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
Are you going to publish, Eagle Stone after you edit, it and post it on Dennyview?
The Eagle Stone is probably destined for traditional publication if it ever gets that far. The story I wrote for NaNoWriMo 2010, I may self publish in the form of a .pdf when it is done. I haven’t decided yet.