December 05, 2010

NaNoWriMo 2010 Summary

This'll be my last completely NaNoWriMo-related entry this year - I think. I don't know yet, how long it'll be, but if it's novel-lenght, sorry in advance. I promise I don't want to go into details, more like a... eer... draft of the third and last week. Oh, and the last two days.

Third week:
At the end of the second week, I was so happy I caught up with TEH PLAN and was only a few hundred words short and feeding off my last blog post, that I felt confident I would finish on time and content with my progress.
Hence those next days when I only wrote a few hundred words. Not much, it didn't even come close to the daily wordcount goal, but still, I wrote some.

Fourth week:
I continued with my few-hundred-words-per-day progress. I still had a week... A WEEK! First, it sounded such a little time, then I reassured myself that's plenty of time. Besides that, I had an exam(-like thingy), then met up with my oldest friend whom I haven't seen for such a long time, so I didn't really have time to write.
And before I knew it, only 5 days were left. I think that's when I began to feel something similar to panic. But no worries! I knew I won't have that much time on the weekend, because I had a few things scheduled, so I had to write a lot on Friday. I can do that easily, right?
Nope. I could only write 1,5k. Then only 1k on Saturday. But I did write 3k on Sunday, which was the most packed day out of the three. Funny how life works, yes? Though I think it might've had something to do with the rapidly rising panic.
More and more of my writing buddies and other fellow wrimos in my region got that nice, shiny, purple bar under their username. Even those who started NaNoWriMo in week two! They only had half the time and they were already finished! And how shameful it'd be if I only had a 2009 winner T-shirt and when someone asks about 2010, I'd be very embarrassed about it, because I couldn't do it!
Yes, I had more on my plate this year and didn't even write in my mother language. But the others who started late, had been very busy, too and they already DID IT!

Thus came Monday, with almost 4k. I wanted to write at least... I don't know... 5k or 6k? Because I only had 1 class on Monday, then I was free (aside from homework for next morning). And Tuesday is a long day. And last year, I managed to write 6k (my record!), but I didn't have classes that day. So it seemed impossible to write even more on Tuesday.
Nonetheless, I closed Monday with 44 422 words. I had to write more than 5,5k on the last day, as if there wasn't enough things to do!!!
On Tuesday, I wrote when waiting between classes, using whatever notebook (paper-based) I dug out of my bag. Bought snacks. Bought coke (but let's keep this between ourselves; I don't fancy coke, I only needed it for the adrenaline and since I'd been waking up before 6 AM for a couple of days and had to write more than 5,5k on a busy schoolday to finish on time, I decided to buy one).
Luckly (?), my last class was canceled, so I got home as fast as I could, typed up the scenes from my notebook and drank coke. And wrote. And wrote, and wrote. And didn't use the Hungarian NaNoWriMo chatroom, until I got to 50k. In 4-4,5 hours, around 8.15 PM, I reached the 50 000 words finishline.
Then I went to eat dinner, started up the chat and after awhile, I realized I downed all 0,5 litre coke during my writing frenzy. And no matter who opened my door, I directed them at my doorhanger which said not to disturb me under any circumstances.

It was crazy. It was a long chase. And I've transcended many things that seemed impossible to overcome before. In 2009, I wrote in Hungarian, my mother language. I had a passive semester at the University, so I only had two, 90-minutes lessons every week at a language school. I had plenty of time on my hands. In 2010, I had and active semester at the University, packed with seminars, which meant I had to prepare for every class. I decided to write in English. Also, this is the semester before my last <touches wood>, so I wrote this with the thought looming behind that I need to get started on my thesis, soon. And if I don't pass a course this semester, I'd be stuck here for another year.
I didn't know I could do it. And if our beloved Municipal Liasion, Poggi, wouldn't have nudged me and encouraged me to try - I still wouldn't know I can achieve this. I'm truly grateful for you, Poggi, if you're reading this, and I'll never forget that it's thanks to you that I know I can overcome my limits like this.

And thank you for you, who got started in the middle of November and showed us courage and enviable determination, persistence and faith that in spite of beginning late, you could still do it. And thank you for those, who were always a few steps before us, and ended November with unbelievably large wordcounts! And thank you for the others, even those who didn't win, because their determination, encouragement and always being helpful meant a lot to me.

It was a great November, let's do this again next year!!! <famous last words>

6 comments:

csillagpor said...

congrats, hon! :)

Trisha said...

Well done writing in Hungarian - though you'd be better at it than me for sure. LOL. Congrats on your NaNo achievement!

Tika said...

@Csillagpor: Thanks :) Congrats for you, too! :D

@Trisha: Hungarian is my mother language, so I guess it was the other way around: writing in English was a bit harder for me :) (wrote in Hungarian in 2009, this year it was in English)
Nonetheless, thank you!!! And congrats on your wordcount AND finishing your story! I'm not even halfway, I think xD

Trisha said...

Yeah, I agree with you about the whole 'quanty/quality' thing, but NaNo is just great for getting something down on paper. Like you can really challenge yourself to just get the thing written in 30 days, and then later on you get to worry about the quality. :D So that's why I love NaNo!

Thanks for stopping by my blog :)

Natalia said...

You're great. I've found your blog and it really encourages me. Last year I participated but didn't came to winning point ever closer, and this year I believe I'll finally do it. But I'm writing in Russian, my mother tongue, so I'm really impressed you've managed to do it in English.
Wish you good luck at this years' NaNoWriMo:)

Tika said...

Спасибо болшой, Алиса!

You added me as a buddy a few days ago, right? I've wanted to write a NaNoMail, I just hardly had any time... But I will!

I'm happy if my memoirs (LoL), can help you write more! I think it must've been really hard for you last year if you get close. Don't give up and let both of us reach 50k this year! *\^o^/*
Good luck for you, too!

Tika


PS.: Next weekend, our region will have an event where everybody checks what is their average wordcount and try to write the double amount on Saturday and Sunday. Maybe you can do that, too! It can give a big boost to your wordcount, so you can avoid things like that crazy sprint I did last year :D