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NaNoWriMo 2023: The Experience This Year
Well, I did it. Another NaNoWriMo and another badge on my writing career (and I got the NaNoWriMo T-shirt this year to celebrate)! This project wraps up the 5-year journey of Phase 1 of my ‘Horror Vs. Fantasy’ series. And, with the conclusion of Phase 1, I have decided to retire from traditional NaNoWriMo challenges.
A few factors went into this decision. For one, the Third Act was misbehaving, giving me more stuff to write just as I was getting close to the end and was supposed to be wrapping up. This is something that has been happening more and more with these projects, always reaching the 50,000 word mark a few days before the end of November, but not having finished the story yet. Each project in this series has had progressively higher word count totals, and this year’s project clocked in at over 64,000 words by the time I finished writing. A significant jump from even last year.
If I had the time it wouldn’t be a problem, but various life changes and a growing YouTube channel meant I had less time to focus on just writing. The last few days of this November I lost a lot of sleep, and on the last day I ate at my computer so I could get back to writing immediately after a meal, and I’m pretty sure I even skipped a meal, and still was adding pieces to the story up until the last few minutes before midnight.
