NaNoWriMo: What Happens when November is Over?

Winner, winner, chicken dinner!

As some of you may know, I spent most of November working on my NaNoWriMo novel. (How do you NanoWrimo? Tales from a Writing Rebel) By hitting the 50k word count goal, I am officially a NaNoWriMo Winner! National Novel Writing Month has now come to an end, but the work is still in the early stages. So here’s what to expect in the months to come.

December-January

I may have hit the word count goal, but there’s still a lot of writing to be done. I completed 55,000+ words towards the rough draft, but I still have 20k-30k to go before it’s complete. So, most of the next couple of months will be spent finishing up the work-in-progress.

I also have three potential intros/prologues that I’m considering. I haven’t decided which one, if any, I want to use for the book. This is where some of my alpha/beta readers come into play. I’ll send out those three little blurbs to see which one they like the best, and what, if anything, I need to improve on.

What I am not going to do is power through the remainder of the draft like I did for NaNoWriMo. Working non-stop kicked my butt, and I need to be able to get through the rest of the draft without the rush to hit a word count goal. I’m looking at having it finished, typed up, and ready for the initial edits by mid-late January 2024.

February-March

Once the draft is finished, I’ll take a few days off, then start the initial edits. Any inconsistencies, spelling or grammar errors, and massive gaping plot-holes will be fixed, but not much else beyond that. This is just the first draft, after all. There will be a lot of things I won’t catch during the writing process, and this is where I go over it and fix what I can find initially.

Then I send the edited draft to my alpha readers. Some of them will be looking for the spelling, grammatical, or plot-line errors. Others will be reading to give me an “enjoyment factor” – is the book actually entertaining? Once I get the information back from my readers, I’ll move on to the next step.

April-June

This will be the time that the big edits happen. First, I’ll work on what the alpha readers send back to me. What needs to be fixed? How many new chapters will I add? Which characters need to be fleshed out a little more? Does anything need to be cut out entirely?

Spring 2024 will also be the most likely time when I start getting the groundwork started for the next novel. Since I’ve decided that the 2023 NaNoWriMo novel is the first in a series, I need to determine where the second book picks up. It’s likely that I’ll take some cues from the alpha readers – will they want to see the current character’s story continue, or are they more interested in the next generation?

Will this book just get too damn big and I have to split it up? It’s entirely possible. As it sits now, even incomplete, there are three distinct sections to the main character’s story. There’s a lot of storytelling that can be added within each, and this single project could easily become two (or even three!) separate novels.

July

Nope, nothing. I’m not working one darn bit on the novel in the middle of the 2024 summer. I’m shipping the edited second draft off to my beta readers, then taking an extended break.

August-October

This is where I’ll get the novel as close as I possibly can to completion. If I’m lucky, it will go through the final edits, pass beta-reader muster, and start going out to agents &/or publishers. If I’m not lucky, well, it’s going to take a backseat, because NaNoWriMo 2024 will be coming up not long after.

As Autumn rolls in, I will start planning for the next 50,000 words. The next novel in the series. I’ll set up the characters, locations, and some of the basic plot points so that I’m not going into the next contest blind. I’m not much of a planner, but I do like to have some reference material to keep things consistent.

November 2024 – NaNoWriMo

The end of one road, and the start of another. More writing every day. Back to the daily updates on http://www.nanowrimo.org. And more updates here.

Make sure you’re sticking around to keep up-to-date on the novel’s progress. There’s still a blog to write, and a channel to stream on, too. If you’ve made it this far, please support the work however you can.

I’ll see you all soon, Adventurers!

You can help support this blog, my twitch stream, and the novel writing process by donating here: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/krisodell. Every little bit adds up and makes a big difference!