After all my rousing success last year and my advanced planning this year, I failed at NaNoWriMo 2012. Sigh.
“Inspired” by the Winners’ button, I made my “loser” button –>
Some of those 25k excuses: I failed through a combination of circumstance, distraction and disinterest. Written entirely in documents created by the (many, varied) characters, in three separate time periods, following myriad stories, it was never going to be easy but I think I underestimated how difficult I would find it to create certain types of documents/documents for certain characters, and how I would feel bogged down by the less enjoyable stories that I thought it needed to make it more rounded. Compared to last year’s effort (which finally closed at circa 150k and which I’m still editing), it felt emotionally distant, cluttered and soulless.
I’m not beating myself up about it though: the “loser” thing is really quite tongue-in-cheek.
I wrote 24,177 words I wouldn’t have done otherwise. I got to try writing in lots of different styles and in lots of different characters’ voices – some that I probably wouldn’t use in “normal” circumstances. I learned various different things in the name of research. I also learned there are some things I don’t like writing but some things I really, really do enjoy and that bodes well for things I have in mind for the distant future. I got to draw a completely made-up map like I used to love doing when I was a child – yay! I played with a storyline I’ve been dabbling with for a few years, fleshed it out loads and thought about how I could take it in a different way – definitely something to go back onto my ideas book. In fact, there are a lot of things like that — the first part (set in 1851, which is complete) could easily be used as a sourcebook for creating a larger, more involved story in the future, or if I strip out the things that bored me/come up with more compelling storylines, I think I could return to the original premise and complete it.
I might not have technically “won” but really I have :)
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