NaNoWriMo: The End!

Of the month, that is. The novel is still in the second chapter of Part Three, at a grand total of

81,417 words!

(Or 81,686 if you listen to the counter on the website.) And more than 22,500 of them were written in the last four days, including one day of just over 7,000 words ... I think I made up for my days off sick!

And now the writing goes on at a slower pace, and all those bits of real life which got put on hold over the last thirty days (anything not a matter of life and death, basically) can begin again. Including the business of reading and reviewing published novels by other people, rather than obsessing over a very-possibly-never-to-be-published one of my own.

Having posted hardly at all this month, I stand in awe of those people (hello, Bookfool!) who manage to do NaNo and keep blogging at the same time. Though I could probably do it too, if I didn’t spend every spare moment living and breathing NaNo because I find it so addictive ... and because it brings out my latent competitive streak. Having narrowly outdone last year’s total, I’ve already devised a plan for doing even better next year:

I will not let the forums distract me from writing (too much). I will not get sick (I hope). I will do my cover art well in advance so that it can’t serve as an excuse for procrastination for days on end. And I will outline in October.

And now I will go and get some sleep ... and try to work out what on earth happens in the rest of Part Three.