Beyond Word Counts: Celebrating the Unexpected Wins in My NaNoWriMo 'Failure'

November is when all sorts of writers strap themselves to their word processors just in time for the holiday season with the insane idea of writing a 50,000-word novel in as little as 30 days.

While this challenge is not impossible, with many writers making their way across that digital finished line even before the final day, many also fall short of the goal.

This year I was one of them.

I have been participating in NaNoWriMo for many years, usually able to complete my novels before the deadline or even on the very last day of the channel however this year was very different for me.

While I had spent some time in October prepping my novel, I didn't feel the best going into the month even after following my outline through a few days of the challenge. By the fourth day, I thought I would have to quit.

While I am not proud of my first thought being that I was going to have to quit. However, I was already four days into the challenge and behind by almost seven thousand words so there was no way I was going to be able to catch up - this should have been the sign that the rest of NaNo was not going to go quite smoothly. 

The story I had been planning to write had a fair concept and a world I wouldn't have minded exploring, but it had no story. I had characters, I had a plot, but I had nothing that would drive it through to its final destination other than just handing the characters the pieces to the puzzle they were trying to solve. 

Against my first thoughts - instead of quitting I took a day or so to regroup, see if there was anything I could fix about my story, and continue, but I, in the end, decided to hide it away in my folder of unfished stories for another day and somehow it was then Day 9 of the challenge and I had not a single word counted.  

I did the next best thing (and my only option)- start from scratch.  

Oh boy - it was as if I hadn't learned my lesson. 

It has been a very long time since I have written a book typing by the seat of my pants as I normally write with chapter-by-chapter outlines. 

The experience is not one I wouldn't like to repeat.

 Just as I would be lost if someone were to take away my GPS, I am just as hopelessly lost without a prewritten outline before I begin however I tried to make the best of it and hit the ground running to make up for the lost days, but when day eleven came around I hit a brick wall going 60 and was forced into a sudden stop.

I had no idea where to go.

Again I took a day off my normal tasks and any writing work - sat at my desk and told myself I was not leaving it until I wrote an outline to keep me from stopping my progress.

It took a few hours and a bribe of takeout if I completed it -  

But it was all too little too late.

Just as I had thought I was hitting strides and making up the lost words -  the Thanksgiving holiday came upon me faster than I was ready for and with all the shopping and preparation that had to be done as well as times I traveled back and forth between my house for celebrations with my family and my partner's house to celebrate with them and their family - little time was left for actual writing.

Why Would I Rejoice in Failure? 

Although I failed the challenge I managed to spend most of my month writing on a project almost single-mindedly and although I fell short with my final word count for the month being just past 30K, at the end of the month… I had written 30K and that is nothing to sneeze at. 

Sure I did not finish the novel in the time frame, but no other writer truly does either. Writing a novel in such little time does not leave anyone with a perfect novel and so many writers who completed NaNo will still be working on their novels for months or even years to come. I am no different except for having to write a bit more before I can start editing it. 

Final Thoughts 

Although I did not cross the finish line this year with NaNoWriMo, I will still be taking part next year and then the next year and hopefully for many years to come. 

The best part of the challenge is the community that surrounds it as hundreds of writers all take part together and lean on each other for support when all we want to do sometimes is crinkle up our papers and toss them in the bin (and possibly set them aflame.)

My failure taught me that I need to spend more time fully outlining my word before I begin writing it or I become hopeless and lost. 

I hope any of you who participated this year had better luck than I did, but if you didn't then at least we are together in our failure and we should still be proud of how far we came. 

Now get back to writing, your story awaits. 

With love, 

B.K. xo xo

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