The End Of NaNoWriMo 2016

Today is the last day of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) 2016! I have good news! I won yesterday! Yay!!! My husband asked me, “How do you ‘win'?” You write 50,000 words in November. That's it. And that's exactly what I did. I wrote 50k of a brand-new scifi series I've been wanting to write for the last year.

Is the book finished?

No. Not at all. In fact, I left my heroine yesterday in a huge predicament. Man, she has gone through a lot in the last month, and she's become a full-fledged real person in my mind during that time. To think that she didn't really exist, not even in notes, until this month is kinda crazy. And the world she's inhabiting has also taken shape over the past month too.

Will I be taking a break now?

Heck yeah. I'm sitting on the couch right now, my charged-up Kindle next to me, and a book to read all ready to go. I haven't had a day off since November 9th when I was on vacation! And looking back on last year when I wrote two books in a row and got burnt out, I don't want to end up like that again. Taking breaks is important. I also need to rest my arm. I tripped the other day, walking the girls home from school, and landed on my left arm. It's fine. Just a little sprained (thank you very thick wool coat!). But it needs some epsom salt baths and rest. Thank goodness for dictation!

What's next?

I want to read this book through from the beginning, make some changes, move the mid-point back, change a few names, and do some more brainstorming before I continue. I also want to create a cheatsheet about the forces of the world I've made that I can hopefully turn into a downloadable PDF for my mailing list. Then I'd like to pick it back up and keep writing. 1500 words per day until I'm done.

BUT (here's the big but) I also want to finish a Daydreamer novella for the mailing list and have that ready before New Year's Eve. So I need to look at that and brainstorm it and start writing that too. 1500 words per day till that's done. Then a quick edit and give it away. No beta reading. Just go for it! Which I've never done before. But since I won't put it up for sale, I won't worry too much about it.

So December's looking quite busy! But today, it's all about relaxing, listening to Symphony Hall on SiriusXM, and reading someone else's book.