My 7th NaNoWriMo – Did I Win?

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Every November for the last six years, I would tell myself I CAN win NaNoWriMo this year, I know I can because I have done it before. What always takes me by surprise is how different each of my seven, consecutive NaNoWriMo wins has been. This year was a real struggle. I was working at the same company as last year, but this year, the job I have is almost completely in front of a computer screen for eight to ten hours a day with only a few walks down the hall to the ladies room as a break from the screens and to stretch the kinks out from sitting so long. I work through lunch. The last thing I want to do after working all day staring at a computer screen, or in this case three screens, is go home or anywhere really and do more of the same. So this year was difficult in a different way than it ever has been before. I did not end up writing at work at all.

This year was different in another way, because, as I mentioned in my update post a month ago, I was sharing my current word count every day that I was at work in a very public way. It helped to motivate me to try to stay on par with my word count, just knowing others would be checking in on my progress. A few are still asking me if I really wrote 50,000 words last month. Yes, I did, how could I not? Today, Danny asked if I wrote 50,000 unique words, and I admitted that there are some words that show up more than once in the entirety of what I wrote, like a and the for instance. I think it amazes him, and I understand completely. It still amazes me too.

So in case you are wondering, the top graph shows how far above or below par or goal I was each day and the bottom chart shows how much or how little I wrote on each day. I finished the challenge on November 29th, and did not write at all on the 30th. There was no point since they took away the badge for writing all 30 days this year. I was over it and so ready to be done writing by then.

If, like me, you are a chart nerd and want to see the stats from my previous years, you can see my 2017 results and my 2013 to 2016 comparisons. There is even an entire category devoted to NaNoWriMo because it has made such a huge difference in my life. The thing that impressed me the most after seeing the newly revised NaNoWriMo.org website was the total number of words I have written for the various events I have participated in since November 1, 2013. (See below, 422,170 words!)

That words written total doesn’t count all the blog posts I have written and shared, including the guest blog post from August 21, 2017 on the NaNoWriMo Blog, I was especially excited to be asked to guest write for them. I had no idea back then that I would someday see that I had accomplished so much writing in just seven years. I still tell myself when I am faced with doing seemingly impossible things, that I can do impossible things and I continue to do impossible things. I am a writer. I push myself to do what most would consider crazy and impossible every November, I write at least 50,000 words. Someday, I might convince myself to actually edit them and get them out in the world, but not this year. That is future Karen’s project.

I learned that I can still do it, that I am a winner, that it isn’t always fun, but I am always glad I have done it and pushed myself to get the words in my head down in the computer file. Will I always write in November for NaNoWriMo? Always is a huge commitment. Right now I must say that continue the streak that is now seven years long is hugely motivating. This year I learned that I can still get my words down mostly at home and that ten to fifteen minute word sprints can be very productive. I am so happy to have gotten so many of my childhood memories down to edit later. Will YOU be writing with me next November? Don’t you just love the theme this year? It is gorgeous! Happy 20th year of NaNoWriMo, may it continue indefinitely!

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