NaNoWriMo

I am a writer!!!

I have had a couple little things published and haven't even kept track of them. But I have participated in National Novel Writing Month four different years and have "won" three of those four years.

Writing a 50,000 word novel in 30 days (the goal of NaNoWriMo) is fun and yet challenging. There were more than a few times during that 30 days each year when I thought about giving up. I had to silence my inner critic (who I will call Cruella, because of her ruthlessness) who wanted me to re-write what I'd already written and/or start over and/or edit the crap out of it. I wanted Cruella to shut up for 30 days so I could just get a beginning, middle, and end out on paper. It was tough, but I managed to do it. And now, I have a story written. I'm pretty sure I contradicted myself at least once in the story, but it is written! It is a story that wasn't written in my head (only the basics), let alone on paper (so to speak) before November.

So I have been relaxing the past few days, enjoying library books that I wondered when I'd get a chance to read them. It's a fabulous feeling of success.

The writing process was surely a labor of love, and now I have a newborn baby book to nurture. So I suppose I should get to work on that. But I'd like to finish the books I have checked out from the library first.