So This is What It's Like in the Winner's Circle

On my fourth attempt, I have completed the challenge of NaNoWriMo. :)

At around 1am this morning I finished, with a little over the required word count of 50,000 and uploaded my story to the NaNoWriMo site for word verification. Somehow an extra 200 words were added in the process, but hey! that's fine by me. :) I'm quite pleased as you can imagine. It was very difficult to focus but focus I did and finished. Hoorah! The novel will need major reworking and revision, but I think the idea is a good one and has promise. So again I am happy with the results. :D

I really believe that part of the reason I was able to finish this year is the course How to Think Sideways that I'm taking. Without it I couldn't have pre-plotted without over plotting, and I think that helped me a great deal. I was able to plot just enough. Not over, not under, just enough structure to aid me as I struggled to get from one part to the next. And yes, it was a struggle, but it was so much easier this year than past years! :) Another reason was attending the Boston Kick Off party - fantastic motivational day. Then, of course, having writing buddies like atomicpagan kept me motivated as well. Finally, if I was stuck, I would think invisible robot fish or crime fighting tomatoes, grin like an idiot and start writing again.

I've decided that next year I won't be writing my nanonovel in my notebook. I'll just type it out. Writing then typing is not fun, especially when you're writing 50,000 words in 30 days. Some stories need to be written on paper, doodled on, scribbled over and dotted with asterisks and side bars full of conversational snippets for a later time. NaNoWriMo stories are better suited to being typed out with the first words that come to mind .. or to fingertips, as the case may be. Spill it all out on the keyboard! More efficient that way.

I've crossed NaNoWriMo 2008 off my 1001 list. Three down, 98 more to go!