It’s time for my National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) final results. That’s right, the month of November is over and so is the goal of writing 50,000 words on POISON PEN FRIENDS. I’m pleased to report that I was able to complete 50,225 words in November. Since I actually started in October, the total word count on the novel stands at 60,160 words.

How did NaNoWriMo Go?

The month started out with a daily word count that kept me above the recommended daily word count of 1,667. However, I knew there would be days toward the end of the November when I would probably not be writing, and I was right.

There was a point where I doubted I would be able to make the goal, but the last two days of the month were amazing. I wrote over 4,300 words on November 30^th. I don’t think I have ever written that many words in one day.

NaNoWriMo Observations

Using the Save the Cat! format gave me a clear view of where the story was going. It allowed me to skip around from the beginning, middle, and end. Since I had three Point of View characters, each with their own Save the Cat! beats, I was able to jump around in the story based on what I wanted to accomplish for the day. I would definitely do this approach again.

The motivation of having a specific goal and the visual chart to record and observe progress was a great help.

Writing fast for word count means the editing will need to be more intense than I am used to doing. My normal approach is more controlled. I typically fix typos as I see them happen. Writing in the fast lane means you make a mistake and you keep going. Don’t have a piece of information, no big deal. Just type: CHECK THIS!

NaNoWriMo Final Results

There’s still more words that need to be added to the novel. My ultimate goal is around 85,000 words. I’m at about 70% of that target.

In a future post I’ll share more details about the POISON PEN LETTERS story lines.

I hope you have enjoyed following my journey in preparing and writing through NaNoWriMo. I would definitely do this event again.