Day Thirty Total: 67,907 words

So I'm finally ready to talk about the end of NaNoWriMo. Clearly I was a winner. That was established some days ago, and even verified by the NaNoWriMo bots on the 26th of November.

I semi gave up toward the end. It's clear that It's not quite finished and I'm actually fleshing out the ending today, by adding in a part that I'd completely forgotten: that the story cannot end before the band actually decides upon its name. And then I'll be happier to call the whole thing finished, even if it could maybe use another scene or two in the last chapter.

It was odd how the last chapter that I'd been looking forward to writing the entire time, took me a couple of days to really get into. But overall I'm happy with the way everything turned out. I, somehow, managed to avoid a lot of days where I just couldn't write anything because I hated my story. There were days when it was difficult to write, but not because I hated the story. I wonder if that's a good thing or a bad thing. I'm guessing I'm going to hate it once I get around to reading the thing over again.

Here's my final NaNoWriMo graph. I forged my own path this year... well, so I sort of followed last year's for the first half of the month, but after that, I went my own way. I'm really quite proud of myself.

I think I'm done

I'm not sure if I am yet. I'm not happy with my ending. I don't think it's abrupt, it was clearly the end of the novel, but it's kind of short. I've still got a few hours to decide, and in draft two it will probably be longer, but right now, I think I'm done.

Day Twenty-Nine Total: 65,727 words so far

I wrote a few more words. But there's still a few more left to write. And then a few more after that.

Day Twenty-Eight Total: 64,194 words so far

Yesterday's total was a lie. I forgot that I'd written a sentence on the bus. Lol.

Day Twenty-Eight Total: 64,181 words so far

Um yeah, I didn't write much. But I haven't written much at all on previous Saturdays this month, so I don't really see that as a problem.

But I've decided to finish tomorrow. So I'm going to.

Day Twenty-Seven Total: 64,158 words so far

Today was a good day, probably because I ended up writing in all sorts of places. I started out in front of the computer as usual, then wrote on a bus, a bus stop bench, and I wrote while walking home (i.e. along footpaths and across roads). There's something kind of fun about risking your life (in a non-risky way) while writing, something that's generally seen as quite a non-risky activity. Maybe next year I'll start extreme-writing or something.

I have 5k more words to go-ish. Since every time I make an estimate it seems to balloon, I actually think it's pretty likely that I'll end up with over 70k words of story. That's kind of amazing. It's so much longer than the stuff I'm usually able to write and keep my attention on.

The interesting thing about this year's novel is that not that much actually happens in it, but I'm still managing to hit my word count by making lots of little things happen, that don't have too much to do with the overarching plot.

Day Twenty-Six Total: 60,898 words so far

Back to the writing. After all, I'm going to have to write at least 2k a day if I want to finish... well, it's a little less than 2k, but whatever. I have to write, so I am.

Day Twenty-Five Total: 57,934 words so far

I would have written more... but I didn't realise there was so much good TV on. Lol.

Day Twenty-Four Total: 57,574

So, I discovered that I haven't written a word on the 24th the previous three times I've done NaNoWriMo. I imagine in previous years I told myself I could take the day off because it was my birthday. This year I decided not to break from tradition, and abandoned my sub-goal of no zero word count days.

Day Twenty-Three Total: 57,574 words so far

So... haven't cracked 58k yet. Maybe today.

Day Twenty-Two Total: 57,431 words so far

Seems to me that 58k is proving hard to crack.

I imagine that once I get past it I'll be able to magically finish writing the rest of the story in one day.

Day Twenty-One Total: 57,315 words so far

I wrote a little more today. But not that much. Tomorow's going to be so hot I doubt I'll write much tomorrow either.

Day Twenty Total: 56,392 words so far

I can only say that it was too hot to write yesterday.

Day Nineteen Total: 56,071 words so far

I'm finding it easier to force myself to write these days... as compared with every other time I've done NaNoWriMo. I wonder why...

Anyway, today's estimate for how long the story is going to be is sixty-seven thousand words. That's only one thousand more than yesterday, so I count that as a triumph. =)

This is officially the longest thing I've ever written now!

I'm so not used to writing lengthy amounts of fiction, part of why I'll probably never be a professional writer. But that means that I know that since this story is now longer than the one I wrote last year during November that this is the longest thing I've ever written.

In other news, that means that my green line won't cross over my orange line again. Hooray for me.

My Green Line Crossed My Orange One!

Check it out! I've been wanting to get this year's word count higher than the one from last year for a while now. For a while I thought I wouldn't be able to do it until next week, but look, my word count's already higher!

If I write well tomorrow, I may make this story the longest thing I've ever written! Hurrah!

This graph has been fascinating me for a while. 2007 stats are a little fudged since I didn't keep a daily log of my word counts, which kind of sucks, but I think it's fascinating how closely it resembles 2008's line, even though I remember having a lot more trouble in 2008 with my story.

This year I'm forging my own path. Hopefully my green line won't cross my orange line again this year.

Day Eighteen Total: 52,338 words so far

So, I passed fifty thousand words today.

I'm estimating about fourteen thousand more words to go, which increases my estimate from 65k to 66k... if this continues, I'm going to end up with a decently lengthed novel... not that I have any intention of selling this book. It's just going to end up on the internet for randoms to read.

I HAVE A GREEN BAR!!!

Why yes, yes I am excited. Very, very, very excited!!!

Through a combination of Write or Die sprints, I managed to conquer the last two and half thousand or whatever it was that I had to write today to get past 50k! I am so excited, but I can't help but feel sad that I still have about 16k left to write before the story is finished. 16k that I still hope to finish by the end of November, because I know that if I leave it until after that, I'll never finish writing it. And it would be very, very, very sad if this story didn't have an ending.

Now I get to take my pastry out of the fridge and roll it out nice because I am making peach pie.

Day Seventeen Total: 47,254 words so far

So I owe a massive difference in word count from yesterday mostly to a couple of word sprints with @NaNoWriMo (Chris Baty). At least I think it was Chris Baty, he said it was Chris and I can't think of another one. Lol. I missed the first sprint, and while I was bemoaning that, little did I know he was planning another two.

Something about semi-competitively writing against someone else is very conducive to writing a lot of words... not that I wrote more than I ever had before or anything. Really, the reason why I write so much more in November than in any other month is because of the community. I do it for the joy of saying that I did it, but writing fifty thousand or so words in any month is always worthwhile, and I will always be able to find people who will say to me, "That's great", so I don't need to do it in November. November is for writing with other people. Without them, it just wouldn't be the same.

The rest of my word count can be attributed to sewing together the bits that I wrote while sprinting, and to a post-11pm stint where I decided that I just wanted to write more.

Day Sixteen Total: 41,956 words so far

Yesterday was a weird day. Well, not really. My computer decided to start running slow at about ten last night, so it took forever to get any writing done, so I gave up and didn't update.