NaNoWriMo :: NaNoWriMo Blog

This was the first year I participated. I'd had my story idea for 2 years, started to write my novel last year and hit a wall at 11,000 words last summer. I think if it wasn't for NaNo, I would never have finished. And I did! The encouraging emails from accomplished writers-including the one that said to tell everyone I was writing a book to shame me into finishing and the one that said "I know what you're thinking of doing...", the excitement of being a part of a world wide event, the thrill of creating my own pseudo website complete with photo and writer bio(this made me feel like I was really an author, if just for a month until...) were some of the things that kept me going. My writing group mentor told me that at the end of the month I'd be a "whole different kind of writer." He was right. This taught me to just get the story down and worry about editing and writing beautiful prose later. Thank you so much...I've been delaying getting back to doing the polishing to make this manuscript publishable, but the hardest part for me is over. I would recommend this to every writer. You'll see me again next year. ~patti