To Whom It May Concern,
Enclosed please find my NaNoWriMo after-action report. Please be advised that this AAR is a summary document of an ongoing project and may be reassessed upon future review.
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Project: NaNoWriMo 2021, Modified Edition (a.k.a. NaYes, a.k.a. NaNoFinMo)
Overview, or The NaNo Plan-Mo
- Goal, Part 1: Plan a story
- Did I do this? Yes!
- Goal, Part 2: Let’s just focus on Part 1, shall we?
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Analysis
Looking back, how did it go?
- After years of NaNo pantsing,* was planning the story a good idea? Yes, to a point. It got me out of being stuck mid-month, but then I went a little overboard and realized that I was probably planning myself into a corner. Backing off, making sure I had a solid foundation under the piece, getting inside the heads of my characters, that made the most sense. (And that wasn’t always easy. One of the characters is an alien space mouse.)
- Was I efficient? Not so much. Taking the word count pressure off was great in many ways, but also allowed me to spend too long vacillating about which awesome idea was the most awesome of all the awesomes. And then writing, backtracking, and writing some more. Not helpful.
- Was I creative? Yes. See the aforementioned space mouse.
- Did I accomplish more than a big fat zero? I did!
- I began the month writing countable words and considered putting out enough verbiage to qualify for the formal challenge. This option was rejected because 50,000 words to no apparent purpose? No thanks!
Notes on the process, using previous related posts and their goals as guides:
Yes, I took on the challenge. Go me.
No, I did not actually finish said story. And yes, I will expect this fact to be reflected in my end-of-year bonus package. No need to remind me.
I am happy to report that I fixed the stopping and restarting problem, picked one idea and rolled with it for the rest of the month.
About halfway through the month I decided that project parameters be damned, I really didn’t care about the word count. At all. What I wanted was a platform to act as a springboard for next steps. So that’s what I did.
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Recommendations & Action Items**
What would I change for next time?
- Skip the prep reading; it was helpful but now I’ve crossed it off my list.
- Go faster, not spend the whole month on one idea, develop more stories, spend more time noodling, more wandering the neighborhood thinking up fun stuff.
- I considered a reading hiatus but then all my library books arrived and I just didn’t want to, frankly. Probably would have helped, though!
- Make December the official followup month, where actual writing shall occur.
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In Conclusion!
Experimental or not, this year’s NaNoWriMo actually went pretty well. My main takeaway is not to stress very much. Or at all. I’m much more productive when I’m having fun.
Because I didn’t bother with the 50,000 words I didn’t count this NaNo as a “win” in the formal sense. I do count it as a win in the “getting things done my own dang way, thanks very much” sense, so yay.
I may be the only one in this particular race, but still. I win!
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* A guide to NaNoWriMo strategies, including pantsing. I suppose you could say I’m a “plantser” at this point, but really, that’s a pretty terrible word.
** I just wanted to say “action items” because it’s ridiculous and fun.
J.R. Johnson 
[…] not exactly the same as NaNoWriMo or the 24-hour story challenge we recently did at Writers of the Future (crazy, fun, and not nearly […]