It may seem ironic to begin a blog with a conclusion.
This blog captured my work on Nanowrimo (National Novel Writing Month) for 2016; all work was done in the chapters.
Thus, this is the observation and review portion of the work.
I was planning on surging this evening - I had actually been planning on surging for the last week.
However Nanowrimo always happens during Thanksgiving, and my Thanksgiving activities tend to last from Thursday to Sunday - which generally inhibits such surging.
Additionally, work has made surging a massive challenge.
And we have family visiting today (30 November).
So no surging.
Instead, here are my take-aways from this Nanowrimo.
1. Unit of sacrifice.
This year I learned that unless I scheduled and intentionally set aside time daily, Nanowrimo wasn't going to happen. This was a bit of a wake-up call because in years past I had traded the coin of sleep for the coin of production. A reliable Nanowrimo success requires counting the cost.
2. Unit of work
I learned this year that my preferred unit of work is roughly 250 words. I can easily write more - but if I give myself focused 250-work block assignments, I can usually knock out several. Which means, for me, is that I need to likely map out Nanowrimo such that I write something like about 7 units a day.
3. Unit of plan
My observation is that my preferred planning method is that of the black box. I appear to work best when I am to fill a container and am given a starter vision. By way of example, chapter 7 this year was about music. Knowing that informed my intro and conclusion; and it gave me a visual for how the chapter itself should start - and inspired the rest of the chapter.
By the way, shout-out to my friend Yaasha - who finished it this year strong!
