NaNoWriMo was a Failure

This year was my first attempt at NaNoWriMo. And it was a failure. For those who do not know what NaNoWriMo is, it's a challenge every November to write a 50,000 word novel. I got to a little over 7,000 words for my first attempt. I am a very busy person even though I do not work. I do go to college full time for psychology. I do take care of 7 kids full time. So, maybe 7,000 is a success for me.

However, I will use this year's experience to help me next year. This year, I made several mistakes. And I will use these mistakes for next year.

Mistake #1: No Outline
     In fact, I had no clue what I was going to write. I pulled this year's novel out of my list of ideas. I had a basic concept, but nothing of substance. I didn't have a list of characters. I pretty much started from scratch on November 1st.

Mistake #2: No Research
     I had no research done. I had a real life setting in my mind that went with the back story. But, I had done no research to incorporate as much factual information in my novel as possible. I was forever stopping to do the research while writing the novel.

Mistake #3: Time Management
     Writing 1700 words a day isn't really that hard. There were times I was doing that plus some in a day. My problem was finding the time each day to write.

So, with these three basic mistakes in mind, I have already began planning how to succeed at NaNoWriMo next year!