NANOWRIMO IS OVER

THAT'S IT! WE ARE DONE PEOPLE! IT'S THE FIRST OF DECEMBER, NATIONAL NOVEL WRITING IS DONE!
And if nobody minds, I'm going to go and pass out now, because DAMN, that was one hell of a month! Between uni work, distractions and a thousand and one different fandom explosions, I'm surprised I managed to get through this month.
Thing is, I didn't just get through NaNoWriMo, I smashed it to pieces. As in, I went nine thousand words over target. Have a look yourself at this madness!

If you're asking how I did that, the answer is that I have absolutely no idea whatsoever. Literally, I don't have the faintest clue how I managed. I'm going to call it a complete fluke, considering for the rest of the year my average daily word count has been around 800. But this month I managed to double (some days triple) that. 

It was definitely a fluke, a complete fluke. One I'm very proud of, but still, FLUKE! 

There is also one person I'd like to shout out to this month, and that's my best friend Charlie who also smashed it this year. She finished an entire week early this year, doubling (and then some) her last two NaNoWriMo word counts! I'm a very proud, and very, very jealous, best friend this year!

Anyway, I hope everybody who took part got the word count they wanted, or at least got some more words than normal done, because that's what NaNo is all about. So I hope it all went swimmingly for you, and if not, hey there's always next year, and nothing to stop you practicing throughout the year!

But now, I feel that the real hard bit has arrived. It's time to decide what to do next with your project. There are three options for this, and it's up to you to figure out what you want to do next. 

Number One: Pass out, ignore the novel until next year, possibly never open the file again, leaving it to gather dust.

Number Two: Finish the story off if it is not completed.

Or Number Three: Start editing this mammoth.

All options are scary (yes, even running away. Think of the missed opportunities if you leave it to gather dust for the rust of time!) but if I may, I'd like to suggest something. In my opinion, I think you should try all three options. 

Hear me out a minute when I say this, because I know that sounds mental, but trust me, I've done this before. It's December, aka Holiday Season, and you've trapped yourself a way to write for a month. Go out and do that dreaded thing known as socialising for a bit, take a break from the writing and do something else for a bit. And when you've done refreshing yourself, come back to your novel, if you haven't finished it yet, you'll hopefully have a tonne of ideas and stamina to finish it off. If you need to start editing, it'll be easier now that you've had a break. You've been staring at your screen for ages now, completely consumed by every word you've typed, editing will be near impossible under those circumstances. But if you take that break, you'll be looking at the novel with fresher eyes, there will be bits you have forgotten about, things to surprise you, it makes it so much easier to look over things when you're refreshed. 

If you're stuck for ideas on how to edit things down, I will hopefully have some videos up soon to help you with that, for now, think about sorting out spelling/grammar mistakes, possibly start thinking up ways to solve anything that's bugging you with your story. That'll give you a good editing starting point. 

So in conclusion, YAY NaNo is over so we can breathe, I hope you all hit your word goal (if not, don't be disappointed), take a break before you break your poor overworked fingers, and allow yourself some time to yourself! It's been a great month, and I'm already looking forward to next year! 

I'VE HIT 10,000 WORDS!

HELLO! I'm super excited to announce that I HIT 10,000 WORDS ABOUT 10 MINUTES AGO! And I am SO HAPPY about this (if you couldn't tell by all the capitalisation!)
This week has been a pain to say the least in terms of writing, three days this week I've been at uni, and that means getting up at 6.15am in the morning, so by the time I get home I'm exhausted and really not ready to do any writing! But I've pushed through every time, ignoring all distractions and everything I possibly can to get my 1667 words done, even if that means I'm stretching out my writing time to 4 hours!
To give you context on how painfully slow that is for me usually, I can usually whack out 800 words in about half an hour. So in practice, 1667 should only take an hour, but that hasn't happened this week! This week has carried on in the same vein as last week, where I've been distracted/busy/uninspired for most of it, so it's been a long, hard slog. But it's worth it, because I've somehow managed to push myself almost an entire day ahead of schedule (don't worry, I haven't miscounted, I've checked... three times) and hit 10,000 words at the same time! I'm ecstatic!
To be perfectly honest, I was fully expecting to be miles behind already, or to have run out of steam, but currently I seem to be wanting to keep on going. That could be because at this current moment, I'm being distracted by a) the idea that the band Busted are getting back together and are announcing a new single in 4 days and b) Doctor Strange set pictures and both those things are hyping me up, but I reckon it's mostly down to the fact that the first 10,000 words are now written down for my projects.
I've now officially gotten one fifth of the way through, I just have to continue this pattern just four more time and then I'm there! It doesn't seem as difficult when you get through the first 10,000!
But on a serious note, if you're behind target or really struggling, all is not lost. This week could just be a bad week for you, getting into the swing of 1667 words a day is hard, and more importantly, it's exhausting. Nobody can judge you for that, and you are trying incredibly hard, and that is all that matters.
Think of it this way, you've still got words down, which is more than you had before the start of the month. You're still giving this challenge a good shot, and if you don't reach the 50.000 target, then that's okay. You gave it your absolute best, and still got so much written, you can continue at your own pace for the rest of the year until you make it to the end of your project. Writing is a process and it can't be rushed, 50,000 words in 30 days is mental, and not reaching it is absolutely nothing to be ashamed of. The rest of the year is still yours to write in, as is the next year, and the next, and the next. You have all the time in the world to finish your novel, and while the rest of us are stuck in the painful editing process, you're still in the fun bit of writing the story!
So if you're behind then don't worry, if you're ahead like me then go party, and if you're on time, congratulations! But remember, we all go at our own pace, and sometimes life gets in the way of writing, this challenge is insane, and we should all be proud of everything we achieve in this month! Even if we only manage 5000 words by the end of it!