Just a quick update on my NaNoWriMo project: I won! I completed the challenge to write 50,000 words in a month. I was so spent that I stopped writing once I pushed past the 50K mark – at 50,032. Now begins the task of editing – to refine the story so the characters aren’t just people I can imagine but that my reader can also see, to show innuendoes in scenes so I don’t have to tell the reader what’s going on but they can see it themselves. The challenge this month was to write a first draft of the story, figure out how things work and put those ideas on paper… or, you know, on the computer.

During the writing process, I changed several aspects of the story I had in mind to write. A character I originally thought would die, ended up not dying. I just couldn’t write the scene that was necessary for that to happen so I changed it. Now I have to go back and change some of the lead-ins so the clues line up. I didn’t stick to some of the character sketches I’d drawn up because it’s hard to refer to the plans when you’re participating in writing sprints to write 2,000 words in an hour. But I completed the challenge and right now, that’s all that matters.

In the end, I am happy with this first draft and I am excited to start working on turning it into a novel. I look forward to sharing it with you, dear blog reader, when I do. I don’t plan to leave this draft alone to marinate – I still have several sections of the story that haven’t yet been written. When I’m done, I hope to have a novel that’s at least twice this long. But that’s later. Right now, I’m just happy I finished it on time.

Any other NaNoWriMo winners reading? Congratulations to you too. Let’s celebrate by taking a well-deserved nap.