+ This year I won at NaNo for the
fifth time. Hopefully it won’t be the last. The best part about doing a solid
month of writing so much is that it means you have a good chunk of a novel done
when you hit the last day of the month. The
bad part is that for me that is still only two thirds of the way and I still
have a third to go to finish it, plus the editing process.
But it can pay off. When I look back
at my work over the five years I’ve taken part in NaNoWriMo, I see one book
that has been published and another that is scheduled to release soon. That doesn’t
even take into account two others that I am in the process of completing. And
that is one of the big benefits of NaNo. Here are some of the other benefits
and reasons I do it every year:
1.
You
have a novel nearly completed with only editing and some additions to make. The
words as there, the plot just needs to wrap up.
2.
You’re
not alone. You can look at the website and see all the places around the world
where people are taking part. We also have an active group writing here in
Denver and there are always write-ins or writing sessions where you can go and
commiserate with fellow writing addicts even late into the night.
3.
You
end up with a sense of accomplishment at the end. I like that feeling I get
every day when I fill in my totals and see it rise either to the bar that means
I am keeping up with the daily word count you need to finish on time or go
above it to give me some breathing room when I knew I couldn’t write all day.
4.
It
provides a good refresher in how to keep writing fast. There are times when I don’t write as much
but when NaNoWriMo comes along, I know I will be plugging away at getting my
fifty thousand words written so I have everything prepared and ready to go and
just sit down and write. That is good practice for the rest of the year.
5.
It
also provides a nice sense of accomplishment at the end of the month when I see
what I can do if I only set my mind to it. Some days I wrote up to 4500 words,
and that shows me I can do that if I have a story to tell and the will to do
it.
This year my
project was called Return to Redfern. It’s a follow up to my book that came out
two years ago, Shadows from the Past. The big house I used in that book,
Redfern Manor was one of those places I just couldn’t get out of my head. I had
to go back so while my original heroine has moved on, I have someone else who
is haunted by that place, and just has to go back.
In a few
days I’ll be starting my edits on it, something I know I wouldn’t be doing if I
hadn’t taken part in NaNoWriMo!
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