That’s a winner!

Actually, I guess I should say I’m a winner – because that’s what this graphic I was able to download once I finished and officially validated my National Novel Writing Month story said!

Yes, I just finished about an hour ago. This is my third year doing NaNoWriMo, my third time winning by completing a novel of at least 50,000 words and my shortest novel yet at 50,500 words. Or, according to the NaNo site’s validator, it’s actually 50,447 words. (How did I lose three words along the way?) Regardless, it’s above 50,000. That was my only goal.

As I wrote two weeks ago, the story is kind of a mess. It didn’t miraculously get better as I wrote more and more. But it was even more fun to research and relive the Cardinals 2006 post-season than it was to look back at September. Now that I’ve done that, I definitely need to go back and watch game seven of the NLCS again, along with all the World Series victories. It was wonderful just to read about them and see the clips still available on the MLB site. (Click here and then click on the score for the game of your choice. You’ll find all the articles about the game plus video highlights.)

I had to finish the story tonight, as I’m headed out of town for a work meeting tomorrow and have a busy rest of the week and weekend ahead. So it likely will be several days before I even think more about the story, which is fine. I need to decompress. And I know I have major, major work ahead once I dive back into it for draft number two.

But, in the meantime, I can feel good about this year’s NaNoWriMo accomplishment. And, truthfully, if you’re at all interested in writing, I’d encourage you to do it next year. Yes, it takes commitment and work. But it can be done, and the end result – plus downloading all the “winner” goodies – is a well earned sense of satisfaction. Plus an actual novel that you wrote.