NaNoWriMo Win and what happens now?

November is over, and with it, NaNoWriMo. And something definitely unexpected happened; I WON! I reached 50.000 words one day early, and I am more shocked than I thought I would be! I cannot believe I managed to write 50.000 words in one month. I am super proud, and I think that I, and every other WriMo-er who won, has earned some serious bragging rights.

And, you know what? Even if you didn’t win, even if you only wrote a few thousand words, the most important thing is that you tried, that you sat down and wrote words, that you started the beautiful process of creating something that is all yours.

Now that NaNoWriMo is over, I expected to have one of those “what do I do now?” crisis. But instead, I am still fired up from winning, and I am still just as passionate about my story as I ever was, and all I want to do is keep working as hard as I did in November and finish this book!

The crazy thing is that if I manage to write even 30.000 words in December, I might actually finish the first draft of Spiraling (btw; you might notice I often switch between calling it Spiraling and Spiralling – that’s because I haven’t chosen between American and British spelling yet!).

I have had set goals for the completion of my first novel for a while now, but I think it’s time I put them out there for the world to see, and judge me if I fail;

• I want to complete my first draft by January/February 2017 at the latest.
• I will then spend the rest of 2017 on editing and re-drafting, while looking for beta readers (and while re-drafting, also be working on the 1st draft of my Parker story).
• By 2018 at the latest, I want to hit the beta-reading process, and at some point during the year find an editor and someone to work on the cover.
• And finally, 2019 should hopefully be the year I put myself on the line and finally self-publish my very first novel, assuming I don’t crack under pressure before then and move into a cave somewhere.

So there you have it. That is my plan, and now that I have shared it and it’s not just a piece of paper hanging on my wall, I hope I will be as faithful to it as I want to be.

There is nothing I have ever wanted to be as much as I want to be a writer. There is no other job I am passionate about, nothing else I can picture myself doing ten years from now and say “that would make me happy”. That is why NaNoWriMo has been such an incredible experience.

Even the days I felt like the shittiest writer out there, the days I felt I couldn’t write a single word, when I felt like I was doomed to fail no matter how hard I worked, I still sat down and produced something. It lit a fire under my ass and got me to this point, where I can truly see the finish line, where I can picture myself holding my  completed novel in my hands, and that picture feels pretty damn good.

I hope NaNoWriMo gave you all the same warm, fuzzy feelings it gave me, even mixed in with all the craziness and despair. Don’t stop now, keep the fire burning and continue that hard work on your extraordinary stories! The world needs it!

Happy writing, everyone.

Rain S.