WIN

I think I'm going to do this.

I did it.

50,031, baby!

I have officially crossed the finish line of NaNoWriMo, 14 days earlier than planned, about 8 years later than I'd hoped, and about 8 years earlier than I expected.

I've never managed to write so fast in my entire life, and it has left my head reeling. I've got that crazy, half-sick, half-thrilled feeling you get when you're on a roller coaster, going up the first incline. There's one second where you're at the top and you can see the now-nauseatingly high drop that didn't seem so bad before. Then you're flying and it's incredible. (Hopefully this does not end with you racing for the nearest waste receptacle as soon as you get off.)

My story seems to be about a quarter of the way finished. This is another first for me. In the past, I've had real difficulty with length, struggling to hit 80,000 with my first novel. I know that word count is generally a very wonky thing, where some publishers accept 70,000, others 100,000, and still others anything under, over, or in between. But even though I plan to self-publish, I do want to put out a finished product that isn't just good-looking, but also has some meat on its bones.

I'm looking forward to finishing this novel, and then immediately jumping back to my 7/8 finished second novel, which has been waiting patiently since I finished college for me to give it a fair shot. Technically, I'd say it's the most well-written of the three, so it deserves a chance. And for the first time in my life, I really do feel like a writer.

So yeah, I win.

I win, I win, I WIN, I WIN, I WIN!

(See show or listen to track "Son of Great Big Stuff." You'll get it.)

Inspiration: winning Lindsay Buroker's Amazon giveaway contest for writers on track with their word counts! I think this may have been the first money I've ever earned from my writing. It's certainly a good feeling. I'll have to keep doing this! 

Music: background noise of early - and terrible! - episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Thank the stars for Patrick Stewart - he is currently the show's only saving grace. I loved DS9, though, so I'm more than willing to give this a chance to grow on me.