My NaNoWriMo 2024 Results

That’s another NaNoWriMo in the books. As I stated one month ago, I wanted to try NaNo for another consecutive year in a row. I tried using my 5 AM Club time for it once again, dedicating my 20 minutes of growth time each morning to writing in the novel.

While I did attempt to continue from where I left off on last year’s novel, my results were mostly a mixed bag this time around.

How Did It Go This Time?

Short answer: It was fine.

Long answer: While things were okay enough this time around, it’s more of a good news and bad news situation. But before I really explain any of that, I’ll throw the word count into a table. Still, this table has a massive asterisk that I will detail below because this was something I didn’t foresee until it was already too late.

DAY	Words Written	Total Words
1	1,123	1,123
2	1,252	2,375
3	286	2,661
4	609	3,270
5	700	3,970
6	472	4,442
7	493	4,935
8	309	5,244
9	1,326	6,570
10	2,150	8,720
11	541	9,261
12	776	10,037
13	236	10,273
14	1,293	11,566
15	85	11,651
16	0	11,651
17	468	12,119
18	206	12,325
19	695	13,020
20	592	13,612
21	191	13,803
22	388	14,191
23	644	14,835
24	800	15,635
25	1,980	17,615
26	55	17,670
27	930	18,600
28	1	18,601
29	520	19,121
30	890	20,011

GRAND TOTAL: 20,011 Words

What’s Wrong With the Word Count, Exactly?

As I foreshadowed at last time, I described how I was planning to get Scrivener 3 working on Arch Linux by using its Windows version and Wine. I even went through the trouble of renewing my Windows license! Yes, I previously purchased Scrivener 2 on Windows ages ago.

However, I started to notice a bizarre issue that happened more than once.

• I open up the project one day.
• I write a little bit.
• I close everything.
• I come back the next day.
• I check the word count and know it’s inaccurate.

What I mean by that is this: For the 28th, I wrote a few hundred words between the time I set aside for Thanksgiving. Makes sense. Imagine my shock when I come back the next day, on the 29th, to open up the project and see that Scrivener thinks I already wrote something on the 29th. This wasn’t the only time it happened this month either. What was going on?

Misleading Word Counts

Wanting to get to the bottom of things, I checked the writing stats. Turns out that Scrivener thought I wrote all of my words from the 28th on the 29th except for one word? It wasn’t true at all, yet that’s what Scrivener really thought. In all my years writing, I’ve never had this issue with Scrivener on macOS. I’m not sure if it’s Scrivener for Windows running through Wine, or if my file sync through my personal Nextcloud was causing some issues, or if there was a different scenario clouding my word counts. Considering I tried to keep word count in both Scrivener and my personal bullet journal again this year, I gave myself a headache after a few days of trying to make words “add up” correctly.

As a result, I did find myself disheartened on multiple days when my words counts were distorted. I didn’t know for sure what day I was writing the most or least on.

I can say for certain that I did certainly find myself on a roll for both the 10th and 25th. Other days, however, I only wrote to keep my streak alive. I would have written more on my downtime as I did last year, but my new job has been demanding enough that it doesn’t come by as often.

Other Issues

But going back to the “streak,” I can’t blame Scrivener for what happened on the 16th. I genuinely forgot to write anything that day. I finally had a much-needed day off, and after using it to run errands around the house and spend time with my girlfriend, I only realized the next day that I forgot to update the draft at all.

Despite that, my biggest hurdle was occasional writer’s block. It was the same as what I said last year about wanting to go from point A to B, but not knowing how to get the story there. At several instances, I thought to myself, “Okay, I’m here. Now what should happen next?”

And let me tell you: Those times I knew what would happen next were when I went on a tear. I was steamrolling through exciting events in the story and, at some points, going back to prior chapters to add some more meaningful foreshadowing.

In short, I think having an outline that isn’t too structured or detailed would aid me tremendously in getting everything moving when I attempt to continue the story next year.

