Three-Day Novel: The End
I finished the novel at around 4pm with 51,064 words, a thousand words over my personal goal for the three-day novel. Success!
While watching the #3dnc hashtag on Twitter, I realized that my goal for the novel was very high compared to what others were writing. Most other writers were writing something around half the length of my novel.
Some tidbits from the event:
* It really is possible for me to write at word war paces without doing an actual word war. In fact, this is how I wrote the entire book. I wrote for fifteen to thirty minutes, took a break to do whatever I wanted, then repeated. This netted around 3,000 words an hour if I was writing for 45 minutes of that hour.
* Novel-writing really is a bloodsport. Most of the physical aches came during the second day, when my shoulders and back started to hurt. I started taking more breaks to stretch between sessions. It's also physically and mentally draining. It's amazing how exhausting staring at a screen and writing can get.
* The words started to blend together after awhile. Seriously. I'd start making typos in every sentence or typing two words in the same word or reading what I had just written before jumping into the next part of that scene, and I'd wonder what on earth all these words on a screen were doing there.
* The tweets from the fellow #3dnc writers on Twitter became funnier as the weekend went on.
* I actually stepped outside today! Ah, fresh air while writing the three-day novel. I also noticed that the leaves on a couple of trees were turning yellow and red. When did this start to happen?
* No, I am not pulling this off for NaNo. Don't even ask. Based on my past history, this performance should happen in theory around 2014, but the "finishing earlier every year" thing has to stop somewhere.
Would I do this again? Sure, especially now that I know that most people don't write works as long as mine for the three-day novel. This is good to know if I submit officially one year. It's also good to know because I can hammer out a work of half the length much more easily and still have time for Labor Day weekend plans. Watch out, next year.
While watching the #3dnc hashtag on Twitter, I realized that my goal for the novel was very high compared to what others were writing. Most other writers were writing something around half the length of my novel.
Some tidbits from the event:
* It really is possible for me to write at word war paces without doing an actual word war. In fact, this is how I wrote the entire book. I wrote for fifteen to thirty minutes, took a break to do whatever I wanted, then repeated. This netted around 3,000 words an hour if I was writing for 45 minutes of that hour.
* Novel-writing really is a bloodsport. Most of the physical aches came during the second day, when my shoulders and back started to hurt. I started taking more breaks to stretch between sessions. It's also physically and mentally draining. It's amazing how exhausting staring at a screen and writing can get.
* The words started to blend together after awhile. Seriously. I'd start making typos in every sentence or typing two words in the same word or reading what I had just written before jumping into the next part of that scene, and I'd wonder what on earth all these words on a screen were doing there.
* The tweets from the fellow #3dnc writers on Twitter became funnier as the weekend went on.
* I actually stepped outside today! Ah, fresh air while writing the three-day novel. I also noticed that the leaves on a couple of trees were turning yellow and red. When did this start to happen?
* No, I am not pulling this off for NaNo. Don't even ask. Based on my past history, this performance should happen in theory around 2014, but the "finishing earlier every year" thing has to stop somewhere.
Would I do this again? Sure, especially now that I know that most people don't write works as long as mine for the three-day novel. This is good to know if I submit officially one year. It's also good to know because I can hammer out a work of half the length much more easily and still have time for Labor Day weekend plans. Watch out, next year.