It’s been a whole week since Novelling Season (as I’m calling Prep_tober and NaNoWriMo because omg, those two words are so annoying to type over and over!) ended. How do you feel? I’m exhausted and thrilled, and starting to adjust to Life Between Drafts.

 

Daily Vlogs

My way of wrapping up Novelling Season 2016 was to put together the fruits of two months of daily vlogging (just about) in my vlogs for Prep_tober and NaNoWriMo.

 

Making these has been a really fruitful experience for me. As well as crashing me headfirst into the vlog format (which I’ve never done before – and actually really enjoyed), they are both incredibly useful testaments to everything I’ve achieved in the last two months. I created and ran my first Community Event For Writers (that would be Prep_tober), and then I finished my second draft of North of the End. Pretty major. Having these months recorded has shown me just how quickly the ups and the downs can hit me, and allowed me to get a sharp hindsight perspective on my life for the last two months.

It’s also been something of an exercise in HATING MY FACE and uploading the video anyway. Trying to remember that it’s okay to look tired, slightly greasy or otherwise human on video sometimes (ESPECIALLY FOR AN EFFING DAILY VLOG, RACHAEL). I’m not happy about how I look in a bunch of those clips, and I’ve learned to be okay with sharing it anyway. There’s real value in presenting your whole self online, not just your prettiest self, and I recognise that. I know how important it is to me when I see YouTubers I love look human, and how it helps me remember we’re all fucking human, aye?

 

Things I Achieved This Novelling Season

Daily vlogging
Finished the second draft of North of the End !!!
Found out I can write 5000 words of STORY (not random splurge) in a day
Found out I can write 50k of STORY (not random splurge) in a month
Wrestled my outline and won
Realised I need to flesh my characters WAY more (motive is the core but it doesn’t make a full person!)
Won NaNoWriMo as a rebel doing a second draft
Earned myself a goddamn break from this book (after THREE YEARS)

 

Things YOU Achieved This Novelling Season

A bunch of you won NaNoWriMo, and tonnes more wrote more words in November than you would have otherwise. If you were around for Prep_tober (whether you won NaNoWriMo or not) and you wrote some words in November, comment below with your name, final wordcount and a link to your site, Twitter or similar and I’ll add you to the list!

 

WALL OF FAME: Prep_tober Survivalists & NaNoWriMo Winners

Anna I. Meyers. 55,140 words. @SimpleIJustDo (and soon to be annaimeyers.com…)
M.L.Wahl. 26k words. @mlwahlwriter
Your name can go here. And your wordcount. And a link to your home on the internet.

 

Now What?

Well, I’m working on a couple of posts about things I’m doing post-Novelling-Season, and some ideas for things you might want to do yourself to take stock and figure out where your novel goes next. We prepped. We drafted. What’s next for you, and what resources are you looking for? What could you use help or advice with when it comes to writing? Tweet me with the tag #DoNext.

I’m also trying to figure out what happens to Prep_tober for the rest of the year. So if you’ve got a second, head over and vote for what you think should be next for Prep_tober and all it’s trimmings in 2016 and beyond.

 

POLL: What should happen to Prep_tober now?

<< VOTE HERE >>

1. Make Prep_tober an evergreen Novel Prep Course available all year round, and expand it where appropriate. This would mean anything new resources I create concerning novel prep would be available all year and as soon as they’re ready.

2. Stick to October, and run it again next year. This would mean new resources would only go up next October.

3. Something else. (Reply with your suggestion!)

 

I’ve said it already, but thanks for taking this ride with me in October and November 2016, cinnabuns.