Reflecting on Nanowrimo 2024

For the last several years now, I have strived to participate in the Nanowrimo challenge, with varying degrees of success. This year was vastly different than previous years because not only did I hit my targets, albeit a little delayed during some weeks, but I also was able to almost complete the first draft of a new novel that I had been considering for some time. This one was very special to me in that the story had been on my mind for almost a decade, I just could not envision enough of it to start putting it to paper until this year.

My approach was also changed this year, in the past, i went through Preptober and tried to get my head around the planning approaches to a novel, and it helped, but i still found myself mired in the details more than the actual storyline. This would not do for this year, so i took a different approach, focused more on the core, made notes and followup tasks for the tangent items that i would look into later, and was able to work out a solid plan for almost 60% of the novel, from timelines to character sheets I was ready.

When actually putting to paper the world that is in your head, it is a very challenging experience, how much can you put out there, do you need to hold things back. Lots of decisions down to the smallest detail can make or break your story. While I felt prepared, hit the ground running that first day, ready to write and make the most of this challenge, and then life hit. The writing plans that i had so meticulously laid out, were soon tossed aside and I found myself back to scrambling to find time, usually late at night to get the word counts in, even if it was only a paragraph or two, I had to keep writing every day.

Once through with the challenge during that month, I took a step back from the project to regroup on where to take the story next, I have cleared almost 70-75% of the story that i wanted to share, and now it is coming down to the climatic end of the characters battles. That is where i am starting to struggle, the build up has happened and I know that in editing i will rewrite a significant portion of it. All in all, however, I am very pleased with how the project has progressed and where i need to take it next. Who knows this may be the first novel I ever publish.