NaNo Insights: Last Day

First of all…

33,880 words. That’s a lot of words. It’s not 50,000 but at this point I’m just like whatever. I wrote a decent word count with words I’m very proud of and even though I technically lost, I achieved a lot.

Quantity Vs Quality

If you follow me on social media, or perhaps read my previous blog post, you would have noticed my articles on this very topic. I was finding writing quality words more beneficial than a large quantity of them. You may be thinking, “But NaNo is all about word count. Get to 50K.” and you would be absolutely right. That is exactly what the replies I received on Twitter said.

My friends at@Inklings Press  said:

@Nthito Sometimes, perhaps, but second guessing too much can mean the first draft never gets done. In short, it’s a tool for getting it done

Fellow writer Antonio Lopez A‏  @Abel_SD said:

@Nthito for one month yes. It’s material that will be filtered. Edited and maybe deleted. But they are 50k words out of my head and flowing.

And these were all valid points. Getting to 50K, regardless of quality, gives you both content and something to work with afterwards. I can always focus on quality during the editing process. Nonetheless, I’m still very happy with my 33,880 words and I know I will continue to work on this novel and turn it into something I’m proud of.

What Now?

November has been a busy month. Looking ahead, I think the rest of life is going to be busy. I won’t be using that as an excuse as December rolls into play and 2017 looms ahead looking as shiny and promising as 2016 did all those years ago in the past 11 months. (yes it feels that long).

There’s a accomplished and a lot to accomplish.

To those who won NaNo, well done! I am extremely proud and happy for all of you. My Jozi-Wrimos and my international friends. May your novels be published and your names celebrated in the halls of literature!

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