14 December 2015 - 6:16 pm

Roundup: NaNoWriMo 2015

NaNoWriMo 2015 is done. I made it to the goal – all 50,000 words – and have my winner’s certificate. The events all went off without a hitch. People had fun, wrote words, made new connections. It was a quieter NaNo than last year’s, but good nonetheless.

I was even interviewed on the radio! I did this a few years ago as well, over the phone with a local ABC presenter. This year, she came to a write-in and we spent some time talking, got a few attendees involved, and the result is live and online.

(I’m in the picture on the post. I try not to be mortified.)

Now that I think about it, I don’t think I’m grateful enough for how well the events we hold go. There were no screw-ups. No-one got hurt or in trouble. Technical issues were kept to a minimum (and largely solved, like the time one person’s trackpad stopped working and a Wrimo was able to lend him a wired mouse for the rest of a write-in).

No drama unfolded outside of our stories. Just the way I like it.

I have one golden rule for events that I run: no hospital trips. (This is occasionally expanded to ‘no emergency callouts’, depending on how naughty some of the attendees are looking. They know who they are.) I am happy to say that the rule remains blessedly unbroken.

I have good people around me. I am utterly grateful for this. I am incredibly lucky.

On the writing side, this was my worst NaNo to date. I struggled to get my head down to write, fought for inspiration, and wound up skipping across different projects. It was better to write something than nothing at all, and sometimes it’s good to fire up creativity before turning it onto a single target, but it was still a struggle.

Now, I’ve made progress on a few projects, and that’s good. I’m really well-prepared for next year’s Writers’ Asylum. I’ve got a much clearer picture of a project that has been stick-figures and catch-phrases until now. But I haven’t made the inroads I had been hoping for in Starwalker, and that makes me sad.

I did, however, make sure that I kept going back to it. The last thousand words I wrote were in Starwalker, in a musing that helped remind me how much I enjoy the ship’s voice. Her perspective is so different to any other character I’ve written, and yet she’s familiar and warm to be around.

I’m giving some serious thought to how I pull Starwalker into shape and get ready to start posting again. I need to make sure that I don’t start off badly or it’s just going to dive into the ground on me. Plans are in motion. I’m too stubborn to give up on this yet!

Right now, we’re winding up towards the last events of the year, and then there are just a few more bits to keep me busy before Christmas hits us.

Now if only I had the chance to have a rest, right?

Hope it’s all going well for all you out there. More news soon, watch this space!

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2 comments

  1. The future of Starwalker : : Adventures in Text says:

    […] the struggle and ultimate disappointment of writing Starwalker for this year’s NaNoWriMo project, I’ve been giving some serious thought to how I get back on the web serial  […]

    December 27th, 2015 at 1:12 pm

  2. 2015 in retrospect : : Adventures in Text says:

    […] tried some new stuff with the NaNoWriMo events this year, with some mixed results. They all went well on the whole, though, and I’m happy that we’re continuing to head […]

    January 10th, 2016 at 4:08 pm