I've Won NaNoWriMo!

 Yep, I tipped the 50,000 word scale this morning around 10h30 and am actually a little over the required count at 50,250 words as of today. I plugged it into the Nano website and the crowd went wild!


Actually, I got an exploding badge of Congratulations and that was good too.

Not Actually Finished

As expected, I think I'm only about half way through my novel. My characters are only just coming together now (Looking For Group) with quite a few adventures left on the storyboard. I'm optimistically estimating the halfway mark because I'm desperately trying to get the protagonists and antagonists together for a good 'ol Donnybrook and the arch-demon just sent my major villain to a complete 'nother country ffs.

It's like herding cats.

Keep Writing

And that's the biggest lesson I've learned this month is to keep on writing no matter what. 

Also, I've learned to just mindlessly write the story as it comes to me (or not) and not worry about editing as I go along - no wonder I've never gotten far with this book thing - and let the creativity reign.

Patience to Let the Story Unfold

I have to admit, even I am not sure where this tale is going. As I mentioned, my outline and carefully notarized plot points, on index cards no less, went out the window quite early on and I've been writing almost by the seat of my pants ever since.

Each morning I make a quick 'roadmap' of the points I want to cover in the next scene. I do some shuffling to get them into order, and start writing.

Sometimes it takes a half a page to get through the first point of my roadmap. Sometimes it takes a whole page or more. That's okay. Like knitting, stories are told/written one word at a time, just as a sweater is knitted one stitch at a time, one row, etc. so is a story told. 

If I am patient and just put one word in front of the other, sometimes the story changes mid-scribble and I get a brilliant new idea or direction for the tale. These are the times I just can't wait to see what happens next, even if I have to go take a long walk or a long shower* to figure it out. 

*For some reason I think really well in the shower... go figure.

Now What?

Now, I just keep on writing until I get to some sort of conclusion. There is so much more of this story to tell than is in one book so I'm looking forward to writing sequels, but for now I just want to finish the beast in front of me. Editing will be brutal the first couple of passes, and then polishing and getting someone with grammar skillz to help with finishing.

Then we'll see. 

It'll probably be time for NaNoWriMo again, lol!


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