#NaNoWriMo Wrap-up (TGIO!)

NaNoWriMo 2015 is over. Phew. This one was a doozy. But I did it. I’m a “winner.”

I finished the challenge. I “won” by the skin of my teeth in nearly the final hour, and only by including all my notes on backstory and future chapters, all of which I wrote in November, but aren’t actually part of the book. So, yeah… I resorted to a tiny bit of “cheating.”

The problem this year was that I fell behind almost immediately after I posted that mid-point check-in update where I was so excited because for once I wasn’t behind. Life got in the way and I was stuck at almost 31k for almost a week.

I did a frantic amount of writing over the Thanksgiving weekend, but we made a last minute decision to travel and visit family. So, I was distracted and stressed out. But I wrote anyway. I am too stubborn to fail.

The problem is that, just like the past two years, NaNoWriMo is over and my novel isn’t finished. The difference this year is that I’m not stopping until I write “the end” at the end of the last chapter. I’m all in and I’m going to finish it. I actually REALLY like my story this year, even though I think it’s going to need some serious tinkering to get it exactly right.

I’m on track for this story to be about 61k words, total. So, my current plan is to take some of the writing pressure off and commit to about 1k words per day until I finish it. At that rate I should be done by mid-December. Then I’ll be looking for some beta readers. So, if you’re interested, let me know.