NaNoWriMo 2017

As some of you who follow my writing twitter (@mlettewritings), you know that I participated in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) this year. This is the first year that I have ever done this, and let me just tell you that I am very proud of myself and what I have accomplished in the last month.

In case you don't know what NaNoWriMo is, let me explain it a little further. National Novel Writing Month takes place in November every year. Writers from all over the world take the time in October to set themselves up to write, and they start by declaring a novel on the NaNoWriMo site. Once a novel is declared and November starts, writers are given to the last minute of November 30th to write 50,000 words. Now, some people don't complete this goal, and that's fine. NaNoWriMo is mostly about the spirit of writing, and not the goals.

They share pep talks from published authors and ML's from your area (mine is my state of New Hampshire) to give you little moments of inspiration throughout the month and so much more. When you hit a certain number of words you get sent an email with the achievement, and it comes with a little idea to put into the book. I have saved all of these emails because I plan to use all the suggestions in my book, no matter when I finish it.

My total word count: 50,114!!!  I won!

I didn't think that I would get this far at all. I started writing this blog post when I was about 6,000 words behind the goal, and I was ready to finish it talking about how I'm proud of the progress I got done even though I didn't win, but here I am now. How was I, with so many things to do this month and a Thanksgiving break with sometimes non-existent WiFi, able to write over 50,000 words!?

Well, I'll tell you. I wrote all the time. In class, between class, when I should have been doing some of my homework assignments but chose to move them to a later date because they weren't too pressing, and even at work when things slowed down. I never stopped writing. I updated my word count at night right before midnight would strike. And I was always proud of what I was able to accomplish.

I started November with a rough outline and idea of what I wanted to write. And the words just flew out of me. The story just appeared on the pages before me. I'm not even done with the story. I still have so much to do. I have the big drama to write, the final battle, and the love story that my story needs.  Below I will put the synopsis of my novel, titled 'Friendly Fear' and the cover art that I made, I worked really hard on both so please be gentle with me.

Synopsis of Friendly Fear:
Young Joan is saved from the lab she was raised in by a group of mercenaries that are anything but merciless.  She’s a special woman, there is no name for her.  She controls all the elements and when pushed to her breaking point, is a weapon of mass destruction.
   Joan joins up with the mercenaries, but things go quickly awry when the ones who experimented on her her whole life learn she didn’t survive the fire, and they want her back, or dead.
   This novel will explore how a young woman learns to accept herself and learn she is more than her powers, as well as learning more about herself personally through the trust and caring nature of her new found family.

I updated my novel last night, and then posted the photos all over my social media besides Instagram which I will be doing today. Then I went to bed, happy with myself and chugging some water because I was dehydrated. When I woke up this morning I logged on and saw this when I went to my novels page:

Seeing that big winner ribbon my novel made me smile so big it hurt my face. This was a goal of mine since I heard about NaNo. I have about 105 pages of story, and I have so many pages left to do. And I can only say thank you to NaNoWriMo, thank you to my friend Victoria for introducing me to the site last year, and thank you to all my friends and family who cheered me on this month and told me that I could do it. I may have not believed in myself when I was behind, but I managed to get behind my keyboard on the 30th and write 5,890 words, my wordiest day this year.

I don't know where I got the strength to do this, where I got the energy to write every day when I had the time, but I did and I just can't stop saying this, but I am so proud of myself. I look forward to the next years that I am able to do NaNoWriMo. I'm already starting to think if doing it next November while abroad would be an option for me because I loved it so much.

Here's to me writing more and starting the publishing route. Did you participate in NaNo? What was your word count? Was it your first time? Let's chat in the comments.

Here is the certificate PDF that I was given when I finished. This is so pretty and official I love it so much:

À bientôt!

Photo creds: all photos came from the NaNo website and screenshots of my account page, cover was made in my Canva account,