Monday, December 1, 2014

NaNoWriMo - The Grand Finale



Wow. I did it.

There were many times this month when I thought I wouldn't finish, and a few where I didn't even care if I finished, but I did it. My official word count was 50,475 (although my Word document says it's 50,533). And now I have yet another unfinished book to add to my collection.

Yes, that's right folks, I won the NaNo challenge, but I did not complete my story. It's almost there though. One last fight scene and then wrap it up. Shouldn't take more than a couple of thousand words. Maybe five. Ten at the most. :-)

I am seriously questioning my sanity, doing this year after year. This was my eighth NaNo win. The novelty has well and truly worn off by now. Have I ever lost the challenge? Yes. The very first year I entered. I talked a friend into doing it with me - she won the challenge and my story was done at 33K. I ran out of story before I ran out of words.

So why do I do it? It's a sickness, I think. An addiction. Once you start it's hard to stop, whether you win or not.

You want to hear something a little appalling? I realized this weekend that if I include Lucky Dog and An Elemental Earth, which is also close to being done, then I could theoretically finish a novel every month for the next year without having to write a new one.

And no, I am not going to try doing that. :-)