w00t! I made it! 50,100 words in 28 days! I officially finished last night in a flurry of words.So I now that I “won” NaNoWriMo, what’s next. Well, next comes the editing process. Since I opted to write this year in long hand (2 main notebooks, another few pages in a third notebook, and assorted other miscellaneous pages), I have is a mess of scenes, chapters, and really major randomness.

There’s no order in what I wrote. I skipped around and wrote what I was feeling that day. I wrote part of the ending early in the month and then wrote more of it yesterday. Continuity is a major issue. I started my character down one path, but then she ended up on a slightly different one. I’ll have to remedy that somehow.

Then I have blanks where I need to fill in details. Throughout my draft, I use brackets to indicate more details are needed. For instance, some of the characters have minimal backstory right now. I need to flesh out their stories, to make them a more complete character. I also have to decide on names of of the minor characters, businesses, and places. There’s a lot of holes and a lot of brackets throughout.

So really, the writing was the easy part. Now comes the hard part—putting it all together to make a cohesive and interesting narrative.

But first, I need a break. Sometimes the best thing a writer can do is put a manuscript aside and work on other projects. And that’s exactly what I’m going to do. Let this one marinate a while and I’ll get back into blogging and writing other things. Then once I get through the holidays and the New Year, I’ll pick it back up with a fresh eye.

Until then, I will relax and celebrate my win.

If you participated in NaNoWriMo 2017, how was your experience? Share your experience in the comments below.