JanNoWriStart — Our Final Week

The final week of JanNoWriStart! How did everybody do?

Here’s the concept from Julie:

A while back, I wrote about #JanNoWriStart. It is a riff off the #NaNoWriMo, but without the firm “rules”. Here are the ones I am using. Adapt them as necessary:

• Set a daily goal. If you are writing a first draft, make it a word count. If you are editing, make it a number of pages, or a time limit. It needs to work for you. The important thing is, make it achievable on a daily basis.
• Keep moving forward. If you are on a first draft, just keep writing. If you are editing, and get stuck, make a note to yourself (fix this! research this!) and then move forward. #JanNoWriStart is about building both a habit and momentum.

My goal is 500 words a day. “They” say you can form a new habit in 21 days, so we have 10 extra days to make sure it works. I am a plotter, so I have scenes outlined. Now just to get them written.

Sherry: We have a household of company this week. My daughter, our cousins from Brazil and their adorable four-year-old daughter, and Bob’s sister and our sweet niece. Needless to say this week has been about family and not word count.

Barb: After ten days off between the Key West Literary Seminar and a wonderful family visit, I had trouble remembering what the book was about. To get back into it, I spent a bunch of time doing plot and character work. Then came the happy distraction of two Agatha nominations, which resulted in a Thursday spent updating websites, Amazon listings, doing up a quick issue of my newsletter and answering “dispatches from all over.” Such wonderful problems.

Edith: I was very motivated by this challenge. To date this month (of which more than twelve hours remain!), I wrote about 10,000 words and finished the first draft of Farmed and Dangerous, and I wrote about 24,000 words on Breaking the Silence, bringing it to over the 30 k mark. I took the challenge seriously and even carved out some retreat time in the last week to really up the word count. Best of all, I immersed myself in my stories to the extent that I kind of forgot my real world. So thanks for the push, Julie!

Jessie: Wow, Edith, that’s a great week! As for me, despite ongoing sickness in my household I managed to rack up some words and, better yet, some new scenes on my work-in-progress. I don’t think I would have struggled to achieve that if it weren’t for JaNoWriStart. Anyone in for February?

Edith: Jessie, that’s for the month, not the week! Although I did have a very good week, too. ;^)

Readers: Did you keep up with your creative goals for the month? Will you stick with them next month?