The end of NaNoWriMo 2011

Today is the last day of NaNoWriMo 2011. There are many thousands of people out there right now frantically writing away, knowing they have to have their books validated by midnight to "win." It's been fun going on the forums today and seeing lots of purple "winner" ribbons popping up everywhere. I'm a little bummed (only a little!) that I finished early and am not joining in the last-day revelry.

So what did I learn in November? A lot, actually:

*  I can set a difficult goal and accomplish it.
*  I can write 4000-6000 words a day and survive (although it makes me very tired!).
*  I actually am creative!
*  There are a lot of people out there who are crazy, too.
*  I have great kids who were amazing cheerleaders all month.

*  I can plan a week's worth of dinners and stick to the menu. (This is actually a biggie!)
*  Outlines aren't all bad.

There is probably more. I know my husband learned that it wasn't the big pain in the behind he was afraid it was going to be, so hopefully he'll be a little more excited about it in 2012.

All in all, I am enormously thankful to Chris Baty and www.nanowrimo.org for the whole thing, and I really had a blast. Now for the editing... I'm kind of afraid of that part, but even if it's complete garbage, I still wrote 88,651 words in 23 days, and that's awesome!