Things I Learned from Nanowrimo

This year's Nanowrimo challenge was a lot more fun than the last couple of years. I actually like the novel I'm working on, and I feel like I can complete it, unlike the last couple of years. In those instances, I felt like I had committed myself to a story that I didn't really understand or like, and didn't really want to follow through with. This year, however I really look forward to finishing the story. So, to that end, I'm going to keep posting updates to the story until it's over, whenever that is. The continuing saga of Mike Barnes will be updated every Saturday, with at least 5000 words each week. For now, I'd like to share some of the things I've learned from this year's challenge.

1) I can definitely make time for writing. The iPad helps with this, since I can just stop, clear my head, and write whenever I have some downtime and the energy to do so. Everyone seems shocked to hear that I type on the iPad, and I have noticed more grammatical errors due to the autocorrect, but it's still worthwhile if it generates more work.

2) Accountability makes me work harder. By making it public with the posts, I found myself compelled to write, picturing all the people who were following along, not wanting to disappoint them or seem like a slacker.

3) I really want to finish this. The thing that was pushing me forward most of all was the story itself. I did get stuck one time when I didn't know what was supposed to come next. The was a gap in my scene cards that I had to fill in to get the story from one place to another. Under ordinary circumstances, I would have just skipped ahead to another scene that I knew I wanted to write, but I feel the need to go linear with this one, and post the story as it should unfold. But after spending an hour or so writi new scene cards, rearranging scenes, and filling in the gaps, I was back in business.

So, keep looking for updates to the story, starting tomorrow, and thanks to all of my followers for reading along!