This is my fifth and final report on my progress toward my goal of completing a 50,000 word novel by November 30 as part of National Novel Writing Month. Read more of my thoughts on NaNoWriMo.

I fell over the finish line at about 10:30 p.m. on November 30 with 50,060 words. So I made it. I wrote more words on one project than I ever have before. I even feel slightly more like a writer.

I didn’t, however, finish a draft. I do have a beginning, a middle, and an end, but parts of the middle are more like “notes” than “scenes.” In order for me to feel like I’ve finished a rough draft, I need to flesh out these notes into actual scenes, but I need a little break before doing any more writing.

So this weekend I started outlining my novel in yWriter. Why am I outlining after I’ve written, you might ask? Well, I started with a rough outline, but I found that as I wrote, the story took off in a few different directions, I added characters here and there, and the result is kind of a mess. yWriter is helping me get a big picture look at my novel and where I need to add and remove material. I’ll review yWriter on Friday.

NaNoWriMo was both harder and easier than I thought it would be. Harder because despite all my elaborate planning, I was still writing right down to the wire. A large part of this, of course, was due to the trouble I had with my wrists in the second week. The rest was due to procrastination.

But NaNo was easier than I anticipated because although I began with only a hazy idea of a plot and a couple of characters, I was never stuck for long. When I came to a scene I didn’t know how to write, I just made a note about what needed to happen in that scene and continued. After I reached the end, I went back and completed some of those scenes, and I still have several left to write. But I was never afflicted with the dreaded writer’s block. Distracted, yes, blocked no. Amazingly, I don’t really find the process of writing to be difficult. The hard part is making myself sit down and write. So whether or not I write is a matter of discipline rather than inspiration, which is an encouraging thought. I suspect this was the case all along; I just needed to prove it to myself.

Please notice that I didn’t say that writing well is easy. My rough draft is just that: rough, unpolished, sometimes incomprehensible. But I expected that, and I embrace that. A rough draft means that I didn’t let myself get distracted by all the mistakes I was making. I didn’t let myself revise as I was writing, which is the curse that’s always made me lose interest in my previous novel attempts. So I’m proud of my draft full of stumbling sentences and awkward dialog, because it means I stood back and let myself write.

Of course, the roughness of my draft also means I have a lot of work ahead of me, but really, I can’t imagine it being any other way. Perhaps after my twentieth novel, the process will be smooth and logical, but I never expected my first novel to be something anyone would want to read but me. All the same, I’m looking forward to revising it after I’ve finished those few last scenes and set it aside for a month or so. I believe that working through the whole process is the only way to learn how to write a novel.

I know that NaNo isn’t for everyone, but it’s been a great experience for me. I’ve renewed my faith in myself as a writer, and I’ve written more on one project than I ever have before. I’m already looking forward to my next novel and next year’s NaNoWriMo. And parts of me are thinking about other crazy writing things I can do. Maybe I’ll try to write a novel in a week, or a weekend. Or maybe I’ll make my next project much longer. Maybe I’ll start that epic fantasy novel I’ve always wanted to write. Maybe my next novel will be in a different genre.

NaNo has also challenged me to try new methods of writing. This time, I started with only vague ideas for plot and character. Next time I might try a more detailed outline. And of course, now I have the opportunity to try writing in a whole new way with Dragon NaturallySpeaking. My NaNoWrMo experience has given me the confidence to reach for my writing goals.

If you participated in NaNoWriMo, I’d love to know how it went for you. Were you satisfied with the results of your efforts? Would you recommend the experience to others? Let me know in the comments.

If you enjoyed this post, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed.