I wrote the last almost-4000 words today of The Girl Next Door as if a watershed had been released. It reminded me of Chris Baty’s inspirational email likening the word trek of NaNoWriMo to a bicycle ride up a humongous hill.
Yesterday, I reached the zenith; I could feel it, feel the ride downhill beginning, the coasting and then the rocket-speed as the momentum built. The story exploded like fireworks on the Fourth of July and the ending was handed to me with love from the Muse, like a beautifully wrapped package tied with a bow.
My official word count by NaNoWriMo is 52,917. I had planned, going into my first NaNoWriMo with a 4,613 word story, to finish up at 54,613 for an official win.
However, it seems fate has taken charge, writing the book in the amount of words it felt was proper. I will, instead, consider an official win to be writing a book in a month — with every scene and chapter complete, with a solid beginning, middle and ending, with all loose ends tied up, and with a first draft so nailed down that the only editing needed will be typos or grammar fixes.
We’ve opened the champagne here, which for me means Martini and Rossi Asti, toasted the novel and all the hopes and dreams I have for it, and then I listened to my husband with one eyebrow raised (at least, I would if I could do it!) while he told me he knew all along that I had it in me.
After all of this, after sitting for a few minutes alone, reading the last sentence over one more time, feeling the magic and savoring it, and thanking the Muse for the hundredth time, I still sit here in disbelief that my second novel is finished.
I know I have so much more to say on this subject, with NaNoWriMo being like a lantern in the novel-writing darkness, with all the golden lessons it taught me, and with all it showed me about my writing self, however, I’ll save that for next time.
Right now, I feel more like a writer than I ever have before. Off I go to sit in the rocking chair under the bright winter stars and let the full weight of what I’ve just accomplished sink in.
But, before I do, I’m sending out serious heaps of inspiration to all you Wrimos out there, and big hugs to all my blogging friends wrimo-ing, too.
In the end, after all, it’s all about the book — long live writing, and long live writers!
