Well, I did it. I survived a loooooooooooooong month of writing. The whole purpose behind NaNoWriMo is to write 50,000 (or more) words in the 30 day span and I did just that.

My stats? 50,398 words & 137 pages.

I would’ve went on writing, seeing as how I have three more days, BUT THE STORY IS DONE DONE DONE. There is not one more thing that I could’ve added to complete it. Or, at least at this point.

I can’t believe that November is three days away from turning into December. Since I barely came up to breathe fresh air,  I feel like I missed out on a lot of what November could’ve been like. Well, maybe….not.

Starting out, the first week I had produced at least ten pages and then got stuck. Like, really really stuck. So stuck that I fell a couple of days behind (in word count). Then, I suddenly had a marvelous idea and the book pretty much wrote itself. (In my words, this just means that everything fell into place – boom, boom, boom – and done.)

But, there was so much more to it than that…

I did several outline scribbles on paper, I changed out some characters and deleted a few, I changed the attitudes, I changed plot lines, I added MORE plot lines inside of plot lines inside of more plot lines……… and so on.

However, this queen pirate hooker has a dirty little secret to confess. Do YOU want to know my dirty little secret? Well, do you? Lean in close here and I’ll tell you!

My secret is…. that I didn’t just write the book BUT I EDITED IT AS WELL.

Gassssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssp.

Um, whut. How is that a secret? We weren’t supposed to edit anything (or, at least this was SUPPOSED TO BE the least of anyone’s worries while trying to get to 50,000 words in 30 days). All we really had to do was WRITE WRITE WRITE to the finish line. This entire last week to this week, all I have been doing was going back and re-reading EVERYTHING – adding more in, rewriting sentences, anything that didn’t make sense I revised, etc. Yes, call me an overachiever. Hey, you, reading this. I heard that through your fake cough sneeze!

Technically, last night on Black Friday November 26th – I hit 50,000 words. But…because of my editing, I kept deleting and adding which brought me down in words and then back up. I did leave for bed almost hitting 50,000 again, though.

This is such a big deal to me because I have so many unfinished stories, and what could be considered novels, sitting on my USB drive doing thing but being an unfinished product.

I have two novels that I can think of that would be great if only I worked on them. They were started back in HIGH SCHOOL. THAT is how long it’s been since I’ve worked on a “full book.”

I don’t even know HOW I kept my focus on writing since I’m always distracted and blaming ADHD for the wonderful 2-D content they put in my brain. :P Anyway, there were days that I was very unfocused but that was because I fell into another small rut that I soon got out of.

I haven’t really considered myself as a novel writer / story teller, I’m a poetry gal. I can write some crazy poems enriched with emotions and symbolism and metaphors (because, I AM the queen of those!). One day, I really hope to succeed as a classical-21st century poet and be known as THE Lady Gaga of poetry.

SURVEY TIME.

What were some of the things you watched or listened to while writing? Towards the end, I listened to Mozart and Christmas music. Mostly I just stayed in silence or had the TV going on one of these shows: Spongebob, Arrested Development, Fairly Odd Parents, Rugrats All Grown Up… I see you staring at me because I just listed three cartoons. DON’T JUDGE ME!

What kind of foods or drinks comforted you at your worst times? A small ball of cheese to go with my whine. *Waits for you to laugh.* Coke, coffee & Cherry Water to drink…. and anything that was highly contaminated with SUGAR SUGAR SUGAR.

What did you have to do in order to concentrate to write? Well, I quit blogging, I quit reading anyone’s blogs (for the most part), I quit Facebook about half way through the writing. Basically, I quit every social site that I ever participated in except for Twitter. And, even then, I wasn’t mouthy with words until this last week on Twitter.

Is there anyone you would like to thank? Yes, my husband Dan because he kept pushing me on and telling me not to quit. He would (annoyingly) remind me of how many days were left! At least that worked on me and I tried to stay focused… and somehow, I did and that’s why I made it to the finish line. Oh and I MUST thank everyone on Twitter for not unfollowing me because of my CONSTANT talk of NaNo. You can go back to your daily life now and not have to hear it out of me any more! Ha.

Did you discover anything new in the month of November? Well… one weekend we went to Sweet Tomato and I discovered I REALLY REALLY liked Leak Soup. (Dan later made that for me and it was WONDERFUL.) I also discovered that I have over 250 apps on my iPhone. I think I have a disease. Oh and, I am a severe coffee addict.

How do you feel about being away from social networks as you had been? Well, first off, I would hope that everyone missed me and my updates….Other than that, I have a shit ton of catching up to do. My Twitter “favorites” list is almost at 500 I think and, at the beginning of NaNo, it was down to 200.

If you could sum up your book in a song, what song would it be? Joe South – Games People Play (For you young souls whose never heard oft his song..  look up the lyrics.)

END SURVEY.

Anyway, my hands are SERIOUSLY about ready to fall off (carpel tunnel times three) and I’m getting hungry for a Vegetarian burrito at Qdoba….so I am going to go.

ONE LAST THING BEFORE I DO GO:  I’m so happy to pumped out 50,000 words on a novel BUT…. I fucking missed my life, yo!!!

AND PS:

Look out, because in a couple of days I will be writing yet another entry (that I’ve pretty much already prepped) of things that happened in November, but didn’t write on because I was all written out on words for NaNo. This shall be good. :D

Related posts:

1. North Carolina State Fair Experience 2010