Well, it’s now December 2 and NaNoWriMo 2013 has officially ended. Very happy to say, I completed the month successfully as of the 24th and even managed to finish writing my novel on the 29th! I’ve already started editing and looking forward to making this thing awesome. My winner’s shirt is already on its way! Here’s a recap of my final week.

NaNo Day 22:

I knew it’d be a light day. I woke up a little earlier than normal, which is how I even managed to get in as many words as I did. So, why the low count for today? After work, I went to see The Hunger Games 2: Catching Fire! It. Was. AMAZING!!! And I didn’t get home until very late. So, I didn’t write as much as I’d like.

Daily Word Count: 1,148
Cumulative Word Count: 41,426

NaNo Day 23:

Oooo, it’s so close now I can taste it! Tastes like coffee… I just whipped the words out today. I’d love to win it this weekend! I even spent most of the day Christmas shopping with my husband and stuffing down wings at Quaker Steak and Lube. :)

Daily Word Count: 3,653
Cumulative Word Count: 45,079

NaNo Day 24:

It happened! I hit the 50,000 word mark and have officially won NaNoWriMo. I basked in the glory for a few minutes, took a photo of my green word bar, then went right back to writing. It was an epic day for word counts. My highest by at least a thousand, I think.

Daily Word Count: 6,265
Cumulative Word Count: 51,344

NaNo Day 25:

Wow. Lowest word count ever. I didn’t mean for it to happen. I wrote in the morning like always. After work I had a bunch of running around to do and I got home late. By the time I did get home, I was tired and knowing I have already won has given me the feeling that, hey, maybe I can take a day off (sort of).

I did have a wonderful experience while shopping at Half Price Books. I accidentally met a fellow NaNoer! This is what I mean about the community. As she was ringing me up, Nicole casually mentioned NaNoWriMo. I’m sure she expected me to say nothing or ask what in the heck NaNoWriMo was. Instead, I did a little excited squee and told her that I just won it yesterday. There ensued much excited discussion and the exchanging of user names and just like that. Boom. New writer friend!! Is it November again yet?

I love the little stat bar the NaNo site provides :) Great visual encouragement!

Daily Word Count: 530
Cumulative Word Count: 51,874

NaNo Day 26:

So, I totally slacked off today. With the holiday coming and 5 full days of writing ahead of me, I spent some time getting together the new Literary Fusion site instead of writing. I figured I can take a little break :) I also celebrated with ice cream for lunch!

That brings me to Literary Fusion. Maybe you wondered what that was. Well. Allow me to explain, my friend! It’s a new writers’ group that will start meeting in January. Once a month, on Saturdays, we’ll get together in the Cranberry area and do all sorts of writerly things. Discuss books and the market, share our work and get critiques, and even—yup, you guessed it—some writing! Check out the Facebook group here.

Daily Word Count: 759
Cumulative Word Count: 52,540

NaNo Day 27:

With the day off and not much to do, I got in bunches of writing! Our last write-in was tonight. Funny how the mood of this one was totally different. I’m the only one finished so far in our group and some of the others are feeling behind. There was less talking and far more writing than any other week. It’s definitely crunch time!

Things are coming together for Literary Fusion. We’re planning our first meeting for Saturday, January 25 from noon to 3 p.m. If you’re anywhere near the Cranberry Twp., PA area, come on out and join us! I finally started work on the web site. We just need to get final confirmation on our location and we’ll be rocking and rolling!

Daily Word Count: 4,333
Cumulative Word Count: 56,873

NaNo Day 28:

Happy Thanksgiving! I am thankful for you, dear reader, and for ways for writers to get together like NaNoWriMo and Literary Fusion. I am thankful most of all for who God has made me. He gave me these talents and this personality and the passion for writing. All I am is because of all He has given me and done for me and I am always and forever grateful for that. :) I hope you had some time to celebrate and be with people you love (or family ;).

We’re home for Thanksgiving this year, so that means I had most of the day for writing! (As you can see reflected in my word count for the day.)

Daily Word Count: 3,342
Cumulative Word Count: 60,215

NaNo Day 29:

Milestone #2 this morning. After just a few hours of writing, I finished the novel! It is a little shorter than I wanted, so in the editing phase, I’ll likely flesh some more scenes out and maybe add a few if needed. Just glad that I managed to get it all in! Now, onto editing and beyond!

Daily Word Count: 2,519
Cumulative Word Count: 62,734

Final Thoughts

I went into this thinking that writing 50,000 words in a month would be a good challenge. I really didn’t feel stressed out or pressured and for the most part, I cruised right through. I know this is not the case for all writers or even most. Not everyone has the ability to spend evenings and weekends writing. I am glad to see that the majority of my writing buddies did have their bars turn purple and had the word “Winner” appeared. It’s an awesome accomplishment!

This is not a once a year thing for me, though. My writing schedule for NaNo wasn’t actually much more than my usual writing schedule. There were a few times I thought about doing something besides writing in the evening, but the word count bar kept me moving ahead.

I will now do several rounds of editing before handing it over to beta readers and letting it rest. Then I’ll be off to edit my other novel, which is in resting phase currently, and then I’ll be writing my next novel (a rewrite of my MFA MS) in a few weeks!