Thank God It's Over!

On on hand, NaNo is over, but on the other, I hope this is just the beginning. First a few stats:

In total, I wrote 50,086 words.
My highest word count day was right around 10k (the end flying up to meet you can be very motivating ;) )
And this blog (excluding this post, titles & my replies in comments) is 13454 words so far
My Region, Peoria, IL collectively wrote 1,560,129 words
119,301 people signed up for NaNoWriMo this year with an 18.2% win rate of 21683 authors!
And the combined total words of all NaNos was 1,519,501,005!

That is AWESOME! Everyone that wrote, whether they hit 50k or not should feel at least some sense of accomplishment. I know even in years I didn't win, I still met some great people, I brought better writing than I had the year before, I always learned new things & no matter my word count I'd want to come back next NaNo & try it all again. I hope you all feel likewise. Congrats all around! These are some truly staggering numbers & I hope that next year they just keep going up!

This year, I learned:
That sprinting is word count Miracle Grow!

For me, reading during NaNo is strictly verboten. I get too caught up either wanting to see the outcome of a new read or racing ahead to my favorite spots on old ones & neglect my own stories.

Posting to or reading the Forums, or other writing message boards may be helpful & interesting, but it WILL NOT add to your wordcount. Forums are a treat to be enjoyed either for brief portions before, or as you like AFTER you've hit the day's target.

Setting a target (daily/weekly/monthly...whatever) can be a major help. When I was at around 8k, I thought quite idly & pie in the sky that it'd be great to have at least 20k in the first week. When I said it originally, I never thought I'd mke it, but as I put more words behind me 20k seemed more attainable & it made me work harder to get there.

Having a cheering section is a great boon! Usually, I have one or two people interested in my NaNo, this year I had a crowd of friends online that followed, cajoled, cheered, threatened me with guilt monkeys & generally drug my sorry kiester towards that magic 50k, even on days I wouldn't have myself.

Similarly, shooting your mouth off to said crowd is a good thing. It makes it a lot harder to punk out once you've run your mouth about how great you're going to do, lol.

This year I learned I could finish a piece of my own work & it'd be worth reading, and possibly, after a few edits & some polishing, maybe even worth paying for. I knew my writing was fairly decent; I get compliments on my game posts frequently & have a lot of requests to write with my chars & have favorable things said about previous NaNos. But this was really the first full length work I've done that was wholly mine; not fanfic, game stuff or the like. And ya know what? It was still good. How 'bout that?

This year I really realized how much writing meant to me. I got how much I love doing it, figuring out the puzzles of it, getting a char to talk & to live. I really got how much I want to get better at it & noticed or the first time that I may want to do this for good - my work, out there, in the world, to be read (and hopefully enjoyed) by as an actual vocation.

This year I'd like to thank:
Chris Baty - without you, none of the rest of us would be throwing ourselves into this annual insanity & life would be poorer without it. Thank you for the weekly pep talks! I love them!! You had this hairbrained notion that gave us all permission to go out & suck & that is so liberating! Lol. Because once you know it's ok to not be perfect, it gives you so much room to be great, as counterintuitive as it may sound to someone that hasn't tried it. You gave everybody a great place to expand their skills & learn about the real guts of book writing; that nothing that ends up on the shelf starts out it's literary life looking like that. You helped us mess the fun & beauty & chance there is in being a mess, because amazing things that can be created from that mess! Thanks Chris!

Russell Uman - Not only is he the ever brilliant "Robot Whisperer" that keeps the virtual lights on so we all have a place to play every year, but Russ was my NaNo mentor my first year. He may not remember, it was a few years back & he's come across hundreds of NaNos since then, but I do. I still have parts of his letters from that first year in my 'cheering section', a file I keep of comments my writing's received. It's great to look over on days I'm having trouble. He encouraged me, read my stuff & told me 'you really write well and it would be a shame for that to go unfulfilled'.

I held onto that & all the other things he said & it was one of the reasons that I kept going, even in years I did badly (and wow...some years I did very badly!) So thanks Russ. I never would have made it here without you!

To all the authors that've taken time out to do pep talks - Thank you, they're amazing. It's wonderful knowing not only are we not exploring these strange new worlds alone, but you all have survived the trip & live to report back, and with great success in doing so. Beyond that, and maybe this is just me,. I find it somehow a little reassuring that pep talks from "real" authors show up in my inbox, complete with typos. I'm sorry, but that's great!

A special thank you goes to Piers Anthony. When I saw his name on this year's pep talk list, I must admit, I nearly squealed in transports of fangirlish joy. I love his stuff, I've got about eight of his books. I ran, figuratively, to my email every few days in anxious anticipation, only to have my little hopes dash time & again. On the night before NaNo ended, I was lamenting to a friend that there was no Piers post yet, only to have it arrive about five minutes later. It was well worth the wait.

Silke & Carolyn - ty, ty! It was great having two people from the game going through this two. And I'm so proud of you both for making it to 50k! You guys rock!

Cheri & Kelly - Peoria's illustrious current & former ML. You two are fabulous! Cheri, you set up real world events & online write ins & Kelly for setting up The Cafe for us to hang out in & both of you for staging all those sprints! Thank you, thank you for being such wonderfully helpful & encouraging forces in our little corner of NaNoworld!

Nehellenia - You made it & I'm so proud of you! I know you ha a couple hang up spots in the middle, but you did great.

Gypsy! Oh, Gypsy m'dear, you were my NaNo angel! Lol. You read along, clamoring for more, you were my constant sprinting companion & my staunchest cheerleader this year. Ty, ty, ty! I never would have made it without you.

And finally, you, gentle reader. Thanks for hanging in with me through this crazy time. Keep checking back, I'll keep posting. And thank you, thank you for all the comments. Keep'em comin'. It's great knowing I'm not just sitting here talking to myself.

Ok...I think that about covers it for the time being. We'll be back to our regularly scheduled programming in the next day or two.