NaNoWriMo, “The End,” and Now What

I took a blog break. As I mentioned before, I signed up for National Novel Writing Month. By the second-half of November, I was having a difficult time meeting my weekly goal for that and for this blog. As NaNoWriMo had started to become an obsession—which seems like the only way you can slog through the challenge—I decided it was time to give myself a blog vacation. 

The break worked. I made it to the end of NaNoWriMo, finishing at 50,603 words. However, I didn’t get the “official” win. Here’s why. I had handwritten about 11,000 words of my manuscript. So on November 30, when NaNoWriMo asked to verify my word count for the official win, I didn’t have all 50,603 words typed and ready to copy and paste into their verification document.

The experience reminds me of real life. You don’t need anybody to tell you that you’re “officially” a winner. You know who you are, and what you’ve done.

Thanks to NaNoWriMo, I got to “The End” of my manuscript.

One of the great things about NaNoWriMo was that I finally finished a manuscript, which I had started working on in the fall of 2015. I literally typed “The End,” as corny as it was. There was something cathartic about it, even knowing that those couple of words will not make it past my first round of revisions. I also did a happy dance, and had a glass of wine. Two very important parts of any celebration.

With NaNoWriMo, I also wrote half of the manuscript for the sequel. I created an outline, using the 15 Plot Spots, a.k.a. Plotting Magic, that I learned from Marni Freedman. The outline came to my mind one way, initially, but one of the characters pulled it into another direction. That surprised me a little, which made me even more excited about working on the draft. I made it halfway through the manuscript, right around the novel’s midpoint when NaNoWriMo finished.

So, now what?

When NaNoWriMo was over, I started my blog break. And I took some time to evaluate what I’ve done, and what I need to do. Here’s my “Now What” plan.

• Dec. 4 – Start typing up handwritten first draft of Book 1
• Dec. 31 – Finish typing in handwritten draft of Book 1
• Jan. 1 – Print out typed draft and do The Big Read per blog post from Scott Berkun, and make edits on the pages
• Jan. 7 – Make first round of revisions based on The Big Read, make copyedits
• Jan. 15 – Send book to beta readers with questions for them to answer
• Jan. 15 – Have first draft of Book 2 finished
• Jan. 16 – Start historical research
• Jan. 16 – Start collaborating list of literary agents
• Feb. 10 – Receive feedback from beta readers
• Feb. 11 – Start second round of revisions
• Feb. 18 – Start copyediting
• March 1 – Send to second round of beta readers?
• March 21 – Send to professional editor
• March 22 – Write query letter
• April 21 – Make revisions based on editor’s feedback
• May 1 – Start sending out query letters

The month of May seems like a long time from now, but I need these milestones to help keep me going. Wish me luck. Please.

How did NaNoWriMo go for you? What plans have you made, or tips do you have, based on your writing progress?

Photo by Jeremy Bishop on Unsplash