My NaNoWriMo 2008 results are… dismal.

National Novel Writing Month has come and gone and for my seventh year straight without a “complete” novel of 50,000 words. The highest word count I’ve ever had was somewhere over 15,000 words. That’s way short of the overall goal but it’s still certainly plenty of writing. And now, dear reader, my grand total for this year’s novel-writing attempt:

Day 13 Goal NaNoWriMo Word Count: 50,000/50,000 (100.0%)

Day 13 Actual NaNoWriMo Word Count: 8,520/50,000 (17.0%)

Word Count Difference: -41,480

Writing Sessions: 7

My Story: Fun and quite unfinished.

My Outlook: …*sigh*…

That’s definitely one of my lowest numbers in my NaNoWriMo history. Thousands of people wrote more than I did in thirty days. That’s a lot of accomplishment I’m not necessarily a part of and that’s a bummer. At any rate, I did what I could with the time I had and that’s okay. I can say without hesitation that November, 2008 was one of my busier months this year (a handful of jobs will do that to a guy). Am I disheartened? Not really. Am I proud? Well, not as proud as I would be if I’d tried to give this more time and attention. Am I concerned that Luke Rolfes called me out on not finishing? Yes, it keeps me up at nights (not really, but it’s nice to get a shout-out on someone else’s blog). Regardless, I’m doing it next year and the year after that. I enjoy NaNoWriMo as an exercise and challenge. Plus, I legitimately like what I wrote. It’s the beginnings of a fun little self-aware satire that really could become something if I give it some time and effort (at least, a whole lot more than I gave it in November).

I’d be interested to hear from you, dear reader, if you attempted NaNoWriMo and of your end results.

-nm

P.S. – Earlier this month I promised the following blog posts before the year is out. It’s nice to cross off a few of them as finished, and I have projections for the rest:

• Wrapping up last month’s NaNoWriMo. (Today!)
• Wrapping up my first semester teaching at NCC. (Tomorrow morning!)
• A link to my latest short film (now in the editing stage). (Tomorrow night, I swear!)
• My top ten favorite blog posts of the year. (I think this will happen in January, just in case I have a flash of brilliance or two in the next eight or nine days.)
• Finally, my long-promised recommendation of Five Books for Boys. (Expect this on Friday.)
• Thoughts on Oprah’s Book Club. (This may also have to show up in January.)
• Pros and cons of books as gifts. (Covered in last week’s Friday recommendation.)
• A Writer’s New Year’s Resolutions. (January 1, 2009.)
• New writing prompts and recommendations. (I’ve been on track, lately.)
• A new Scrawlers contest! (Done and over – stay tuned for more in 2009.)
• And, depending on how often I find myself with internet access, some daily blogging about a mission trip I’m co-leading down to Beaumont, Texas over the last week of the year. (Forthcoming…)