The NaNo Victory Dance

Are you there blog?  It's me.  Again.  Having been the most neglectful I've ever been.  It's amazing I can keep my plants alive given the total lack of attention I've paid to my personal life in the past three months.  But I've been thinking about you.  I swear.  But I know…I know….actions speak louder than words.  So here goes nothing.

I’m finally emerging from the Bermuda writing triangle.  I spent a better part of November with my ass glued to the chair and my hands on the keyboard.  And have so happily typed my way to a third straight “win” in National Novel Writing Month.  Won with 51,733 words to be exact. 

Now, to be clear, anyone who hits the 50K word goal “wins”.  And by "anyone" I mean writers of all genres of all levels from all over the world.  We're not just anyone, but what I consider a totally fabulous group.  

And also to be clear typing 50,000 words of anything isn’t an easy feat so I’m tooting my horn and tapping myself on the back and raising the roof.  And along with 309,366 other novelists I committed to getting it done and while I’m not sure how many people crossed the 50K finish line, I know I am in very, very good company.

I’m still high on finishing NaNo.  It’s been a hell of a few months but I decided I wouldn’t let myself get derailed from something I really wanted to do. And now I have the beginnings and some middle of my next project.  Woot! 

It’s my fourth year doing NaNo and I always come out the other side feeling so much more inspired and proud and better.  And it reminds me that even though I’m suffering from a hell of a lot of paralysis in the rest of my life, I put my head down and despite lots of distractions (many of which were self-inflicted….like the internet and the TV and shopping and the internet) I got it done.  Which kind of renews my faith in the fact that if I put my head and my heart into something I can get it done.

I know, very so-cheesy-it-makes-me-want-to-puke happy ending here, but what can I say?  I’m feeling blissfully hopeful about what could be instead of what is.

And that’s that for now.  I’m taking the night off to buy myself a victory present (hello, Barnes & Noble) and am going to indulge in some TV.  Then it’s back at The Legacy final rewrites.  Like the saying goes, writers write.  And that’s just what I’m going to do.  Tomorrow.