Nanowrimo: Final Day

Today is the very last day of NaNoWriMo 2014, and I'm very pleased to say that I finished my 50,000 words.

If you haven't yet finished, please know that if you're within about 10,000 words, I personally know that it's completely do-able as long as you can carve out several hours of focused writing time today. Take 10 minutes to write a quick list of scenes you want to run through, and then start to write. Write in sprints or in longer sessions depending on what works for you. Put some inspiring music on. Force yourself to describe as much as possible using as many of the senses as possible. 

Give yourself permission to suck extra hard today. Stop using contractions, refer to characters by their full names, get very lyrical, explore tangents of inner dialogue that lead nowhere (but really, might spark something genius for your next draft). 

Most importantly, keep writing. Do not stop, even if you think what you're writing is ridiculous. Keep going today until you hit that magic, magic number.

And once you get there.....


CONGRATULATIONS!

You've written a story! A long-ish story! I hope that you're incredibly proud of that achievement. I hope you ride high on the adrenaline of it for at least a full hour, and that once that initial high has worn off, you get a little jolt of it again every time you think of your NaNoWriMo success over the next several weeks. 

You have written a story, and that is no small feat. So many people say that they want to write, that they have this great idea for the Great (Insert Nationality Here) Novel, but so few actually sit down to write.

You've not only written, but you've written a lot.

Make sure that you validate on the NaNoWriMo website so that you can collect your winner goodies (web banners and badges, and some special sponsor offers starting in December). Make sure you tell everyone who knows you were Nano-ing this year that you were successful!  Toot your horn!  Celebrate!

If this was just a whim, a fun thing to challenge yourself with in November, then I salute you. Well done! I hope you'll come back next year to write again!

If this was a sign that you'd like to write more often, stick with me. Because I bet you're thinking - what next? I'm going to be editing my NaNoWriMo story over the next few months, and I'll post about doing that here. I'm also going to be outlining my next project - which I believe will be a kind of snarky/sassy New Adult Fantasy story that's been percolating for a while.

Come back each week for tips and tricks, strategies and commiseration! And please, if there's anything you'd like me to post about in particular, post a comment about it!