NaNoWriMo 2011 wrap up

November is over, December is standing in front of us with its twinkling lights and a ridiculous amount of holiday food. This means that NaNoWriMo is officially over and I can proudly tell you that this year I managed to win! Wooohooo! *throws confetti*

It's been tough, I'm not going to lie. I've had days that I wrote stuff and I thought 'what the heck am I doing?' and I messed up present and past tense more times than I can count. I've once spent an entire day (and some of the night, too) to write a 1,300 word scene that I wanted to get *right*. So I did, and it made me cry. But what I'm trying to say is: the hard work paid off! I am now the proud owner of a winner certificate and more importantly, I am the proud owner of a not-nearly-finished-story of 55,340 words.

The story needs a lot of work before I can even call it a first draft, but that doesn't make me any less proud. I think I'll need another 35k - 40k for the story to be finished - and even then it's only the first in a trilogy or four book saga. My characters have come alive. They have yelled, thrown tantrums, cried, but most of all, they have told me their story (so far). NaNo has given me the motivation to push a little further, work a little harder, write a little more. I wouldn't have come this far if I wasn't so fixated on that blue bar that told me how many words I had written so far. And no, I also wouldn't have gotten this far if I hadn't tried to outwrite my writing buddies (sad, but true).

Personally, I don't think there are any losers with NaNo. Even if you didn't make it to that 50k, you wrote words that didn't exist on October 31st. You wrote stuff that you would probably not have written if it wasn't for NaNo. Maybe you even only got an idea and haven't done anything with it yet. What I'm trying to say is, everyone is a winner with NaNo. I'm a firm believer of that. You wrote, so you won.

November was insane - in a good way. I feel inspired after this month of madness and I'm sure I'll continue writing. I don't think I have any choice in that matter, because my characters are already nagging me to write down the next part of the story. I'm aiming to get a first draft done in January or Febuary, and then hopefully I'll be able to revise it. I'm determined to finish the story. I'm not going to give up. I'm going to keep going.

Thanks to everyone who has been my writing buddy on NaNo, or helping me through writing troubles on Twitter. Thanks to everyone who has tolerated my writing babbles and my frustrated tweets about grammar. You have been the kick that I needed to continue. For that, I am grateful.

November 2012, I'll be there for another month of madness. NaNo'12, be prepared! :)