I can't believe I wrote the whoooooooole thing...

I just finished my first NaNoWriMo.  With three hours and fifty-three words to spare.  :-)

I kinda can't believe I did it.

When I heard about it, it sounded like something I'd like to do...once I was finished grad school.  So I graduated last December and started trying to think of an idea.  My plan was to work on hashing out the plot, setting, characters, etc. between December and October, so that when November came I could just write.

Well, I didn't do quite as much planning as I'd hoped (I was originally going to make a very detailed outline in October.  That didn't happen.) but I guess it was enough for me to expand on and flesh out into a 50,000-word bohemeth.

I'd been telling myself all year that I was going to treat this more as a writing exercise than a chore.  If my story only lasted 20,000 words, then that was 20,000 words I wouldn't have otherwise written, and that's still an accomplishment.  I promised myself that I wouldn't get uptight if I fell behind schedule or didn't finish the storyline in November.

And then as I got closer and closer, I started thinking, "Hey, maybe I can make this 50,000 words after all.  And maybe I can even finish it in November.  I mean, maybe.  Still no pressure, right?"

So overall it was fun.  There were definitely times when I wanted to do something else, or just put the computer away.  There were times when other stuff came up and I didn't have the time I wanted to do my writing for the day.  But somehow I managed to do it.

And now I can't wait until next year.