National Novel Writing Month Retrospective

National Novel Writing Month 2012 has come to a close.  Typically, 85% of participants do not reach the lofty goal of writing 50,000 words or more of a novel during the November challenge.  I did not want to write another novel, but did accept the greater challenge of writing 50,000 words of short fiction.  I fell short.  Really short.  The final tally:  Word Grand Total = 27,014, New Stories = 4, New Poems = 6.  Included in the total were extensive revisions of several existing stories and the revision, at the request of an interested publisher, of the first 10,000 words of my novel.

Sadly, and significantly, on ten days of November I did no writing at all.  I'll forgive myself for taking Thanksgiving day and the day after off as well as the three Sundays I had to work at a busy urgent care center an hour's drive from my home, but that still leaves five days off with no good excuse.  A basic lack of discipline--no other reason can be offered.

The days I did write numbered twenty, and I averaged 1,350 words a day.  If I kept to that average on the five days off, I would have written 6,750 more words, at least one more short story, and probably one or two more poems.  Had I the discipline to write an average amount on the five other "excused" days, these numbers would double, and my grand word total would have topped 40,000!  Add my numerous and sometimes wordy blog posts into the mix, and I'm sure I would have exceeded my goal.

So, for the month of December--no excuses!  50,000 words is the goal.  I will count blog posts as well as short fiction.  An additional goal is not to miss a single day--no more goose eggs.  Challenge accepted...