And we have a win!

Today, at approximately 6:30pm (but who was looking), I crossed the 50,000 word mark in my novel for NaNoWriMo. Now, some of you are thinking, "wait, wasn't that supposed to take 30 days?" And some are you are thinking the same thing as my husband, "Great! Now you're done!"

Am I done? Nope, not even close!

On the first one, to "win" at NaNoWriMo you have to write 50,000 words, validated by the uploader on NaNoWriMo.org, by Nov 30. But many people write many more words, and my goal for Nov has always been 105,000. I am currently on pace for 120,000 but I don't know if my story will carry that far. If not, I'll go back and edit/add description. I know I'm light on that and heavy on dialog and action, so I figure I can get 105,000 or more, either way.

On the second - nope! I've 'won', and I'm very excited. But I'm not done, and am not quitting on the 12th and leaving my novel half done. My goal was to average 15,000 words for each of my seven locations of my treasure hunt. I can't leave these people in Zimbabwe! And I've got momentum and motivation, so I'm going to keep going until Nov 30, taking my 2 planned days off on the 19th and Thanksgiving day.

Have I done 15,000 words per location? Nope, I've only got 2 locations left, and 55,000 words. OK, they're not done in Zimbabwe, and I'll get another few thousand out of that. But the final location, where the treasure is... we can stretch that one out a good way. And of course, the climax of the book can't be skimped over. So I'll get close. And then I can go back and add that pesky description.

Bottom line, I'll go as far the book takes me by November 30, and I am really motivated to reach my goal. Does that mean 50,000 is "easy?" NO WAY! Had I not had a treasure hunt, which I researched during a lot of hours in October, there's no way I'd set such a high goal for a first draft. When I do it next year, will I set that same goal? Depends on if I'm doing an adventure again, or something else.

50,000 words is a LOT of words, and takes a lot of creative thinking. It's tiring! Some days it's exhausting. My 6,000+ today would have been exhausting if I hadn't had the emotional high of crossing that milestone. But is it worth it? Ooooohhhh yeah. It's awesome!

Fellow WriMos - keep on going!!! If you're thinking about it doing it next year, or Script Frenzy in April, or Camp NaNoWriMo - go for it! It's a great accomplishment, even if your novel is crap on further examination. Do it! You'll never know what will happen until you try.