The Magical Sound of Victory

Tired, but happy. Winner's certificate :D

HI!

I couldn't resist, I admit it.

I'm far too excited to NOT blog about this.

For those of you that don't know it, November is National Novel Writing Month.

For me and eight to fifteen (I lost count) of my friends, that meant we spent a month slaving over a novel, which is defined by NaNo as having 50,000 words.

It sounds like a lot of words, and it definitely is. It's a huge project to undertake, and with everything else going on in November (such as life. That's a rather distracting thing.), it takes a lot of wise procrastination and even more not-so-kind nudging from friends to survive. At least, it did for me.

Over the course of the last two weeks, I have given up on my novel at least six times, fallen behind more than 11,000 words, and I've also had three days of extremely high word counts. It's been rough, but I made it. At 11:36 or something around there, I "crossed the finish line" with 50,207 words (though the website tells me it was only 50,178; still not sure why, exactly).

The moment of victory. Moreorless.

Since that moment, I cannot stop smiling. I'm filled with joy and I can't sit still; it's absolutely ridiculous. It feels like I just ran a marathon that I didn't train for in the slightest, during which I fell down enough that my entire body is covered in bruises and sore, but somewhere near the end, I go this KICK, and it held... for miles and miles. And somehow, despite the entire race and the aggravation about the quality of the run, I MADE IT. I'm not quite "finished" all the way, but I did it. I made it to my goal, and this may be the biggest thing I've accomplished in my entire life, by my standards.

I have a great feeling about tomorrow, or rather... today. Even though I can't focus on anything at all that isn't feeling loopily happy, I DID IT. I can do anything with the feeling I have right now.

Bring it on, December. Ups and downs and whatever's in store. I'm going to finish this novel this month-- fix it up and make it acceptable. It'll be great. And I'm certain that waiting on that finish line will be the same people that kicked, dragged, and shoved me through November.

Thank you SO VERY MUCH if you were one of those people.

I love you, and in case you're wondering-- that sound you hear? That would be the Magical Sound of VICTORY!

-Aly