Halfway Stop: NaNoWriMo (!!!!)

Hello my fine friends! I return from the craziness of NaNo to give you a little update of how it's all going.

Now, I would do a day-by-day update describing exactly every detail of what I did that day and all that, except that I've forgotten most of the details by now and everything is just a muddled mess of excitement and words in my brain.

But I will give you my daily word count and some ramblings of what I am pretty certain happened on that particular day.

And yes. Technically it's halfway through NaNo tomorrow (or the next day if you live on the other side of the world), but I don't do blog posts on Tuesday so...I just couldn't. I thought I'd be early. You know, organised and all that. Phew. You should all be proud of me. (She says as she hurries to smash together a post at nine-- ahem ten (*cough cough* noo, definitely not 11...) at night.)

Okay, so starting from the beginning. Because it's a good plan to do that. Always a good plan.

Day 1

7,095 // 7,095

In which I broke my total-word-count-for-the-day record (it was previously 6k) and did a lot of whooping and being enthused for the first day of my first year of NaNo.

Day 2

3,155 // 10,250

In which I thumped out words and promptly forgot anything anyone asked me to do and-- oh wait. I was meant to be cooking dinner tonight?! ...Oops. 

I also competed in several 'wacky word wars' in which we typed with our toes in the first one, and our knuckles for a second one. *cough cough* I won them both. 

News flash: Jane Maree can type 101 words in ten minutes with her toes. It has been proven with witnesses.

Day 3

5,056 // 15,306

In which I received several epic messages/emails/things of people pounding my back and screaming in my face of how in the world I got that many words in three days. Also people wondering who had fed my red cordial, or lit me on fire. Good fun.

And there was another wacky word war that we did with our noses. Only problem being that my family walked into the room near the beginning and looked at me like I was a lunatic and made me laugh my head off. I then had to take a trip to hospital to get it glued back on so I only got 30 words in the 5 minute war and someone else beat me by one word. As I said. Good fun.

Day 4

4,915 // 20,221

In which my word warring group starts going into denial because they were sick of me winning basically every single war. *grins sheepishly* I started getting a reputation for being insane. No idea why.

Day 5

3,042 // 23,263

In which I was very proud of my word count because I wrote insanely all morning and then was out all afternoon until 10 pm with my town band concert that I was performing with. I was also very proud of having a not short-circuited brain, because that's always a plus when you have to play a wind instrument for more than an hour straight.

Day 6

0 // 23,263

In which the day was a Sunday and I kept to my general rule of not writing on Sundays and just chilled. And did a bunch of crazy games and active stuff at the park. (Yes. Chilling and active games totally go together in my mind. Do not question my thinking. I am a wealth of all knowledge.)

Day 7

6,766 // 30,029

In which I give advice on how to write fast in a word war. Advice that is entirely serious and that everyone should take. Forget about spelling and grammar and punctuation. Blegh. That's all stuff that can be fixed in the second draft. It'll be fine, just get the 1st draft out of your brain. Who cares if that word doesn't even vaguely resemble what you meant to type??? (I mean, you will care later when you go back to edit. And you will hate yourself. But maybe it'll be fun while it lasts.)

Day 8

5,385 // 35, 414

In which people in my word warring group stopped wanting to war with me. Trust me, this is sad. Never (I repeat, NEVER) become a fast writer, or you will sicken all the writer friends who are still sane. I'm warning you now while you have a chance. I'm past the point of no return. It's my unfortunate fate.

Day 9

7,152 // 42,566

In which I discover that me and a blogger friend (Katie Grace) had both been trying to keep ahead of each other. I would wake up in the morning and 'Ah no! She's ahead 3k again. I must get over that today.' And I discovered that she was actually doing the same thing as well. Thus, with both of us realising, it became 'official' that we were racing to win.

I have her to thank, along with so, so many others for such amazing encouragement.

Day 10

7,613 // 50,179

In which I completely smashed NaNoWriMo on day ten.

I WON NANO AND I CAN'T BELIEVE IT THERE IS SO MUCH EPIC AND JUST AHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*clears throat* So yes.

At 8:37 pm I stopped my word war against myself and checked my word count.

I then proceeded to squeal and flap my arms around and make strangled sounds that were, in fact, me trying not to full on scream (problems of it being night and all the little siblings were in bed. I assumed their sleep might be a trifle disturbed if I started screaming).

When I had stopped not-screaming I grabbed the laptop and ran around the house showing everyone my NaNo Stats page (the colour of fluro green has never been so beautiful as in that moment) and squealing and grinning until (and after) my face hurt.

(Also, screaming messages started flooding my inbox which was super cool and exciting. *hugs to everyone who sent them* you know who you are)

Day 11

0 // 50,179

In which I do literally nothing but chillax. Because my brain really needed it. Oh, I also went to a Magic Workshop and learnt some tricks, but in general it was a day where I just forgot about NaNo and recovered from the insanity.

For a day.

But I was super glad that I did, because it was a really great day where I could just do nothing. *cough cough* And maybe the school work that I hadn't done throughout the rest of the week because I was too busy writing. *cough*

Day 12

2,900 // 53,079

In which I start at it again. Jane Maree back onto writing because Agent Kit's first draft still is yet to be finished. I got so so many encouraging messages and epic people throwing confetti and cake and pizza at me, it was just so very cool.

And since my racing buddy's 1st draft wasn't done either...we were still at it. Such fun. We are very much not competitive. *shakes head very seriously* Not at all.

Day 13

0 // 53,079

In which Sunday came around again and I didn't get anything in because we left the house at 7:45 am and got back at 10:45 pm...yeah. It was interesting. But a fun day anyway.

Day 14

4,027 // 57,106

In which day we are still in. (*checks clock* Okay good. *mutters to self* Can't post this on a Tuesday. It doesn't matter if it's late at night. It'll still be Monday...) And in which I war several times, help out with critiquing people's essays and novels and am 3k ahead of Katie. *grins*



So that's a basic over all summing up of my NaNo!

I really have to just say, that I could NEVER have done this without all the loads of encouragement that friends (and complete strangers) have given me. It's kept me going. It's spurred me on. It made me realise that maybe I could do this. And I discovered that I can.

And there's something great about NaNo. Even if you don't 'win' I think you can still totally win. You win if you have fun. You win if you join in with the spirit of the month and have a go. You win if you scream at someone for getting to 50k, or 20k or 10k or whatever!
It's not the word count that matters. It's the...the esprit de corps that is shared, where everyone pushes everyone else on toward the goal. It's the fun and friendship.

And now, Jane Maree out.


How is NaNo going for all of you?
Is the plot springing any unplanned twists?
(or is the entire thing completely unplanned? :P)