Tooting My Own Horn: Edition 1

You know, I work hard, so I deserve to pat myself on the back every now and then.

Well, recently I completed NaNoWriMo. For those of you unfamiliar with this, NaNoWriMo=National Novel Writing Month. It's a challenge to see if you can write a whole novel in 30 days. The novel must have a beginning, a middle, and an end, and must be 50,000 words long.

So, I am pleased to say that I completed NaNoWriMo! I wrote a YA novel titled '24 Days with Benjamin Moore'. It is 50,131 words long and about 81 single spaced pages on the word processor. It was exhausting, the final product is terrible, yet I am so proud of myself I could burst.

The thing that I loved about NaNoWriMo was that we were not allowed to go back and edit our stuff. We just had to keep writing. It was very liberating and I found the writing process to be much easier this way. I looked forward to sitting down every day to write and I love my story.

Now tomorrow marks my one week away from the novel. I told myself I would need some space after finishing it, but soon I plan on returning to it and going over the painful process of editing it. This is the part I was sort of dreading when I started the novel, but now I'm looking forward to it even more. I know that it needs edits and I'm excited for the edits because it will make the book even better. And that's my goal, to make it better, to make it the best I possibly can.

In my one week off from writing, I've grown to really miss it. I am looking forward to sitting down and trolling through it and, eventually, writing something else (or continuing from the stories I have already started). I encourage all writers to do this, whether its for fun or for reals, it was a truly rewarding experience.

Alright, that's enough of inflating my own ego for the day. :)