I've Crossed the Finish Line!

I am happy to say I've accomplished my NaNo goal:  I arrived  at the mind-boggling number of 50,060 words last night (technically, this morning, but if I haven't gone to bed yet, it still counts as Sunday no matter how late it is.) 

That was quite an amazing experience, and I am very glad I did it.  Do I have a finished novel? No. I have 50,000 words of a rambling, disjointed story with no ending, characters who appear and disappear with no explanation, and plot elements that don't make sense.  But I don't consider this to be a bad thing.  I started out with a vague idea and a couple of scenes in my head, and I just plunged in to see what would happen.  I now have a clearer idea of what I want the novel to be, but that novel isn't written yet.  That's ok, I don't have to write that novel in 30 days, I can take as long as I need to. 

More importantly, the experience taught me some important things about writing: that I can pound out 2,000 to 3,000 words a day without too much difficulty; that planning ahead by doing character sketches and outlines is essential; that its ok to write a bad rough draft and fix it later.  I will be putting all of these lessons to good use as my writing career progresses.