The AW November Novel Word Count Thread!

[Pterofan]

Day 29 - 355 words
Total - 14,612

One day left, and only 400 words to put me over 15,000. I'm at the end of the climax, which leads into the book's major twist, so word count shouldn't be a problem. If I can get started sooner than 4 in the afternoon, I'll bet I can pull this off.

Well, if it's any indication of my feelings toward cursing, I have a manuscript with over 400 uses of word 'fuck' in various forms.

That's roughly how many times they use it in the movie.

 

[Nether]

Day 29 was 2,377 words, bringing me to 58,458

Had a pretty good early session, resulting in 1,641 words. I thought I'd capitalize that, hitting at least another 1k in the late session, if not enough to finish at 3k for the day... only to repeatedly start to pass out during the late session, seriously struggling as a result.

It's hard to convey how rough that was since I'd start a sentence, nod off midway through, and the end would just be gibberish or relate to whatever I started dreaming about. And that just kept happening again and again and again. But, even with that impairment, I managed to get another 736 words done, so... whatever. While it's lower than it should've been, it wasn't a complete wash.

The scene also isn't quite what I want to be as a result. And while I'd thought about the chapter break placement throughout the day, what I'd wanted to change wouldn't make sense given some of the prose right now, so it'd be a more involved edit.

Popping back in thread to make the update that I have dreaded making for the past two weeks: I fell off horrendously midway through the month and then avoided my project entirely out of shame (and being kind of busy... who would have thought that teaching would require so much grading at the end of the term?).

Happy to report that since falling off on the 14th, I've gone back to write 53 words on the 23rd, 111 on the 24th, 532 on the 26th, 1252 yesterday, and 2053 today. Which brings my total for the month so far to 30,315. It's only about half of the goal, but it is much more than would have been if I had not made the attempt at all!

Yeah, something is usually a lot better than nothing. And while there can be shame in not succeeding, a greater shame lies in not trying.

 

[ElaineB]

Which brings my total for the month so far to 30,315.

That's about where I am without "falling off" though I did have quite a few interruptions and days with zero writing.

But I'm in really good shape, which I would not have been without this challenge! It got me back in my groove. I got to the end of my story and am now able to go back and start filling in the hundred or so [ I left as markers for places needing work. I'll lose some (many) words due to unnecessary repetition, but I'm bound to find lots of stuff to add, since much of what I wrote this month reads like a screenplay.

Thank you, Sage, for starting this! (I thought I knew how to tag someone, but apparently don't.)

 

[pdblake]

Well, that was fun. Exhausting, but fun.

1195 for today for a grand total of 45,672 and a daily average of 1522.

I only aimed for 30k so managed to do more than half again. Hopefully this will now become a regular habit. I now know that, if I sit myself down and make myself write, I can write every day. I would like to keep doing this for the rest of this novel at least.

I know a lot of the words that went down are rubbish and will likely be trimmed, but that's the same for any first draft and will only make the editing feel all the easier right? Either way it was a rush to get words down every day.

Thanks all for the encouragement.

 

[Gatteau]

1405 writing in the car yesterday. Was hoping to do some more late night, but my brain was feeling pretty wrung out, so I watched Star Wars instead (and realized that I can think of my MC as not entirely un-Luke-ish).

So that's got me currently sitting at 45974. Who thinks I can crank out 4026 words the rest of today...?

I'll get as far as I reasonably can, I really have nothing else to do until tonight. My husband's birthday is today, always conveniently falling on the last crunch day of NaNo, so helpful, ha... Really just hoping I have a reason to pop that bottle of champagne with him tonight - though we probably will anyway, and I am not too bummed about wrapping the ends of the story up tomorrow, if I have to. I have only had one Zero Day all month, so I think I can claim quite successful overall!

 

[Gatteau]

Holy crap, you guys, I actually did it!

4113 words today, for a grand (November) total of 50087!

Fun coincidence, my very first NaNo I finished with 50078 total. I guess that's just about my sweet spot.

There are two little scenes I had planned to wrap up beyond the climax here, but they're ok to leave for another day -- hopefully tomorrow, as hopefully I can actually keep up this daily habit a little better than I usually do past the challenge. But celebration time is in order for tonight!

And congrats to everyone who made their goals this month, or wrote any words at all!

 

[goddessofgliese]

Total -- 22k words. Far behind my goal, but I'm still happy that I added 22k words to my WIP.

Congratulations to everyone who made their goals this month!

 

[Pterofan]

Day 30 - 553 words
Grand total for the month - 15,165

Made it to 15,000 and change! More importantly, I worked on an actual project every single day of the month. Even when I procrastinated, I still managed to sit myself down and apply fingers to keyboard and watch the magic happen. I actually got back into the story and started coming up with new ideas and better takes on a lot of the scenes. It's still the same book, only better.

I'll be continuing on into December, with the month's goal of finishing this draft...and, if I find enough gas left in the tank, starting a new one. I'm back to being a writer again! Thanks so much for this thread, and your support.

Gonna go watch the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special now. They're running it on a channel I can get. This has been the best month ever!

 

[cutelilcryptid]

722 more words today, bringing my final total for the month to 31,037.

In practical terms, I finished the revised draft of my first novella and am most of the way through my second, which I anticipate probably only has around 2,000-3,000 words left. Overall, even though I started with higher aspirations, I'm feeling good and am grateful for this challenge!

 

[Nether]

Day 30 was 2,033 words, bringing me to 60,491

A not-so-great writing day, but it still got me to over 60k for the month.

Kinda not loving the manuscript, although that might come down to the romantic subplot being weak. That and I keep dithering over how mysterious I want the painting and its effects to be. I'd had it a bit more mysterious at first, but the later parts might strip away too much of the mystery (although the reason for it doing what it does is left to speculation by the characters). I kinda skipped the goofiest of my potential outcomes... although I might reference part of the idea as a possible explanation.

 

[Sage]

Day 30 was 2,033 words, bringing me to 60,491

We have a winner!













Of course, everyone who participated and wrote any words at all wins the prize of shiny new words & being that much closer to finishing their novels.

I hope you all enjoyed the month (or at least appreciate the effort you made). If you have any thoughts about changes you’d like to see next year, let me know. You can convo me if you prefer or post in one of the AWNoNo threads.

If you want to keep up the writing habit or 2K/day was a lot and you want to try something much shorter, come hang out at the Flash Fiction Countdown to 2025.