NaNoWriMo 2020

I first participated in NaNoWriMo in 2014 when I'd just started thinking that maybe I could write a novel. Every November since then, apart from last year, I have taken part with varying degrees of success. That first year, I was determined to do what until then I'd thought of as impossible. 50,000 words in a month - no way!  But I did it and have the certificate to prove it. On my blog - also started in 2014 - I reflected on whether it had been a worthwhile experience as far as my first novel was concerned. Was NaNo a No-No? The post is second from the top of the page. The conclusion was that in spite of not re-reading what I'd written previously as I went along as I would normally do, not having done enough research and having a mammoth editing task at the end, I still thought it was worthwhile. I went on to attempt it every year apart from 2019 since. 

This year was different. I now have two books published in a three-book contract with Ruby Fiction. Because of editing and promoting  Her Mother's Secret and Her Sister's Secret, time was taken away from finishing writing novel number three. Both were published during lockdown so writing and appearing on blogs and social media played a very important part in the success of both. Thank you to so many of you in the writing community for your support.

I've managed to keep a fairly regular output.

At the moment, there are eight days to go and my word count is at 40,022. I'm on target to get to 50,000 and may even get there before the end of November if all continues to go well. So what have I done differently this year? Lockdown has made it easier for me to write every day. In fact, I've missed just one day. Even on days when I have not written the recommended 1667 words, I've been able to make up for it on other days. Yesterday, for example, I rearranged and sorted some previously written scenes and was well short of the average. One of my characters, Odile, now has a complete section written from her point of view and I can't wait to 'walk in her footsteps' post-COVID in Normandy and the area around Avranches that I love. I returned to my manuscript this morning with renewed excitement and wrote 1,274 words in an hour and a half sprint. A big thank you to writer friend, Kirsten, for inviting me to be part of her group. 

Just one badge to get now!

Fingers crossed! 

I can imagine that this way of writing will be, for many, completely alien to you. What it has meant for me is that in spite of a lot of work on the novel ahead I will have the bones of a complete story down in print. Having discussed the premise of the idea and the synopsis with an independent editor during a 1-1 at the RNA Virtual Conference in July, I've now immersed myself back into the story and reacquainted myself with my characters and their problems. With everything else being virtual at the moment, I'm enjoying travelling back in time to the 1940s and early sixties, to stunning rural mid-Wales and hearing the beautiful sounds of the French language in my head. 

Good luck to all of you doing NaNo this year. How have you found it? I'd love to know your thoughts.

You may also follow me on @JanBaynham and on my Jan Baynham Writer Facebook page.