NaNoWriMo 2010 Postmortem: 50100

November has come and gone, and with it the 30 days of writing 1667 words a day called National Novel Writing Month. For the first time in three attempts, I finished, completing 50100 words on 28 November.

I’ve pondered what that accomplishment means over the past few days, and I think I’ve narrowed it down to one word: confidence.

For the first time in a really long time, I’m confident about my writing. I’m confident I can do this if I put my mind to it and stick with it. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not suddenly going to be easy now, but I know it can be done.

What’s ironic about this newfound confidence is that this is hardly the first time I’ve written something this long. I finished my draft of my first novel, The Eagle Stone, years ago, and I have two other works that are unfinished but longer.

I think what this NaNoWriMo proved to me, though, is that a dedicated pace will produce a desired result. Writing good fiction in a short period of time is possible if I just do it.

I hope that my success breeds curiosity about writing in other people at the very  least. This can be done, you just have to do it.

DLH