It’s been two weeks since NaNo ended, and I figured it was time to do my usual (sans 2019) statistics review because I love this kind of thing! Here is how NaNoWriMo 2020 went:
- Total words written: 150,051
- Most words in a day: 15,009 (11/26)
- Fewest words in a day: 1,204 (11/08)
- Daily average: 5,001
- First word/last word: Parken/interested
- Number of words past original goal (150,000): 51
- Number of words past previous best (606,606): -456,555
- NaNo Lifetime word count: 3,245,083
- Number of projects: 2 (one planned, one pantsed)
- Asked what could go worse for characters: 8+ times
- Average daily sleep: 7 hours
While 2018 continues to hold the record for highest NaNo word count and I wrote just a hair more (155,551) in 2019 than 2020, I felt a lot better this year than in 2019, and I was able to keep up with my other interests in and obligations. It wasn’t the year I’d hoped to have, but that was entirely due to my own frustrations with slowing down than with the slowing down itself. I just have to learn how to relax!
Now, you might have noticed the lifetime word count. I have a wonderful, terrible idea that is still just an idea. I was thinking of bringing that word count up to 3.25 million during a Camp in 2021. Why only 5k words, you ask? Because it would set up that number to make achieving 750k in NaNo2021 look really tempting. 750k would round me up to 4 million lifetime NaNo words.
The 750k is my next great goal, though it is almost 150k more than what I achieved during my best NaNo. I also worry that aiming for it will destroy me. After all, it’s 25k words a day on average. That’s a really good day. Having to repeat that for 30 days in a row is rather daunting.
Consequently, it’s just an idea. I’ll know better what my year will look like once we get into it and edge closer to November.
Nonetheless, 2020 has been a good year for me, and I hope that your NaNo experience was wonderful!
An English Fictionary 