Finished at 50k?

JustJess

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So at 10k I should be 20% of the way through the story. I'm not even close. I expect the 2nd draft to be much longer as this one is light on description, world building, dialogue etc...but I was hoping to get the bare bones down by the 30th. So I'm wondering what your goal is and if anyone's finding themselves in the same situation-too much story to fit into 30days/50k.


By Novemeber 30th, are you hoping for:
-A finished draft of 50k (wth more detail in subsequent drafts)
-Reaching 50k (and finishing the draft in December)
-A finished draft at significantly more than 50k
-No # goal, just hoping to establish a BIC habit
 

Bubastes

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I'm hoping to reach 50K on my draft. Based on my outline, the finished first draft will be closer to 70K, but those additional 20K words will likely be written after Nov. 30.
 

Tasmin21

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Ditto Meowgirl. I'll be getting 50K in on this draft, but it will be significantly longer when I finish it.
 

caseyquinn

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Like you i am just getting the story down. I really need to go back and add in much better descriptions of the characters, places, etc so while this draft may end around 50k - 55k i would expect the second draft to be closer to 65k-75k
 

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I prefer to get 50K and a complete draft done. Last year was the first year I didn't finish the novel in November, although I reached 50K before the end. Either way, I'll be close probably. I'm writing YA and it will probably finish around 60K
 

Grrarrgh

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I think that it'll probably be a lot longer than 50K. I'm basically just writing down the bare bones of the story. I'll have to go back in and add descriptions and more narrative. I tend to be very dialogue heavy in my first draft.
 

Shady Lane

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Getting a first draft to 50K is the struggle for me. The speed was never an issue. I'm just hoping I don't run out of story before I get there!
 

Deccydiva

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I am planning on a target of 2,500 words a day - one chapter. That should deal with the NaNo goal in plenty of time, but I will carry on to get a first draft of around 75,000 - 80,000. Early days though - I'm focussing on the 50,000 first...
 

Kalyke

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I don't know. I've had my idea hopping around my head for at least a year, and never wrote it because the idea was "small" and usable only for a novella, just like I think Fitzgerald's "Great Gatsby" would never have made a 100K book. There is a logical size (or book length) for each idea, some ideas are more compact than others.

I wonder-- rule wise though, if having an "unfinished" novel meets the rules, when the rules were a 50,000 word novel, which I assume means a finished novel of 50,000 words.
 

Bubastes

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I say that if you write 50K in November and it gets you closer to your personal writing goals, you've won. That's just me, though.
 

Cranky

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Well, I spent about 8k flailing around, so my book won't be finished at 50k, no way. I'm hoping to be done (read be at 50k) around the fifteenth, though, and with luck, I should be finished with the first draft by the 30th. Or darn close to it, anyway...
 

Clair Dickson

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The "rules" of NaNoWriMo do dot say anything about the novel being finished. Only that you have reached 50,000 words of a novel.

I meander my way through the plot. When I reach 50,000 words, I'm usually right about the hardest part of the novel. The climax. But, my goal this year is to explore a new character and setting, so I'm not worried about never gong back and finishing it. (I have too trunked, unfinished NaNo "novels" from past years that I don't have the motivation to finish.)
 

DamaNegra

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At almost 20k, my story is nowhere near running out of steam. I expect it to reach 60-75k when it's done. And my goal for this NaNo is to write 'The End' before November is over. My problem had always been finding enough story to write a novel, but it's not a problem with this current idea, there's enough material to go around. Now that I'm (sort of) regaining some of my initial enthusiasm, it once again looks like a manageable goal.

Oh, and I'm also editing/rewriting scenes I've already written for NaNo, but I'm not counting the edited word count for it (even though I'm adding lots of stuff to most scenes). I want a polished MS by the end of the month. That is my goal, and I'm keeping it!
 

melaniehoo

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I'm somewhere between these two.

-Reaching 50k (and finishing the draft in December)
-A finished draft at significantly more than 50k

My tentative goal for November is 60K so I can feel like I wrote an industry standard-length novel, or at least the minimum, but I feel like this story will be much longer. I'm at about the same place as you (11K) and only twelve hours have passed in the story! Granted, the majority of it's based on the first night, but it's supposed to carry over a full year. *smacks head*
 

burgy61

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I am hoping to have a first draft done somewhere about the 60k range by the end of the month. If I can keep up the 2k a day goal I set for myself I should make it.
 

GeorgieB

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So at 10k I should be 20% of the way through the story. I'm not even close. I expect the 2nd draft to be much longer as this one is light on description, world building, dialogue etc...but I was hoping to get the bare bones down by the 30th. So I'm wondering what your goal is and if anyone's finding themselves in the same situation-too much story to fit into 30days/50k.


By Novemeber 30th, are you hoping for:
-A finished draft of 50k (wth more detail in subsequent drafts)
-Reaching 50k (and finishing the draft in December)
-A finished draft at significantly more than 50k
-No # goal, just hoping to establish a BIC habit

Mine will be significantly longer than 50K before the first draft is complete. I'm currently at 18K words and the final will come in somewhere between 70-80K, the same as last years. I think that I'll finish before the 30th, especially at the rate the words are going down. That's a result of the outline that I wrote during the run-up to the NaNo.

It's really too much story to cram into only 50K.
 

autumnjoy

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I'm hoping to have a completed rough draft of at least 80,000 words by the end of November.
 

Soccer Mom

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I hope to have 60K written by the end of November. The first draft will end up being around 90K though. I won't be done with it in November.
 

cjharley

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Like you i am just getting the story down. I really need to go back and add in much better descriptions of the characters, places, etc so while this draft may end around 50k - 55k i would expect the second draft to be closer to 65k-75k

I'm with Casey. I am mainly getting the story on paper, so to speak. I have rarely added any description to my novel. I just want to get my idea out and move through the story.
 

sheadakota

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I never know how long my finished novel will be until its, well, finished By Nov 30th I am simply hoping to have 50K down and either the story will be finished or it won't. Either way I will need to do some serious editing.

Right now I am lacking in charcter development, descriptions, and have way to much telling, the important thing for me is to get the bare bones of the story and then I can build on it from there.
 

Fresie

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I thought I'd manage to finish the whole thing by the end of November but I've realised I can't write more than one scene a day (about 2000 words) because I can't recharge my creative batteries fast enough. So the whole thing will last well into December.
 

Alpha Echo

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My goal is to have my first draft completed - at more than 50k.

I had a headstart - I started in October. But those words I'm not counting toward NaNo. Only the words I actually write in November count. But I'd like to have my draft finished. I think it may be possible.
 

TheIT

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NaNo goal = hit 50K
My personal goal = also hit THE END

Whether THE END occurs within the 50K is up for grabs. I never hit an ending in all three NaNo's I've done despite hitting 50K each time.