w00t! I am dancing up a storm on this cloudy Sunday afternoon because

I won NaNoWriMo!

That’s right. I wrote 50,000 words in 22 days.

FIFTY THOUSAND words in TWENTY-TWO days.

I’ve participated in NaNoWriMo every year for the last 12 years. And this is only my 3rd win.

So I’m celebrating!

I swear it was just November 1 and I was just starting my NaNoWriMo 2020 writing journey. And now here it is November 22 and my word count total stands at 50,536.

How frickin’ awesome is that?

I will admit this has been a rather strange writing journey. As I previously wrote, I only had a vague idea of what I would start writing on November 1. As the first days passed, I found the story pouring out of me. I was hitting over 2,000 words each writing session and I was on target to hit 50,000 words on November 19.

But then this past week got a bit tough. Not only did I travel for work, which got me out of my writing routine, I also hit a wall writing-wise.

I hit the creative wall because the story didn’t go where I thought it would. But I was so close to the goal. So I plugged away and kept writing. I do feel the story has gotten a bit off track.

But that’s not important at this moment because

I WON!

What now?

Well, the story doesn’t have an ending yet. So I will keep writing and I’ll keep updating my word count.

At this stage, this is raw writing. Just getting the words on the page. After I get to the ending, then I will spend some time outlining. Yes, I know that’s funny since I’m a pantser (writes by the seat of my pants with no plan at all), but I find it easier to outline once I know where the story is going.

Once I finish the outline, then I will go back and begin the basic editing process. I will start with rewriting those parts that don’t quite fit or I don’t quite like. Then at some point I have to put the story together in a sequence that fits.

When I write, I write whatever comes to me. Right now, I have about 28 sections or chapters. But these are not really in any kind of order. That will be part of my outlining process—to figure out a sequence.

And then if I decide I still like the story, I may even do a second round of editing. Maybe I even ask some people to be beta readers. Who knows?

At this point, I’m just happy to be a NaNoWriMo 2020 Winner!