I apologize for not posting something sooner to let you know that I was a National Novel Writing Month winner (anyone who completes the 50,000 words and has their word count validated on the site is a winner). It was my first time attempting and succeeding at writing the complete first draft of a novel. Despite the fact that I heard about NaNoWriMo late, had never written anything that long in my life, and was sick the first week, I jumped in and decided to give it a try. I am so happy that I did. I finished it with slightly over 50,000 words, which made me a "winner" among many thousands of winners. The fact that there are so many of us magnifies the accomplishment for me. I feel a sense of unity with the other winners, the joy of a shared experience that turned out well.
I am fairly certain that I will never write the same way again; that is, the way I wrote before NaNoWriMo. That inner editor is still chomping at the bit to get out of the gate, but I'll keep her at bay in the future until after the first draft. So what's the next step for me? I'm currently taking the advice of some published writers and haven't yet re-read my first draft. I will give it about three weeks and then start to work on editing. I am sure that I will cut a lot of material and add a lot more. The basic story is done, but there is still so much more to do with what is there. I'm excited and can hardly wait.
And if you're a writer, I hope you'll join me in writing a new novel in 2012 because I'll be doing it again come November.
