NaNOWriMo 2024 – completed it

If you don’t know about NaNOWriMO and/or don’t understand why I would be doing it, especially after the recent controversy, please see my previous post: https://arrowmakerbooks.com/2024/10/31/nanowrimo-2024-why-im-taking-the-challenge-despite-the-ai-controversy/.

For those who’ve been following along, it will come as no surprise that I successfully passed 50,000 words written in November. The final total was 53,099, better than I’d hoped on Thursday 30th October.

I actually reached 50,000 words two days early, which let me ease off a little on the last two days and try to settle into a routine that is more sustainable long-term.

Reflections

I’d expected it to be a struggle, and whilst there were many days where I was “wordcount-watching”, ready to stop as soon as I passed the magical 1,667, it was not as difficult as anticipated. A lot of this was due to training myself to self-edit less as I was writing. I began the challenge writing 7 or 8 words per minute; I ended it writing 11 or 12. This is the biggest thing I’ll take forward.

One of the main reasons I hadn’t liked the idea of the challenge before was that some passages take longer to write than others. Sometimes, research is required. Sometimes, a plot-hole needs to be filled in. Sometimes, it’s just difficult to find the right words to explain what you visualize in your head.

I always felt that time spent working was a better metric that wordcount. This allows for the days where words are hard to extract by including tasks like cover design, marketing, social media work, blogging etc. As an indie author, all these need doing and are progressing to the final goal.
I will return to measuring time rather than words, but I will add a new daily minimum of 30 minutes and a daily target of at least 1 hour, and will review as I go.

Here are my numbers for the last week:

Day	Daily Words	Running Total	Running Target	Running +/-
24	1804	43957	40000	+3957
25	1852	45809	41667	+4142
26	1801	47610	43333	+4277
27	1782	49392	45000	+4392
28	1873	51265	46667	+4598
29	584	51849	48333	+3516
30	1250	53099	50000	+3099

What’s next?

I may have completed the challenge but I haven’t completed the book.

I’m about nine chapters from the end of draft 2 of part 2.
Once that’s complete, I will return to draft 2 of part 3.
Then part 1 needs some additional chapters.

After that, proper revision begins – readthroughs, edits, line edits, error-checking etc.

I will continue to blog weekly: this will include a writing progress update; links to content that’s relevant to the world of The Spike; a link to something that inspired me during the week; plus maybe more.

There will also be “special” blogs where I go more in-depth on a certain subject. These won’t be on a fixed schedule so subscribe below, or follow on social media (link menu above), to ensure you don’t miss anything.