NaNoWriMo—The End

This is it, guys! I've officially broken 50,000 words. I've 'won' NaNoWriMo.

If I seem a little shell-shocked, it's because I am. Twenty-five days of frustration, hope, excitement and anger have all cumulated to this point. There were days that I dragged my feet. There were days that I thought, "Should I really be doing this?" There were days that I stared at my writing buddies' profiles, willing myself to view this as a competition. And now, in the end, I can say that I've done it.

This isn't the first time that I've written 50,000 words in 30 days. Last year, I wrote 51,000 by Thanksgiving and called it quits. I think that the reason this is hitting me so hard today is that, not only did I finish a day earlier than last year, but I also plan on continuing as much as I can throughout the remainder of the month as well as the year.

I'm very pleased with and proud of myself, though. It wasn't easy to get to this milestone, and it won't be easy to surpass it and reach the next 50,000, either. I'm confident that's how much it will take, at the very least, before I actually finish the story at hand. Plot-wise, where I am now is about a quarter of the way through the novel. I think that I might be able to alter a few things to help complete it faster, but I don't like to fudge things out just to get finished. If I'm going to do this, I'm going to do this right.