Your novel's rough draft might have been created during NaNoWriMo if...
Tue 2006-01-17 10:16:28 (in context)
- 50,304 words (if poetry, lines) long
- 2.00 hrs. revised
...if words like "somehow", "something," and "vague" show up at regular intervals: "Diane woke up on the doorstep at 4:30 AM with a vague recollection of her father having stepped over her to let himself in."
Look, I know I should actually write a scene or make a decision here, but I have no idea what kind of relationship these two characters have yet. I'll come back to it. Onward!
...if characters occasionally set off into town with no other intention than "to see what the day will bring." Bonus points if those characters then start describing what they see in town in great, wordy detail.
I'm stuck. I haven't a clue what happens next. Maybe if I send my main character on a mapping expedition, they'll bump into some plot before they're through.
...if, immediately upon introducing a new secondary character, the narration pauses while the main character reminisces about how the two of them met and what has been going on in both their lives between then and now.
Gods. Infodump. Not that this info doesn't belong in the book, but.... Look, I'll weave it into the story more gracefully on the rewrite, OK?
Which is, of course, the point. All the infelicities introduced by a 50K-in-30-days regimen will be smoothed away when it comes time to revise the novel. O ye of little faith! A publishable book will emerge! Just you wait.
(Besides, if I hadn't been under pressure to hit 50K by November 30th, you know what would be there instead of the infodump on page 49 where Diane Lenner tells us all about her mutual history with Danny Wodemeier? That's right. Nothing. I'd probably still be working on the first draft, one perfect sentence at a time. And that ain't no pace at which to begin a novelist's career.)