWriMo, agents start adding "Do not submit this year's NaNoWriMo until at least six months from now" clauses for that very reason.

Others, such as myself, might not even be done with their story at 50,000 words. A ballpark figure for fiction novels out on the shelves right now is 70,000-90,000 words. "Indigo" will end up somewhere around there. And for the record, I'm having an awesome time writing it! The characters are almost writing their own back-stories, dialogue and action scenes now. They've gotten a lot more interesting over the past month!

So will I attempt it again next year? I don't know. November happened to be one of the busiest months ever and I don't know where I'll be writing-wise next year. If I have a few projects that are begging to be written and nothing else pressing, then sure!

In the meantime, I have one more novel to finish (Indigo) and two to revise (Crawl, Blackwatch). Maybe early in 2011, one (or both) of them will find their way onto a shelf near you!

Happy belated Thanksgiving and congrats to anyone who attempted NaNoWriMo!

~VK