I’m a NaNoWriMo Winner! I did it!

Amy Reese

I’m a NaNoWriMo winner! Friends, I did it!

I just want to take a moment to say thank you to all of you who offered me kind words of encouragement during the NaNoWriMo challenge. You probably won’t believe me when I say this, but YOU made all the difference. There were some days when I had another 600 words to write, and I would think, “I just can’t….” But then, I would think of you. So, I kept a steady course, and I finished my novel. Well, I put an ending on it. Never mind all the holes in the middle. So, THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

My son asked me if he could read it and I said, “No way!” He found this kind of pathetic, wondering why I would take all this time to write something that I don’t want anyone to read. And, all you got was a stupid badge…yeah, yeah, yeah…I’m proud of my badge.

For one thing, I discovered a great story out of it. I wrote a suspense/thriller with a lot of plot points and twists. But let me tell you, it’s awfully hard to write a plotty and twisty novel when you’re not quite sure what the plotties and twisties are. You see what I’m saying? My novel had lots of stray body part pieces in it and I wrote it in pieces. Oh, let me think about that for a moment….That’s quite profound….The second draft will be easier. I plan to pick it up soon, but probably not tomorrow. Do I want to do this next month? No, I don’t!

But I’m happy I did it, and it feels like a great accomplishment. It’s true what they say about the NaNoWriMo. In one of the pep talks I read from NaNo, it said something like you’ll be able to write anywhere….Yes! I could have written in a crowded bar with loud music with darts flying around my head. Or, at a kid’s birthday party with kiddos swarming around me. No problem!

Also, when you sign up and fill out your profile, they ask what music you listen to while you write. They even had a space to fill out your listening music. I thought how sweet that they want to bring people together based on their listening preferences. I thought, Oh, I write to silence. That all changed! I needed some pep, something with spunk, and I listened to music most of the time I wrote.

For those of you who are thinking about doing this, I highly recommend it. If anything at all, by doing the NaNo I gave myself permission to write. I gave myself a chance. It also made me realize why I usually don’t give myself time to write. There are so many distractions that get in the way. For a month, I made it a priority and that was a huge step for me.

Thanks again for your support!

 

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70 Comments

  2. Congrats! I am surrounded by winners! I got mine done today also! yeah us! I understand about feeling proud. I am proud of you as I am proud of me! We did it! It’s not easy writing 50,000 words when life intrudes like it always does. My story has a lot of holes too, but going into this we knew it was NOT going to be publishable first time around. But, I look at it this way, it got our butts sitting and writing instead of always putting it off and that’s awesome! 🙂

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      1. It’s a great relief! But I’m not done yet, I’m just gonna let it sit a while before I finish it. I got 50,000 words but I think it’s going to be close to 80,000 before I’m done with the novel itself.

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  3. You are a ROCKSTAR!!! Congrats on getting finished. I get why you’re son would be confused as to why you wouldn’t want to share what you’ve written, but I also TOTALLY understand why you’d want to keep it to yourself. The badge is worth it. 100000000% worth it.

    I am writing my NaNoWriNO wrap up tomorrow, and I’m going to include a link to this post since you did the real NaNoWriMo and I think it’s worth celebrating.

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    1. You are so awesome!! Thanks, Jen. Thanks for being so encouraging throughout! It meant so much to me. Yes, I’ll wear the badge proudly. Good job to you, too, for keeping up with your NaNoWriNO. That’s no easy feat either. Way to go!!! Congrats!

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  5. Congratulations from your local NaNoWriMo dropout. I’m actually glad you made it through. And tell your son no one except for maybe a professional editor ever gets to read a first draft of something. Let him know that in the first draft, there were actually 13 commandments!

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    1. Thanks, Paul! Thanks for being happy for me. I’m not sure I’ll do this again. We’ll see. I’m glad I did it though. It was a great personal experience. I can understand why someone might drop out. It was hard to keep the momentum of the writing, not to mention the telling of the story. I’m a little afraid to read what I wrote. I haven’t done that yet. Then, I’ll have to piece it together. Hopefully, someone will read this some day!

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    1. Right…now we have to read the thing…ha ha. And, of course, the re-write. I could get into the fast techno-y music. I’m sure that could work for me. Music helped me out a lot. Congrats to you, too! Thank you so much for all your encouragement.

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    1. Thanks, Leo! I think you should go for it next year! It’s doable and just requires a little discipline. It feels like a great achievement. And, you never know what you might do until you give yourself a chance to do it!

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  19. I’m super impressed. No small feat. You make me want to try writing. I mean, for real. Not just ranting on my blog. Can you write a novel that’s only ranting?
    Big hairy congrats on your success.

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    1. Thanks, Sara! I think you could do a novel that’s ranting. If anyone could pull that off, you could. And If I can do this, I know you can. I know it’s not my best writing, but it really forced me to stretch my ideas out. So, I think some of them have promise. We’ll see. Now I have to actually read what I wrote. Yikes!

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  20. If I were a lyrical writer or could play an instrument or even keep a tune – I’d write a song for you. But since I’m not, I’ll just pass a long a big CONGRATS.

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  21. That is astounding and impressive, Bumble!! Congratulations! That’s a fantastic achievement—I know it must have been quite a slog at times. But I’m so glad you got a great story out of it and learned a lot about how/where you can write. Yay!!

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    1. Thank you so much, Weebs!! It does feel really great to have done it. I know sometimes my writing was probably atrocious. Indeed, it was a slog at times. But, it also kind of forced me to get the ideas out. Hopefully, some of them are good ones. Now, I have to read it…but I’m going to let it sit for a bit.

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      1. I love to snack while writing too, and I also write in silence most of the time simply because I get too caught up and forget to play anything for background noise.

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  25. Congratulations! I am so pleased for you. So now you can take a breath,celebrate, relax and regroup. Nothing can stop you now.
    Great song by the way.

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  26. Congrats on completing. It’s a great feeling isn’t it. That badge is my trophy. My story is full of holes too and I think I want to change it from first person to third person. But what the hell, I have a story, a novel, and I am damn proud of that – even if I wouldn’t let anyone read it … yet

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    1. Funny, I’m perplexed by the telling of my story, too. Mine will most likely be a complete rewrite, but hopefully not all. I feel at least I have my story mapped out. It feels great to have done it. A big congratulations to you, too!!! Way to go!

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  27. Yay!!! You are a total bad-ass writing rock star! So proud of you Amy for sticking to your goal. That’s a huge accomplishment. Rock on!!!

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      1. I chose her because I encouraged her to try Nanowrimo. She didn’t finish but I am really proud she made the effort.

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  30. That is AWESOME, B.F! Of course there was no doubt in my mind you would do it!
    I’m not a writer, but my wife has done quite a few NaNoWriMo’s. I think she felt the same way you do… that it often leaves details to be worked out, but that it’s great because it forces you to not get hung-up on those details and then leaves you with so much more good stuff than you might have ever even expected. Anyway, congratulations again, B.F! This is a very impressive accomplishment, indeed! You deserve to be very, very proud!
    🙂

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    1. Why thank you, SIG!!! It means a lot coming from you. So, your wife has done them…oh, then, you know all about this! It does allow you to write more freely and hopefully have some good stuff (oh I hope!) and not get bogged down. It’s a great creative process. Thanks so much for the kind words!! 🙂

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