I wrote words.  50,069 of them, to be exact, which means I have “won” NaNoWriMo for the 9th year in a row- I’ve won more, if you’re going by number of novels I’ve written, and not number of years.

This November is one of the more interesting Novembers I’ve had in a while.  I actually wrote just one novel, and didn’t have the beginnings of several different novels because I didn’t like anything I was writing.

I liked being able to focus on one book this year, but I also like having two because I can switch back and forth if I’m having trouble with one.

It’s weird, because this year, I didn’t struggle with writing until I hit 40,000 words, which is usually one of the easier parts of writing for me.  I still wrote, and it was hard, but not too hard, since I still got to my goal.  But for whatever reason, I just didn’t want to keep writing it.

I went into the month with some ideas and notes, and a very vague idea of plot and characters, but no other concrete details. I think this is one of those novels I just needed to start writing, because I had a lot of trouble figuring out this world and what I wanted it to be.  Just writing and coming up with this world as I wrote it gave me some really good ideas of what I wanted to do (or didn’t want to do) and if it was something I wanted to do in this book.

I definitely realized that this is a book I want to go back and re-write next year, and I really want to spend the next 11 months working on characters and this world, and reading it over so I have a more organized idea of this world.  I didn’t keep track of anything I discovered about this world, mostly because I was more focused on actually writing, and any inconsistencies can always be fixed later on (if I were one to go back and edit).

I actually really want to use Scrivener to keep track of everything.  It really does seem seem like the best way to keep everything organized.  I’ve also heard really good things about it, so that really helps (as does the discount all participants get once November is over).

It’s always fun to set down with a goal of doing something, and do it knowing that not only are thousands of other people doing it, but that there’s a deadline.  I like it because it’s a way for my to get whatever ideas I have written (because I know I would never write them otherwise) and it’s a good starting point if I ever decide to go back and work on one of them.  NaNo gets me to actually write without worrying about how good it is.  And I love the community too!  I’ve met so many cool people through NaNo.  And the books that have been published that started out as a NaNoWriMo novel is really inspiring!

I really did have a good November, and I hope everyone else did too!