Looking Back at the Annual Madness of NaNoWriMo

I was so very sorry to learn that NaNoWriMo closed down earlier this year. For the uninitiated, that's National Novel Writing Month, when writers all over the world would aim to produce 50,000 words in a month - and not just any month, but November, which has one day fewer than most other months. That's a daily average of 1,667 words.

I signed up for the first time in 2011 in the middle of October and then spent the remaining days that month in a state of utter panic. Whether you think that 50,000 words in a month is a lot or not much depends on your personal circumstances, but for me at that time, it meant combining it with my job as a teacher. Hence the panic.

That November 1st, I spent the day at school, then came home and wrote 1,400 words, which on any other day would have been a splendid achievement; but in NaNo terms, I had fallen behind. That pretty well summed up the NaNo experience for me that first year. Some writers surged ahead. Apparently, the age group that was the most successful was the over-55s: retired people. As for me, I worked jolly hard; I wrote every day and on the days I wasn't at work I tried to produce at least 2,000 words - and usually succeeded.

I remember one day in particular. I wrote a single scene and the writing swam along. Finishing that scene felt like a huge achievement, especially as that day at school was extra long because of parents' evening. Even though I wrote "only" 1,000 words, I remember to this day the satisfaction I felt.

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Did I hit the 50,000 word target? Good grief, no. I managed 32,000 words. I could have written more (though nowhere near enough to get me anywhere close to 50,000) except that I fell into the editing trap. When you did NaNoWriMo, the one piece of advice you were given over and over was not to stop. Keep going. Save the editing for later.

Many writers more than doubled my word count, but I felt I had acquitted myself well. I had written every day for a month. I had worked hard and my average daily word count was over 1,000, which in the context of writing alongside going out to work felt rather good. More than good. I had the most marvellous feeling of achievement.

In later years, I exceeded the 50,000 words twice, once by the skin of my teeth (when writing The Surplus Girls) and once by an amazing 16,000 words - that was when I was writing The Surplus Girls' Orphans.

NaNoWriMo was jolly hard work but it was also the most tremendous fun.

Thanks, NaNo. I'll never forget letting the plot-bunnies out of the hutch ...