Novel Writing Month is Over

Yes, I did it! I officially won NaNoWriMo! The little tree in the picture, stretching itself up to the light in the middle of those massive pines? That's a bit how I feel right now. There's a long way to go but I am so pleased to be able to say, I wrote my 50 000 words. 50 886 so far to be exact. Yes, so far, because the story isn't finished. Yet.

Here are my thoughts on the ups and downs of the NaNoWriMo experience.

The Pluses

• It was amazing to be writing every day.
• I finally got the story that Maya's been pestering me about on and off for over a year written down and nearly finished.
• My family were really supportive.
• I think my kids have finally got it, I'm no longer just mum who is really great and always available and does all this stuff for us, I'm, also that crazy woman who sits in front of a screen for a really long time doing her work - writing. Oh yeah and forgets important things like getting the lunch ready and keeping the fire going (ahem).

The Minuses

• I neglected my poetry, I couldn't do both and I missed it.
• I didn't blog much or journal a lot either, there was just no time.
• I was antisocial, I didn't make any new friends, post on a single NaNoWriMo forum or go to any write-ins. To be fair there weren't any in my area.
• See above about forgotten dinners, fires that went out etc. I really need to learn better time management, yeah and go to bed earlier and get up earlier without waking up my undeniably cute but bothersome two year old sleeping buddy.

There will be time for a little posting now so I'll be showing off how the apple bags turned out and hopefully telling you about all the mending which has been a big theme around here this autumn and will continue to be I imagine with five of us living and working and learning together in this space all the time. And finally a little peek into our library again to see our favourite Christmas books because yes we do start reading them from the beginning of December. On the flip side, there's a moratorium after the 25th and it lasts all through the next year!