Okay, so we all know bragging is not the most appealing of things to do. It’s only a one time thing, so bear with me okay? I’ve had my words so far validated by the text robot on the NaNoWriMo website and it returned this lovely image and a link for me to download my winner’s certificate.

I also get access to some other goodies, including a 50% discount on Mac-only writer’s software Scrivener, which I am now a complete evangelist for because it’s wonderful and I will shortly be parting with a ridiculously small sum of money to register the software.

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I had to write 50,000 words in the month of November to win my first-ever NaNoWriMo. Back on November 1st the prospect of trying to produce so many words in a month was terrifying but I figured if necessary I’d be writing round the clock towards the deadline of midnight on the 30th. I was determined to give it my all, and not let fears and doubts and insecurities hold me back.

Today is day 21. I didn’t plan to write over the weekend, woke up feeling a tad poorly, but immediately felt compelled to write. And write I did. In just one and a half hours I wrote 2,864 words. That’s a personal best in terms of time taken, though on just a few days so far I’ve managed over 4,000. My usual daily word count seems to be around 2,000.

And my total so far—I’m not stopping until the story is told!–is now 51,112. I’ve done it! I am going to stick with the disciplined approach I’ve learned works best for me, and continue for as long as it takes with the punishing but rewarding schedule of work I’ve adopted. I am aiming to complete the first draft of my novel by mid-December, and think it will end up between 70,000 and 100,000 words (probably closer to the latter). I might even go over. I don’t know. I don’t care. I’m a writing machine, man, a writing machine…

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