Does That Mean You Finished?

Again, I haven’t. While my story so far has a grand total of 48,898 words (I went back at some points this year to add to it), the first arc of my three planned arcs in the story still isn’t complete. As stated, I think an outline of sorts would really help me push further next year.

I will definitely be returning to this draft to continue my work, to hopefully finish it all up one day.

Reflecting On This Year and Last Year

I have to admit that I fell short of expectations compared to last year, especially considering I said I was going to “push my word count boundaries.” I not only failed to do that, but I fell short by a couple thousand words.

LAST YEAR: 22,213 Words
THIS YEAR: 20,011 Words

DIFFERENCE: 2,202 Words Less

Additionally, I managed to write every single day last year, whereas I missed one day this time. It feels like such a smear on an otherwise great record, a sign of how much better I could have done.

On The Bright Side

There’s always a silver lining at the very least.

First off, I at least kept a relative streak going. Reflecting on last year, I did certainly fail, no doubt about that. Reflecting on how I would have done a decade or two ago, however, I am still far successful now compared to then.

See, a young Mr. Hyde in 2013 wouldn’t have a writing habit. Sure, he would have maybe written impressive word counts for four or five days, but he would soon become discouraged on the sixth or seventh day when he couldn’t keep that going. He couldn’t write daily for two weeks straight; just missing a day meant he failed and he would give up. Then he would have watched the rest of November slip away and felt a silent guilt in his stomach knowing that he gave up. He would vow to himself quietly that Mr. Hyde in 2014 would do things differently, that he would succeed. Despite the best intentions, the result would be the same: writing for the first several days in November followed by failure by the end of the second week if he was lucky.

As a result, maybe I should really rethink how I’ve done as Mr. Hyde in 2024. Maybe the fact that I wrote at least 20k words throughout November for two consecutive years should serve as solace for how far I’ve come as a writer.

There’s also more good news. While writing this draft and feeling I was at an impasse, I felt more inspired to start writing a prequel. I told myself midway through the month that it wasn’t the best idea, but as the closing stretch of November came along, I started writing it on the 27th.

At that point, I kept going on a tear with ideas that connected to the NaNo draft. Ultimately, I surprised myself. While this doesn’t help all that much with the current novel, it did help me realize that occasional writer’s block was a serious obstacle that limited how much I wrote both this year and last year.

Moving Forward From Here

I did at least break the 20k barrier a second consecutive time this year thanks to the following:

• The 5 AM Club
• My pocket notebook (currently a Leuchtturm 1917 A6)
• Scrivener on Windows (running on Arch through Wine)
• The same growth mindset
• My new and improved Second Brain (with Zettelkasten organization added a few months ago)
• The loving support of my girlfriend

While I didn’t use my pocket notebooks as often for the drafting process as I did last year, I did use the idea once or twice this time. However, I would typically throw the ideas from there into my Second Brain. There, I’d take time to look at my old ones and stumble into some I had saved from last year, which did help at times with names, lore, and other tidbits I had forgotten about.

But for 2025, I will definitely use an outline for the first time in a while and see how that turns out. I’ll likely start building it slowly over time. As somebody who failed NaNoWriMo back in 2013 and 2014, one of my biggest culprits was the use of overly-detailed, rigid outlines that stifled any spontaneity I would otherwise bring to writing. This time around, I think a more general outline would help instead of hurting.

This Isn’t The End

While things didn’t end the way I wanted, I am ultimately in full control. This time, I think I’ll set the bar to 25k words for 2025’s NaNo instead of the lofty 30k I planned for this year. This could change by next year, but here’s to trying to improve from 2024.

Have you ever attempted NaNoWriMo? What about more than once? How did you do either of those times, if applicable? Did you actually reach 50,000 words, or did you set a different word count goal? If you haven’t attempted NaNoWriMo, have you considered it for next year? Feel free to leave a comment; I’d love to know what you have to say on this.