So, some of you may have noticed that I haven’t done a NaNoWriMo update for quite some time. For those who don’t know, I announced last month that I was going to be participating in National Novel Writing Month; a challenge where you have to write 50,000 words in 30 days. I’ve taken part in other years with varying degrees of success and this year I was absolutely determined to have a very successful year and another novel under my belt.
Unfortunately however…it wasn’t meant to be.
What Happened During NaNoWriMo?
I was initially enjoying developing my horror story and reaching the majority of my targets each day. There were days where I faltered, but I always made it up to par most nights and revelled in getting into a new world.
However, this began to decline quickly. As I ran out of my notes to develop, so did my motivation. It led me to become incredibly stressed about finishing it. Despite the challenge of taking on horror, I hadn’t done enough research and was putting a lot of pressure on myself for it to be perfect. I’d spent most nights getting anxious about what I would do, where my characters would go and ultimately, my confidence began to wear thin.
So, after 15 days of trying my hardest with a story, I decided to call it a day. Initially, I was so upset to be calling it off so early in. My heart wasn’t 100% into the whole horror idea and I’m still incredibly proud; my final word count was 21,676 words, which is still a massive achievement.
At the end of the day, I have a story which is a work in progress. I always remember that Ascension started as a NaNoWriMo story I didn’t complete. So there’s hope that this will see the light of day in the future.
Do you think you’ll try again?
Absolutely! Since I wrote this post, I’ve gone on to do NaNo in 2019 and 2020, completing both years and publishing both as novels!