I set myself the challenge of completing NaNoWriMo in the 30 days of November and somehow managed to do it in 17 days instead. I was extremely pleased (though will be a little lost as to what I’m going to do with the other 13) but it got me thinking. Is 50,000 words really a good length for a novel?

The books in The Luke Bright Series more than double that count usually and there was a part of me that wondered if I could do a 100,000 word novel in that time instead. However, I don’t think that’s possible because a first draft will never be that long.

When I planned The Snowflake Trap, I initially had enough content for around 40,000 words and had to make up the other 10,000 when I hit that block. The thought of pushing any more out of it at this stage was far too difficult, because I’d told the whole story (even though there’s now room for sequels, next November maybe?) I realise that for a 100K novel you not only need a lot of stamina but you would need a huge, huge amount of content. More than you can plan for in a first draft and that’s why 50k is the right amount for this kind of challenge. It’s a taster, it’s the backbones for what could become an even longer novel, and that’s one thing people need to remember about NaNoWriMo – what you make isn’t going to be perfect or publishable, it’s just going to be there.

The books in The Luke Bright Series took years to write, plan and research and research is the key word here. There’s no way I could’ve written them in full at first draft stage because there was so much research needed to bulk it out. Same with The Signs Are Coming – a lot of that book came out of research and wouldn’t be where it is today without it. If it was NaNoReMo (research if you didn’t get it!) then that would be another thing, but for the bare bones of writing, 50k is right.

And I think that’s why I loved it so much – because it was pure imagination. I didn’t need to fact check yet, I didn’t need to really look many things up to advance or build the plot, I just wrote. It makes you realise that the writing? That’s not the hard part of writing a book, it’s all the other stuff that comes with it.

So, for the rest of the month, I’m sure I can find other bits to do. I’ve got a lot of re-reading to do of other work to get it into a better place and then make a start on self-publishing the final book of The Luke Bright Series in the New Year. But, NaNoWriMo has been an amazing experience and I’m extremely excited to revisit it, and The Snowflake Trap, next year.

Atlantic Split, At Liberty To Live and An Undercover Dream, the first three books in The Luke Bright Series are available to purchase NOW! The final book of the series is to be revealed.

Please follow me on my blog and social media links below, and use the links on my website to purchase a copy of each if you have not done so. Don’t forget to leave a review! Thank you once again for taking the time to read this blog post.

N.A.K.