WRITING UPDATE #1: After Nanowrimo

Hello!

As most of you know, I participated in Nanowrimo for the first time last month and hit 50,000 words on November 25th. My story continued on briefly after that, but while I had projected it would be in the 55,000-60,000 word range for the first draft, it actually ended up being less than 52,000.

So now that my first draft is out of the way, I’m left with the daunting question of what to do next. Do I give myself a break? Do I start editing? Do I try writing something else?

I’ve received a number of comments attempting to help me solve this problem, and the overwhelming response has been that I should wait so that when I return to the story I will be more distant from it and better able to look at it objectively. I was unsure about this at first, but when I caved in this morning and read a few pages I wasn’t completely repulsed by it, so it has definitely not been enough time.

So I’ve decided on option three: I’m going to start a whole new project, and only when I finish the first draft of that will I return to my Nano story. I’m hoping this goes as planned, because I’ve only successfully completed one full-length novel and expecting to finish another one in a short period of time may be a lofty goal.

I’ve already started planning out my new story, but this time I have taken a much different approach. I have always been a firm believer in the use of Google Drive and its automatically-saving, online-accessible wonderfulness, so it feels strange to say that I won’t be using Google Drive at all this time around.

That’s right: I have finally given into the hype of Scrivener.

I’ve always been a little skeptical about Scrivener, even though I’ve only ever heard positive things about it. I probably never would have even tried it out if it weren’t for the 50% off coupon for Nanowrimo winners. I figured that if everyone loves it so much, there must be a reason, and after playing around with the trial version I can see why people swear by it. I’m enjoying the ability to access my plans in the same document as my writing; it makes the process much more efficient, and I have a feeling it will help me to better stay on track.

I’m satisfied with how it’s helping me plan, and I’m even sort of excited about what this new idea might become. I’m not at all the kind of person who comes up with story ideas left and right (or at all, really: I have a decent one like once a year), so I’m crossing my fingers that this one might have potential. It centers around a heavy theme, so I’m going to do my best to pull that off!

I wish everyone the best of luck in all their writing endeavors! Now that Nano is over, I’m going to have to change a lot about my routine, and hopefully this new habit of writing daily will catch on in the long-run!

Happy writing!