Nano's over. Now what?

NaNoWriMo is officially over, no matter how much i wish it wasn't, and I am determined to keep the momentum of November going strong as long as possible.

I attended a free webinar hosted by Writer's Digest today called Novel Revision: Craft a Story Readers Can't Put Down by the great James Scott Bell. It was incredibly informative and answered a lot of questions that I've had about the revision process that have been haunting me for years. But it also prompted me to notice that I still haven't finished my novel yet. At least not really. 

To date my Nano novel, that I'm tentatively calling Warrior Born (I have another name in mind but I'm keeping that one to myself for a while) has 64,519 words but it's not quite finished yet. I have a feeling that it's going to be a beast that I'll need to cut down, but I anticipated that. I tend to get a little bit wordy during Nano. 

During the Webinar, someone asked a question about how long it takes James to write a book. His reply was about three months. He said he has a set goal for the week that he writes everyday. Of course you know, if you've read any of my previous posts that I've been trying to write a certain number of words everyday. I can honestly say that I have indeed been writing everyday but it's not what it was during November. 

I don't know what it is, but as soon as the calendar page turns over and December begins it's like all the magic that keeps your momentum and enthusiasm toward writing just evaporates and all I'm left with are good intentions and a measly word count that is very long in coming. It's like all my discipline goes away and I just excuse myself everyday with not writing as many words or i get caught up in something else and it consumes all my attention [coughs]thewalkingdead[/coughs]. But I am determined to continue on in the quest of wrapping up my novel.

(seriously is there anything better than this?)

James further explained how to determine your ideal goal word count for the week. He said you take the number of words you think you can write in a week and add ten percent to equal your ideal word count for the week. I used his method to come up with my ideal word count. I figure I can write 7000 words a week. 

 7000 + 10% = 7700 words

I have decided to write those words Monday through Friday so my daily word count is going to be 1,540 words a day. I still plan on writing on weekends but I would also like some time when I don't have to feel obligated to write and can just do it if  the mood strikes. So that's the plan, we will see how it goes.