I am finally finished my entry for National Novel Writing Month; I didn’t want to, but I rushed to the end just so I could finish this project, and be done with it.

But, all through the last week of my writing this book and trying to finish it, a lesson was reiterated for me: I and my book would be in a much better position if I had taken the months I had–during which I had planned my NaNoWriMo entry for this year–to outline the story…even a rough outline would have sufficed. But, because I didn’t outline my story, the first 50, 000 words are dominated by fluff, and I rushed the ending, just so I could (finally) finish.

Reiterated lesson and regrettable ending aside, I don’t regret participating in this year’s National Novel Writing Month, nor the project I chose to work on for this year’s event–even if I would have done one or two things differently.

I wrote 3,024 words today, putting my total National Novel Writing Month word count at 52, 338 words, thus putting me in the National Novel Writing Month winners’ circle. However, I’m still not done the book itself. And with eleven days to go…

This isn’t the first time I’ve gone over the 50, 000-word word-count goal when participating in National Novel Writing Month, but I have a feeling this is going to be my longest NaNoWriMo entry yet–and I’m still going to be leaving out a lot of what I originally planned to put in.

I may have met the word-count goal prescribed by National Novel Writing Month, but I’m still have a ways to go before I’m actually finished, so I’m not resting on my laurels yet.

I’ve cranked out 2, 470 words today, and my overall word count is now 45, 596 words. But having said that, I have learned at least one lesson about writing and story planning during this experience…and that lesson is, to have an outline before starting a project, especially one of this magnitude.

At this juncture, I believe I’ll actually write over 50, 000 words–especially seeing as I haven’t fit everything into it that I wanted to, and I still have quite a bit of this story to tell. I know that, seeing as I didn’t take the time to write an outline for this story before this year’s National Novel Writing Month started, this version of my story is going to be a huge mess. But I’ve come across some unexpected pleasant surprises while writing this story as well, so I guess it isn’t all bad.

November is over half over, and I’m still working on not being so hard on myself over this project. I may not have been fully prepared for this experience, but, regardless of what happens with this story, I’m determined to see it through.

Well, here I am, having worked on my novel during National Novel Writing Month for exactly two weeks; in terms of word count, I did much better, yesterday and today, than I did last Tuesday and Wednesday. I am now at 40, 916 words altogether, meaning I am 9, 084 words away from 50, 000 words.

But I’m afraid I’ve focused so much on word count that I’ve more or less put the story aspect on the back burner; I’m still thinking about the story, but I’ve left out so much that I’ve planned to put in–that’s actually my biggest blunder for this year’s NaNoWriMo entry. Even now, I know I’m going to have a lot of work to do to make this story workable, much less marketable. But this is the first draft of this particular story, so I should know better than to expect too much–even if I’m still not feeling too good about the story.

But there are fifteen days left to National Novel Writing Month, so I’m going to make the best of it, and focus on the story aspect of my entry as well as the word count.

I’ve just updated my word count (3, 861 words) on my National Novel Writing Month website account dashboard, and my overall word count is now 26, 961 words, meaning I’m slightly more than halfway finished my novel–and this challenge.

Even at this point, I know there’s a lot of this book I’m going to have to rewrite to make it make sense, much less make it good–but this is the first draft, so I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it.

We’re barely halfway through November, but I’m more than halfway through my National Novel Writing Month entry. As always since I got started on this project, I’m excited to continue…but, right now, I need a break, so I’ll pick this up again tomorrow.

Exactly one week ago, I joined who knows how many people all over the world in the insane challenge to write a 50, 000-word novel in thirty days. It is now exactly a week later, and, despite some gaffes, mishaps,, and me not being able to restrain my inner editor, I’m still growing strong.

Just as I predicted, I did do better today than I did yesterday, and got back to work on my manuscript after work and thus updated my word count twice today; I cranked out a total of 2420 words today, which puts me now at 18, 018 words altogether. So yes, I’m psyched, and excited to see what happens next.

See what happens when you get up, dust yourself off, and get back on the track?

It’s been a full week of National Novel Writing Month, and, I admit, today wasn’t my best writing day: despite my best efforts, I only managed to crank out 778 words. But my overall word count on my NaNoWriMo website account dashboard is 15, 598 words (despite question marks over my word counts for this past Saturday and Sunday–I don’t remember how many words I actually wrote, then entered into my NaNoWriMo website account update function), so I’m still doing well–I’m five thousand words away from reaching 20, 000 words, and ten thousand words from being halfway through my novel. (That reminds me: I need to find, and bring out, my Bon Jovi CD, so I can play ‘Livin’ On a Prayer’ when I reach or surpass 25, 000 words.) But, because of today’s turnout, I’ve decided to extend my daily workday writing time by ten minutes, to give myself a better chance of getting to at least one thousand words a day.

OK, so I had a bad writing day today–well, bad compared to what I managed to accomplish within the last few days. I’ve just had to adjust my strategy to increase my chances of doing better for the rest of the month, and I know I’ll more than make up for today this weekend.

It’s the first Saturday of National Novel Writing Month, and I’ve already noticed a pattern in the way I’m writing my novel: I’m more or less writing in a stream-of-consciousness way, though I have let my inner editor butt in every once in awhile–such as when I’ve rewritten sentences and paragraphs, as opposed to just limiting my inner editor’s work to just correcting typos.

But, despite all of that, I’ve managed to crank out over 11,000 words over the course of four days–and I’ve updated my word count twice today, after writing one complete chapter and starting another but not finishing that one. But given my progress so far, I’m excited to see how the rest of the month–and the rest of my book–plays out. At this juncture, I have no doubt I can keep up the momentum.

I’ve had a very first good four days of participating in National Novel Writing Month, and I’m determined to make sure the rest of the month goes at least just as well.

As so many now know, today is the first day of National Novel Writing Month, also known as NaNoWriMo, and, for me, it’s like Christmas morning, when anything is possible.

Despite a mishap in setting up my document in Microsoft Word, I managed to get to 2, 482 words today, earning a badge on my NaNoWriMo website account dashboard–chiefly because I did some work on my book after work as well as early this morning. For the rest of the month, I’m going to try to limit work on my novel to mornings before I have to go to work as well as my days off–I don’t want to spend too much of my time after work writing my novel, especially seeing as I have other things to do.

But here it all is–I’ve finished the first chapter of my book, I’ve exceeded the prescribed daily word count for today, and I’m raring to go for tomorrow, whatever may happen–Word setup mishaps included.

Happy Halloween, everyone. Also, it’s the night before National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo.

I’m participating this year, and I am so excited–I can hardly wait to get started writing my entry for this year’s NaNoWriMo. I’ve been planning my entry since near the middle of January–I’m not nearly as prepared as I want to be (for example, the synopsis for the book isn’t finished–I started writing it this morning)–but I still can’t wait to get started, and I’ll just have to fill in whatever blanks there are as I write.

I’ve focused almost completely on my National Novel Writing Month entry this year, so almost everything else–my cookbook challenge in particular–fell by the wayside (the cookbook challenge fell by the wayside also because of my cash-flow situation and I let laziness get the better of me); if my cash flow allows, I may cook some dishes from at least one of my cookbooks during November when I’m taking a break from writing my book or some free time. It feels like Christmas Eve to me, and the possibilities are endless.

I’ll give occasional updates on my participation in National Novel Writing Month 2023 here, and my impressions of my experience thereof–and if I do end up cooking recipes from one of my cookbooks, I’ll be sure to write about it here as well as posting photos on my Instagram account.

Here’s to my succeeding in National Novel Writing Month, and, once again, Happy Halloween.