Diary of a NANOER – Part three – the uphill slog

This is it, the final slog, 7 days to go… 7 days to write 20k.  Oh dear god, this is going to be an Everest like a mission.

• Day 24 – Last West Auckland write-in for the month and … we move it.  It turned into a Pingwing Inklings write in which meant, Good Food, Good Company, giggles, chapter read aloud and … not much writing done – 647 words

• Day 25 – The boys are heading out to cricket so I have 7 hours to write 3k words.  I can do this right?  Current chapter isn’t flowing 🙁 – Lots of word wars later.  3671 words done.  HOLY COW.  Wordiest day ever and Soooo close to 35k.

• Day 26 – Husband ran away to our holiday home for the weekend.  Child decided to play with the next door neighbour.  Time to knuckle down and write – 2761 words and boy did that chapter go to a really weird place.  On a plus, two of my characters have cleared the air and are on their way to become friends … or much more?  You’ll have to read it and find out.

• Day 27 – Monday again.  Husband is still away and I had to walk the child to school.  Uphill both ways, through 4 foot of snow… oh, wait. I live in the southern hemisphere, its spring/summer, nevermind.  Still uphill both ways.  Chapter 10 completed even though it sent me down a path I wasn’t expecting.  Chapter 11 had … movie night with two characters and a Kiss, which is surprisingly more difficult to write than smut – 2796 words and I broke 40k (question for the day… is blow job, one or two words?)

• Day 28 – still slogging my way through “the Kiss” and the awkward moment when the other part of the love triangle walks in … fun times.   The goal for tonight was to beat last years total of 41864.  And I did at about 10.30 pm.  – 2468 and total words 42633.

• Day 29 – to win I need to write 3684 words per day… that’s doable, right? – New chapter to start and an MMC who is ever so slightly frustrated.  Time to shove him in the shower. (later that evening… Smut ensued) and this gem was typed while suffering the after-effects of taking a migraine pill and attempting to stay awake until midnight.          Morning West” Alix said flatly, while his mind was inverting swear words on the spot.  He really didn’t want to deal with this morning, although the uncaffinated glare of death he was levelling at the coffee machine spoke volumes. – 3911 words written.

• Day 30 – this is it.  The end of the line. And boy is that line tantalisingly close.  3456 words need to be written today.  I have to work :(.  On a positive side, I will be home on my own from 5 pm till 8 pm … I only have to write 1152 words per hour or 288 in 15 minutes.   11.47pm.  With my own personal  INTERNET cheer squad who wanted to go to bed hours earlier, I copied all the random words I had written in 30 days and validated my novel.  The screen went blank (It really did, I thought it had broken, I nearly cried), then it flashed up with CONGRATULATIONS WINNER.  Holy shit, I did it.  5 years, 144,764 words in total with 12 minutes to spare… I won my first NANO.  Final word count for the day – 3645.  Total word count for the novel – 50189.

The novel is nowhere near finished but I’ve made a damn good start on it.  Danni has emerged sass intact, Jess and JD helping her stay strong despite feeling like she is broken.  Alix and Wes appearing out of nowhere and turning her life completely upside down, for a good reason this time.  Jules, the character I never expected to find, with his perfectly timed quips (Seriously, where had he come from?).  12 completed chapters 7 1/2 completed ones and a 5k backstory later, this story is moving along.

I’d like to finish it, just to say that I could.  But I’d also like to get back to Star, Devon, Krystal and Shallone.  They’ve been sitting patiently in the corner while I wrote this challenge piece.  Challenge kind of fell by the wayside, it’s not the romance everyone expected, then again when I have ever done what people expected.

That is NANO done for another year.  Congratulations to everyone who participated, its one hell of a rush and even if you didn’t officially win, you’re still a winner.  You have more words now that when you started the month, and probably a brand new story out of it.  Go out and celebrate, you deserve it.  As for me? Well after sleeping for the next week, I will slowly emerge from the depths of my study, reacquainting myself with my husband and my son and this strange thing called Sunshine.  Going to go spend time watching both of them playing sports, hanging out with friends who indulged my November madness supporting me from the sidelines, yelling at me to get off facebook and start writing.

I will keep writing, just as I know many of you will.  Writers aren’t made, they are born.  Born with an itch that no matter how hard you scratch, it’s still there, hidden just below the surface, an itch that can only be tamed by putting words down on paper, whether it be a blog post, a story, poetry or just random thoughts at 3 am (which by the way, wooed my husband all those years ago).  So go forth and write and let’s do this all again next November.  Its been an uphill slog, but man what a rush and the view from up here is amazing.