We did it! Another Nano is in the books!
I’ve shared this elsewhere, but my total for this year was 100100. I like number patterns. It helps that you don’t have to verify like in the old days, so what my document says gets to be my count instead of relying on the addition (or subtraction) of words to get your “official” total. So I got to choose where to stop and have it line up with an arbitrary number of my design.
Writing in a continuous series, I had outlined for more, but I’m fine with where things ended. That’s part of the beauty of finishing a draft. I didn’t want to have things hanging over my head for either Camp Nano or next year, since I tend to have difficulty working as much in the off season. But I have a remedy for that.
I’ve done some writing contests this past year (and signed up for another just this afternoon), but I need to get back in the submitting for publication game. It’s been 4&1/2 years, for goodness sake! Sure, it stinks to be rejected, but I can’t be accepted if I don’t even try. Besides, between the feedback I’ve gotten from the writing contests as well as from my critique group, I have help to get me ready for submissions instead of relying on my own eye for editing, which can oftentimes not see the error forest for the grammatical trees.
One of the nice reminders from this year’s Nano was how important writing in a community can be. Since I spent so long without being part of a region, and even once I joined my current Nano-sphere, a lot of writing has been solo. I thought I didn’t need things like word wars to keep me going (especially since I couldn’t earn any war raptors because of it).
But there’s something to be said for joining together with people for 10 or 15 or however many minutes and celebrating the steps toward the larger goal. And given my proclivity for distractions, it helped me focus. Definitely a good thing.
There are changes on the horizon, but I’ll save most of that for a post closer to the end of the year (or beginning of next). But I’d like to maintain this regular posting thing. I’m not sure at the moment what that will look like, but if it keeps me connected with my readers as well as narrows my focus on writing goals, that can only lead to good things.
In the meantime, I’m taking a well-deserved break. After all, it’s the end of Nano as we know it, and I feel fried.