NaNoWriMo Wrap-Up // Part One

Well, it’s December. When did that happen? 

I guess it’s time to talk about how NaNoWriMo went. 

For today, I’m just going to touch on the highlights, but I’ll go into more detail on Wednesday, if my brain doesn’t die. At the moment, I’m crunching to finish DRACONIAN by the end of January, and this after writing 606,606 words in November (oops, spoilers), so we’ll see how this goes. Send help.

Before November, I listed my goals. I passed my main goal of 500,005 words and came in at 606,606. 

Click to embiggen

See those low-word count days? Aside from the first weekend, on Saturdays and Sundays I wrote 1,100 so I could get the badge for writing every day. But since those were work days, which leave me a little extra tired and spacey, I decided to give my wrists a break and not push myself to write. I’m weirdly fond of how wavy my graph looks. It has character. *hugs graph* *gets confused and starts gnawing on keyboard* 

While I didn’t get my dream goal of 800,008, I’m cool with that. I felt like I paced myself well, broke most (if not all) of my records, and came away feeling accomplished but not burnt out. I socialized, hung out at my church a lot even on my days off because I like my fellow staff, worked custodial on the weekends, enjoyed Thanksgiving, watched a couple movies in theaters, took care of my wrists, and got enough sleep. The month didn’t feel like a chore, or even too much like a marathon—it felt like fun, which is what it’s supposed to feel like. That’s not to say there weren’t days I felt like quitting, because there were, especially toward the end, but I don’t feel disappointed with myself like I did last year. 

As for personal achievements, I managed to write 10K in an hour, reached a typing speed of 170 wpm (not consistently, of course, because pain), and got not just one 50K day, but three. 

And another bonus, last year I tied for 9th place in the faces chart. This year, by some strange twist of fate, I got 1st. Someone hold me. 

Yep, zat is me, Lorna Doone 11. 

Sadly, after flying off fifty million times throughout the month, the J key on my keyboard is officially broken. (Just the key, not the actual button—I can still type with it. See: jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj.) It’s sitting on my bedside table right now, waiting for me to buy superglue to, hopefully, stick it back on. *squints disapprovingly at keyboard* 

And that’s it for today, my little coffee beans. On Wednesday I plan to talk about the projects I worked on and other assorted wrap-up stuff. In the meantime, how was your NaNoWriMo? Did you participate this year? What were some highlights?