How I Wrote My Best NaNoWriMo Draft Yet

I have had a number of successes with National Novel Writing Month – NaNoWriMo. I wrote a novel with only a drawing to guide me, learned some lessons, lost, and won. I’m getting practiced now, and have completed three novels in five years. My hands-down best performance came in April 2021, during Camp NaNoWriMo. I set a word count goal of 25 000 words – to double the length of the manuscript I started last November during NaNo 2020. Instead of 25 000 words, I wrote almost 50 000 and…

Did I Fail NaNoWriMo?

Did I fail NaNoWriMo 2018?

National Novel Writing Month is over. I’m sure you’re wondering if I made my 50 000 words this year. Spoiler: no. I super didn’t. Sigh. I thought I had a streak going. I did two NaNos successfully in a row. I did a couple of Camps in there too. Each time, I was very successful. But… it turns out that this was not that year. For 14 000 words I did great. I was in that beautiful, dizzying place where you know exactly where you’re going and you get in…

5 Lessons Learned from NaNoWriMo 2016

I’ve said before on the site that 2016 has been a year of significant change for us. From the wedding to the move to the girls’ new school to the mess that is world events, 2016 has brought with it not only change, but a new resolve and determination to stop talking about the things that are important and actually do them. (I think that Hamilton: An American Musical has a lot to do with that, too, but that’s going to have to be another post, otherwise we’ll be here…