The End of NaNoWriMo

Nanowrimo officially ended yesterday…and I won!  In fact, I posted my final word count of 50,274 several days ahead of the deadline — a first for me.

While I’m very excited to have met my word count goal,  I have to admit I am beyond happy the event is OVER.  DONE.  FINISHED.

For most of the month my writing felt painfully forced.  Every word typed required an epic effort.  By the last day, I hated my story, hated my characters, and I hated the basic premise of writing a full length novel.  What was I thinking, trying to write an entire book in a month?  I must have lost my mind.

And yet I’ll probably do it again next year.

I’m not sure if this is “normal.”  I see so many participants sharing their joy, posting on Facebook and on the Nano website their unbridled enthusiasm to begin polishing, rewriting, and editing their work.  Some of them are already mapping out story ideas for a sequel to the novel they just completed!   I, on the other hand, could not have been happier to close the Word document one last time.  I have no desire to look at it again until January, possibly later.  I’ll have to suck it up and take one more peek at my work this week, however, as I have committed to sharing a short excerpt at my next writer’s group meeting.

I think I have trouble when I am so intensely invested in a project — I’ve noticed the same problem when I crochet.  I can’t seem to appreciate what I’ve created until I’ve taken a few steps back, and let the project just be for a period of time.

I’m still excited about writing.  I have a fun idea for a collection of humorous essays, and I want to post on this blog more often.  I have a few short stories rattling around my brain.  Yup, I’ve got big plans in the works!

I can’t wait to see how they turn out…