So I did it.
I hit my 50000+ words.
I got a messy and incomplete first draft of a novel. A tangled mess of words that will need a lot of my sweat to get it even close to the neighborhood of publishable. (Truly, when I say it needs a lot of work, I’m admitting outright that there are parts of this thing I read once I passed the 50000 words that are so bad I almost puked on the ceramic tiles — seriously!) But I did it. I am as of November 26 2009, NanoWriMo "winner".
Most of the sweat that I’m yet to pour into this manuscript will have to wait at least a couple of months as I’ve got other things to do. I’m still somewhat stunned my own fortitude. Prior to this, I think the longest manuscript I’d written was around 24500 words. After I finally crossed the 35000 word barrier, I made up my mind to spend the next two or three days writing at the expense of everything else. I had no desire to work on this thing over the weekend and Monday was definitely out of the question. So, aside from the time it took me to eat my turkey dinner and a couple of bathroom breaks, I wrote, wrote, wrote. I didn’t watch any of the Macy’s parade. I didn’t watch football. I just rocked the keyboard for several hours.
I was surprised to discover that I’d crossed the finish line. I glanced down at the bottom of the page and noticed the page number and thought, Jeez, I must be getting close. So I checked the word count and sure enough, I’d not only gotten close, I’d passed the mark. I figured I had at least another 24 hours of work ahead of me.
Anyway, I may participate next year. That’s yet to be determined. But, I’m patting myself on the back for just a few moments before turning in for the night. Happy Thanksgiving, y’all. See you on the flipside.
Patricia | 27-Nov-09 at 1:39 pm | Permalink
Congrats! You beat me, but I should be crossing that line some time today or tomorrow! Bravo!