I WON!!! NaNoWriMo 2009

Posted by rockcat on November 30, 2009

I just won NaNoWriMo 2009! It was tough this year with Baby Anna showing up on the 7th. I squeaked over the line with 50,552 words at 5:30 am on the 30th. And some major plot holes. And a bunch of minor characters that need names due to me using Write or Die and not being ready with a name when I introduced a character.

I have officially decided that doing NaNo while preparing for a Black Belt Test is much easier than doing NaNo while pregnant (when you’re a grumpy pregnant person like me) or with a newborn. So now you know.

My novel this year is fantasy (same as last year). No romance this year at all (I forbade my characters). I have a magic teleportation to another world, a unicorn (possibly more than one – can we say sequel?) and some mountain trolls. The trolls were from the dares thread.

Dare: Have ten trolls appear in your novel, whatever genre it may be.
BP: The trolls don’t know why they’re there
DBP: You make it make sense
TBP: They become integral to the plot
QBP: The trolls turn out to be enchanted princes and the MC marries them all irrespective of troll/MC gender.

I got triple bonus points. I couldn’t do the quadruple bonus points because of the no romance rule above. I did a few subplots: a backpack that is always with the character and has everything needed for every situation. Also an item that keeps appearing through-out the novel (I used a key). (Dares and subplots are from the NaNo forums.)

Anyway, it was a great November again, but I hope to be a tad more consistent next year. And as there will be no babies and no Black Belt tests next November, I think I’m going to try for 75,000 words at least.

So now the plan is to write some non-fiction in December, and then start revising my novel in January 2010.

I’d like to thank Kevin and the kids, and my parents (Steve and Susan) who inspired me to write because they are now BOTH published writers in several magazines.

And I need a few more exclamation points!!! Because I wasn’t sure I could do it this year!!!! And I did!!!!!! Yay!!!!!!!!!!!