We know that there are a few over-achievers who will manage to get more than 50k written in the time limit of Nano. If it wasnt for you, we probably wouldnt win word-wars. But what about the rest of us mere mortals who have been writing for a while now and are heading for the 1/2 way mark of Nano but are realizing that this isnt the 1/2 way mark of the story? Is there anyone out there?
In '05 I think I would have finished my story if I'd given it about 3-5000 more words after I met my Nano goal of 50k. in 06, I barely made it to the huge mid-story "crunch" when 50k rolled around. If I had kept writing I would have probably landed somewhere post-100k in a few months.
Who's finding that the story is more interesting than they thought, with more plot twists and events, and going to require more than 50k to complete (obviously Mike and Josh you can jump in here) ... and how many days past the 30-day mark do you think you'll need to keep writing to get this plot finished? Note: I am assuming here that you'll make your 50k! I know you can, I believe in you....
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60,332 / 50,000
Nov 13, 2007 - 10 28
Well, I'll ramble on here a moment.
My original story was designed to take place during the zombie invasion, and cover 30 days through the month of November, 2009. I wanted to do three different PoVs per day, leaving me with 90 chapters. I parsed this with a calculator and discovered that would bring my word count to somewhere around 140,000 words. This was supposed to be a zombie epic.
As for half way points? When I crossed 50k, it was about one third of the way into the story, and I could feel myself ramping up for some finale, with is insane. I imagine the closer I got to 50k the more I wanted to start tying things up. Which is convenient, considering I do have a story arc to finish.
When I'm done, I think it'll look somewhere in the ballpark of 160,000 words long. I'm hoping.
The first year I did NaNo, my story rushed itself to the end, and it looked and felt choppy. Last year my story died on me because I realized I wouldn't even finish a fragment of it during NaNo. It was, and still looks to be about 300,000 words long when I finish. So I figured it would have to be a post NaNo goal. This year I swear I wont try to bring stories to their hasty conclusion.
57,308 / 50,000
Nov 13, 2007 - 11 13
Most of my Nano's have been well over 50K as a "finished" piece. And often I've gone way over 50K within the 30 day time limit. Twice I didn't finish the story until after November 30. Last year's Nano is still a work in progress and should top out at around 250K words.
53,132 / 50,000
Nov 13, 2007 - 12 50
I'm at around 35k and I feel like I've hit about the middle of my story, but then its a young adult novel, so I feel pretty good ending it around 70k. I may or may not finish it in the month of November, it just depends on how busy the rest of the month it.
50,052 / 50,000
Nov 13, 2007 - 14 11
I have a horrible feeling the midpoint of my story is still a few thousand words away. I hit the 25k yesterday and I still have a few more people to make miserable individually before I start making EVERYONE miserable. Even the cat is miserable. He was doing fine, got adopted into a good home, making a new life for himself, then Paul suggested neutering him to even things up.
51,249 / 50,000
Nov 13, 2007 - 17 25
I"m rapidly approaching 25K and also approaching the "midpoint" I had in mind for the story.
I suspect, however, with the amount of rambling my characters have done, it will either need to either be drastically cut or the pacing smoothed out in a second draft before I know whether I have a longer novel or a novella. *chases off inner editor* I only kept you out for work related stuff. Shoo! :)
54,491 / 50,000
Nov 13, 2007 - 17 38
I've never finished a NaNoWriMo novel in 30 days. Gotten to 50k, sure, no problem... but finishing the wretched things takes another several months. Once I've invested 50k, though, I've just got to finish them; I can't stand not to. It's the beauty of NaNo.
My 2005 novel bloated to ~125,000 words, which was far more than it deserved. On the other hand, my 2006 was finished in a neat 105,000 or so, which I think is a nice length for a novel to be. Mind, I fretted each October that my story idea wouldn't last out the 50k... just goes to show you I am clueless about predicting final wordlength.
This year I am going to finish the actual novel! I hope so, anyway. I actually planned this one out (yay notecard method!), so that should help. I'm at about 30k and the turning points are happening right on schedule. Of course, it's a middle-grade novel, which tend to be anywhere from 20-50k, so that makes it easier. Otherwise I would be too tempted to go on and on, throw in plot twists, side characters, philosophical monologues, unnecessary back story... I think it's Neil Gaiman who said it was much harder to write for children, as adults will indulge you in that sort of rambling, but kids don't want to bother with it. And man, that seems to be true.
50,363 / 50,000
Nov 14, 2007 - 21 43
I have the same problem (again!). There's no way I'll finish the novel at 50,000 words.
Part of the issue for me is that I'm doing a lot of world building on the fly, and writing details to myself about the world that may not need to be included when the novel is finished (that's why I edit afterwards). This means for me that some of the Nano writing process is including discussions that are like "notes" that need to be abbreviated in a final novel. It's great for word count, and giving depth to a novel, but not so great if the goal is to finish the story within a single month.
I'm doing better with the plot this year. I'm launching two major plot threads and the month is only halfway over.
Chuck
58,254 / 50,000
Nov 17, 2007 - 21 58
Mine may go a skosh over 50K, but it's hard to say. I've been pretty pleased with the pacing so far.
58,094 / 50,000
Nov 30, 2007 - 23 08
My first draft is done.