Soooo, Camp NaNoWriMo has been completed for six days now. The golden question everyone is being asked, and answering is: Did you win NaNo? My answer? Yes and no.
Technically I did not. I didn’t reach my goal. I got about three weeks through it, words were going great, and all the sudden everything just died. I was getting the words done, yes, but I discovered that I knew the idea of the story, but not the story. Each time I sat down to write, I dreaded it because I didn’t know what I would be writing. It wasn’t long till I didn’t even like the story. It was such a mess, and every time I opened the doc, it simply stressed me out.
“You only have to write 2k to catch up, Hannah. You’ve done that amount once in two hours. You totally have this, gurl.” I told myself that every time I sat down to write, but that didn’t help. Eventually, it became more and more stressful, and I drew away.
I totally slide away from the story, immersing myself into anything else that would come to view. I finished a couple books I had been putting off, watched a couple seasons of two kid’s shows, (The Miraculous Ladybug and Ninjago guys...they’re fab) sketched endless fan art, cleaned up my playlists, finished up all my subjects (besides one English PACE) of school, prepared some for my O.Y.A.N. novel, and managed to actually people some. (Did I mention I got bit on the wrist by a spider, and rumour has it I’m spidergirl now? Cause it’s legit) *applause*, but my story remained shoved in a corner, and I grew more and more stressed.
Near the end of the month, I decided not to deal with the mess any more. I would start over, and structure it more. Planning happened and soon I was much more happy with the idea, structure, and direction of it. Not to mention it has a new title; Restless Wanderer. I’ve actually written some of the new and improved story, and I’m in love with it now.
Sure, I didn’t get where I wanted in my story. I really wanted to win this one. With my low goal, I had already planned where I would stick my certificate, but you know what? I feel so much more confident in my story in characters now that I don’t really care. I’ll feel just that more confident once I finished, and have a better work. The new revisions make this a personal story to me, and I love that. I feel like I’ve gotten farther in this story then any I have written yet, and that’s special.
Which is why I say I did win NaNo in a way. Camp NaNo isn’t a race. If you reach your goal, great! If you don’t, still great! The whole idea of Camp is to get you develope and further your story, and whether you got one word in or 50k in, you got further in your story.
I know a lot of people had a hard time reaching their goal this year, but I’m still proud of each of you who endured the month and gave it your best shot. I hope you’re not discouraged if you didn’t get as far as you wanted. If you gave it your best, you did well young padawans, and you are amazing.
How was each of you guys’ month? Did you reach your goal this month (whether it be personal or word)?
