I did it!

Very happy and excited to have gone beyond my 50K already:)) It’s a great feeling to finish a book. Never gets old. And to finish a first draft in less than a month? I could not do it without NaNa inspiring me!

This morning before I started writing I had a vague idea of how I wanted my story to end. I knew I wanted to celebrate Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with my characters. I knew I wanted to provide the “sting in the tale” of my murder plot. I knew I wanted to advance the arcs of the main characters. I wanted a happy ending for everyone.

What I didn’t know was exactly how I’d do it. But I had faith. It’s a first draft. It doesn’t have to be the perfect final form the novel will take. So I gave myself permission to write as clumsily as necessary in order to affix my ideas to the page. And then the magic happened.

Structure effortlessly came together for me and I was able to lay my plot out and finish the third act. I didn’t think it would happen today but when you are this close to the end it’s very difficult to stop. I’d given myself permission to stop if I needed to. Take a night to dream it over. But then found to my happiness that I didn’t need more time. The perfect ending (well, perfect for now) wrote itself.

Thanks in no small part to the energy of writers around the world who participated with me in this annual event and for Chris Baty and his NaNo team for the incredible work they do to help us come together this way.