I did it. I won NaNoWriMo for the third year in a row, beating out my previous final word counts by 200 - AND I won a day early. My final word count was 50,317. Not bad!
I know I don't sound very excited about it, but I am very happy to have won again this year. However, I feel like this year was just a bad experience all-around, for reasons I'll get to in a moment. But if there's one thing I have to say for sure about NaNo 2016, it's that it was too easy for me.
I think my not being in school this year was the biggest factor of this. It helps when you don't have fifteen million other words to write for three literature classes at once every single day. It probably also helps that my job - while amazing! - is only part-time. I had a lot of time to spend focusing solely on my novel this year, and I think losing the challenge factor took some of the fun away from it.
Another issue I had with this year's NaNo was the story itself. At the very end of October I was trying to decide between this and another idea. I am immensely glad I chose this one, because strictly based off of how it went, I wouldn't have made it past 10k words with the other idea I had. Both were contemporary New Adult books. The difference being that one was a "detective story" and one was a messed-up love pentagon. I struggled to get to 10k words because I decided to be a plantser rather than a full-out planner this year (my mistake), but once I hit that I breezed right through the next 20k words. Then I hit 30k, and it was a constant battle to find motivation to get words on the page. By the time I got to 45k, I was DONE. I wrote the last 5k words, passed that finish line, and felt nothing but immense relief that it was finally over.
Don't get me wrong - there were definitely scenes I enjoyed writing, and you can tell where those scenes fell within my novel due to the massive jumps in my chart. But as a whole, I'd say that while I liked the premise of the novel in the beginning, my enthusiasm quickly died out and I struggled with and practically hated the last 15k words I wrote. Everything about Jenkins and Smith 2 was just...awful. Ugh. I am so not proud of this one, guys. So not proud.
And you might be thinking, "But I thought you said it was too easy this year?" It was. The premise I went with was something I was totally on board with at first, so the first half of this novel came easily to me. I consistently kept on target with the ideal daily word counts. But then I hit the climax way earlier than I anticipated I would, and so the last 15k words were essentially filler space. It was awful - but it was so awful that I figured, "Hey. Can't ruin it any more than it already is." So I just wrote whatever came to mind to fill the space and called it done. It was too easy, and I hated that.
I wanted more of a challenge than I had this year. Initially I was trying to get the 30-Days badge for the first time, since I've yet to win it. I was doing so well keeping up with it, even when I was sick. But then there was one fateful day that I forgot to update my word count and I lost it. So then I decided my new personal challenges would be to A) win before November 30 for the first time and B) write more than I had in previous years. Both of which I accomplished, easily.
Long story short, guys - this year's NaNoWriMo was not fun for me, mostly because there was no challenge factor and the story idea I went with, in retrospect, was the worst I have ever conceived. So while I'm happy I have won three years in a row, I am not proud of this last one. But I intend to learn from my mistakes this year and come back stronger in November 2017. Also, I think that (for now, at least) I am going to lay Bryan Jenkins and Wren Smith to rest. I have utterly ruined them at this point.
All right. I'm done talking about this. Moving on!
I'm going to give a real quick shout-out to my Wattpad story before I get to the reading portion of this blog post. At the beginning of November I finished writing "Worlds Collide" entirely, and on November 25 I posted the final chapters and marked the book as being complete. The ending has been well received! I'm very happy that my readers are so happy. Their encouraging comments always make my day. It seems that my stats have mostly come to rest at 4,843 reads; 374 votes; and 165 comments. (Wow - that's a LOT for just one month!)
I will be announcing a new fanfiction story there on Christmas Day. No spoilers here! Sorry, Wattpad readers! ;)
Reading
As expected, my reading was seriously pushed to the sidelines during the month of November to make way for NaNoWriMo. I have not read a single page of anything in over two weeks. I feel like I'm dying. But there is good news to remedy that! First, however, I'd like to say that I finished Warlock Holmes by G.S. Denning this month, and it was SO much fun to read. Guys, if you're looking for Sherlock Holmes meets fantasy, this is the parody for you. I loved every single page and I am beyond hyped for Book 2 in May! I am also currently about 75 pages into A Whole New World (an Aladdin retelling).
All right. I'm super excited about this next part.
So if you've followed my blog for the past year or so, you'll already know this, but I'm going to say it again anyway: I have a problem. I have serious book guilt, and it has only gotten worse as the year has progressed. I started with 11 books on my TBR (To Be Read) in January, which became 21 by July, which has since only whittled down to 19 today. This is while I've been actively working to reduce it, mind you. It's just that bad. I love books, I love new books, I buy new books every time my family makes a trip to Montana (which is really only four or five times a year), and...the list of excuses goes on.
BUT NO MORE!
As of midnight tonight, on December 1, I am going to refocus my energy into crushing my TBR in my very own, personalized TBR Takedown. Originally my goal was to not buy any new books until I'd gotten it down to 10, but that is not good enough! (And clearly not an effective motivator.) My TBR is sitting at 19 books right now, including the one I'm currently reading. Our first trip to Montana is most likely slated for March/April of 2017, and I am determined to have my TBR down to ZERO by then.
Every reader has their own idea of what a TBR List is for them, and thus have their own ideas about how TBR Takedowns work for them. My TBR consists of books I own but have not read yet which, in my mind, should take priority over library books and whatnot. I like to keep my TBR to a minimum, which really means I just like to make sure I'm constantly reading. 2016 has been an epic fail of a year in that respect (and I do blame my three lit classes for that), but the time for sitting back and doing nothing about it is over! I refuse to wait until the New Year to change my ways. I will do it now!
That said, here is what my version of a TBR Takedown looks like:
19 Books on TBR (Including Currently Reading)
December - 6.5 books minimum to beat last year's Goodreads total (12 books left)
January - 5 books, consisting of one library book (I promised a friend I'd read it in January and cannot back out on said promise lest I lose my very soul) (8 books left on TBR)
February - 5 books (3 books left)
March - Finish TBR
The goal within this Takedown is to NOT read any library books or buy any new books whatsoever, with the exception of the promised book in January. The reason I have so many books lined up for December is because I generally take December off from writing because of the insane stress of NaNoWriMo (though this year I think the break will mostly be to convince myself I'm not a total failure as an author). And since I'll be off from writing, that leaves plenty of room for reading. Also, I'm currently at 41/50 books on my 2016 Goodreads goal. Last year I read 47 books total, so I want to at least one-up myself by reading 48 total this year, which means I'd need to finish the book I'm currently reading and six more by midnight on December 31 to accomplish that goal. If I could get to 50 I would, but I honestly doubt that is going to happen at this point. Curse you, incredibly stressful but ultimately helpful literature classes from January-May of this year!
I'm really excited to just leave my trainwreck of a novel in the snow dust and read like crazy next month. I'm also really excited to have created my first personalized TBR Takedown. I'm going to plow through these books at a supersonic rate; y'all will be left amazed at my reading prowess. So check back here next month to make sure I'm keeping up the pace!
Until then, I'm outta here. See you next time!
