Whether you met your goals or not, chances are NaNo was a learning experience.
Here’s what I learned:
1. Stop making plans. I keep telling myself this, and then I keep planning, and life throws my plans off a cliff. I need to let go of plans and embrace the chaos.
2. Accepting chaos doesn’t mean never getting anything done. It means rethinking what progress means and what is a reasonable, reachable goal under the circumstances. Here’s a reasonable goal: do something every day to move forward, whatever area of life you want to move forward in. This can be small. But any step, however small, is progress.
3. Stories really are important. I grapple with this one a lot, but I had an “aha” moment during NaNo that deepened my commitment to storytelling. Commitment is what keeps us coming back, day after day, to take another step, so it’s worth thinking about what you’re committed to and why.
I hope you can see the success in your NaNo experience even if it wasn’t what you planned. Some books take longer to write than others. Some times in our lives are more difficult to work through or around than others. But you can look back and see what you accomplished. Then look forward and keep going.
Saying Amen to number 2. I forget that big tasks can be manageable in smaller packages. Anyway, I completed my goal of hitting 50k on my novel though it’s no where near done. But the triumph is that I wrote. To date I only had 7k to my name for the year. So unlike me.
Sofia, that’s a big step forward! Good for you. And yep, doing one little piece may seem insignificant but those pieces add up.
#2 is so true. You can make all the plans you want, but they don’t always happen.
I didn’t “officially” do NaNo, but I did manage to write 55K and do the rough draft of a book in November. I’m pleased with how it went.
I’m trying to relax more and tell myself any progress is good progress no matter how big or small.
NJ, that’s a great way to go through Dec. ; )