I Reached The 50,000 Mark
A quick note tonight to let you, faithful readers, know that I’ve reached my goal of 50,000 words for NaNoWriMo about half a hour ago. My word count proudly stands at a mighty 50,306, and I’m feeling pretty proud of myself right now.The story itself isn’t completely done, so I’ll go on finishing the last remaining half-chapters during the last week of November, if only because I really want to be done with it, and not file it as some pathetic attempt at a novel. I’ll do the editing part in January-February probably, given that I have this need to get my hands on a serious, scientific book or two regarding viruses to make sure I haven’t spewed too many inaccuracies in it.To tell the truth, I’m not feeling fed up. I’m at peace. I don’t have any fears anymore regarding my ability to write a lot and keep on liking it. I’ve learnt a lot during these past three weeks, and the most important part of it all is that if I plan my story, I can go far. Some people can write without a plan, just by letting the inspiration flow. I can’t do that. I need to “force” myself to write even when I’m lazy, not inspired, invoking the writer’s block and whatnot, and having a thorough plan is what works for me. It works just like in my job; as long as I know where to go and what I’m going to write about on a given day, I can do it. This is probably my satori of the year; it fills me with confidence, and even though my style needs lots of improvement, I can now look at myself in the mirror and tell to myself: “I’ve written a novel. In English. Isn’t that great?”This said, if everything goes well, updates on this blog should resume at a more regular rate now.
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Chris Howard
Bravissimo! You rock! I just passed the 40k mark, and I expect to have 50 by the end of this week. The middle 10k were difficult, but now that I’m less than 10k away, I don’t think I’ll need the holiday (this Thursday and Friday) to finish up.
Robert Ellis
Congratulations! I’m just shy of the 50,000 word mark, but I’m not very satisfied with my nanovel. I had only the hint of a plan when I started and, like you, I’ve learned the value of planning.
Yzabel
Thank you, Chris, Robert (and welcome here, by the way) :)Chris, you’re right, the 30-40k moment was really hard… then it flew by like a charm, I still don’t know why.Robert, that’s what happened to me with another story. I’m now very glad that I took part in NaNo, because this has taught me how to rework this half-novel into something good in months to come. Even if the NaNovel isn’t great, the experience can pretty much wield good results for a next story, I’m sure.
Karen Lee Field
That’s great news. Congratulations.I’m glad you’re feeling at peace with yourself too. Well done.
Yzabel
Thank you Karen :)I admit I remembered what you had written about what effect it had had on you (it was you, right?), so I was a little frightened by the outcome, even though I didn’t want to think of it too much… Fortunately, this must have proved enough of a good change from my usual technical writing for me to feel freed by it instead of burdened. Good thing 😉
Jennifer
Congrats! It seems many are reaching their goal!!
Deborah
A hearty congrats, Yzabel! 🙂 Let us know when you get this published.
Yzabel
Thank you 🙂 And you can be sure that if this gets published someday, I’ll be up and bragging about it in no time 😉 (Now to figure out the tortuous ways of getting an agent, because I have no idea how this works in… not France?)