IT’S HERE! The end of NANO! You made it! All that blood, sweat, tears, and missed episodes of your favorite TV shows was worth it, but is it really the end?
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Heck no! It’s just the beginning. Now that the 50K (or how ever many words you managed) is done, here comes the hard work. Editing.
Now, before you start throwing that left over Thanksgiving dinner at me, let me say this one thing first. You don’t have to do it now. In fact I recommend letting that NANO novel sit until after the holidays. Right now, just bask in the joy that you made it to the end. Even if you didn’t finish, you made progress on your story and that’s all that matters. Unless of course you wimped out and didn’t make it past 1k words, then I have no sympathy for you. Just kidding. 🙂
Enjoy the feeling that you achieved a major accomplishment. You started a book and finished it. And you did it in 30 days! WOW! That is a major feat and one that should be celebrated. Here are some ideas:
1. Chocolate and lots of it
2. Trip to the spa or hairdressers (Like me you probably need it.)
3. Reading, and more reading
4. Catch up on all those missed episodes of your TV shows
After a break at Christmas, and a massive overdose on Historical Romances (my favorite to read), and catching up on my reading list, it will be back to work on January 1st. I will be working on releasing the first book in my Deadly Series (release date to come) and tweaking the dreaded wonderful marketing plan. 🙂
One of my NANO goals this year was to get my daily word count average up to 2500 words a day. I used these tips to get me there. Here’s what I learned this time around.
1. Ironing out my plot is a must, along with a system for continually tweaking it when I hit road blocks. For me this means reviewing each plot point and looking for plot holes, or where scenes can be added
2. Brainstorming is my best friend. I do this by asking ‘what if’ questions about the story or interrogating my characters about their actions
3. Handwriting and/or planning the scenes out in my head BEFORE I sit down to write is a huge time saver. You don’t have to write out the whole scene, but just the basics of what you want or see happening. It’s a great guide when you’re writing the full scene and gets the creative juices flowing
I love hearing from you? WHAT DID YOU LEARN FROM THIS YEAR’S NANOWRIMO AND HOW ARE YOU CELEBRATING?
I didn’t participate in the NaNoWriMo competition but I truly appreciated your tips on letting a manuscript sit. Editing is a big job but I think it doesn’t have to be boring. I think it’s the part where you get to know more about your book and your characters. It can be pretty exciting. But I do think you have to come to it with a fresh mind.
Hi Carol,
You’re right. Editing doesn’t have to be boring. I think of it as learning to be a better writer. You can learn so much about your writing process and habits (good and bad) when editing, and use it to write a better story and hence be a better writer.
It’s great that you think of editing as exciting!