Finis.

Can I get a Woo to the Hoo?

For the second time in 5 years of trying, I actually manged to write 50,000 whole words (plus a few more) in 30 days. I actually had to add an epilogue to stretch my word count to 50,000, so clearly, when I revisit this story in a few months I'm going to have to do a better job of fleshing it out. Either that or admit that it would make a better short story and cut a lot out instead.

The important thing is, I accomplished my primary goal, which was to remember how to enjoy writing again. This is most important because I was seriously at a place where I was so completely discouraged that I was considering giving up on my writing aspirations for good. They just didn't seem worth the effort any more. But that's enough of THAT noise. This month has reminded me that I'm a writer at my core, and whether or not I'm actually working on anything at the moment, or whether or not I ever publish a piece of fiction, that fundamental part of me will never change. I will always be a writer.

So now what? Well, for starters, I'm going to accept Inkygirl's Word Count Challenge and commit to writing at least 250 words a day to keep from losing my momentum. And then I'm going to finish the non-fiction e-book on how to start an online business for no overhead that I started back in August. Once that's done, I'm going to take another stab at fixing The Hero Factor before pulling Dominion of the Damned off of the back burner and finishing that rough draft. And then if there's still time before next November, I'm going to take another look at what I just finished and see if any of it is salvageable.

I'm also going to make time to read other people's books again, something I avoided all month long. I've had Marjorie M. Liu's A Wild Light and Cherie Priest's Boneshaker sitting on my coffee table waiting to be read all month, and I just added Jim Butcher's Side Jobs: Stories From the Dresden Files to the stack. I'm sure to be getting more books for Christmas, too, so that ought to keep my inner bookworm happy for a while. Those are all affiliate links, by the way.

But for now I'm going to rest my noggin and start knitting these adorable Christmas ornaments, the kit for which just arrived today. Congrats to any and all of my fellow Nano'ers who've entered the winner's circle, and to anyone still struggling to get those words down before midnight: You can do it! Go Team You!