28 Days Into NaNoWriMo - My Conclusion

   I just beat NaNoWriMo 2016 and I am so exhausted. So exhausted. *collapses* Enjoy my nonsensical rambling (I promise I'm more coherent when it's not the middle of NaNo xD)

   Day 1. I was totally ready to go. My story was going to rock and I couldn't wait to get started. Everything was wonderful and glorious and I basically was wheeling around in excitement, ready to try and write 50k with a bunch of other insane writers.

   The wiser people laughed and told me 'there is no way you will end up with that same attitude at the end of the month'.
   These wise people were correct. Because then came the writer's block. For those of you who don't know, writer's block is not good during NaNoWriMo. Not good. Also, my characters decided to run off and leave me wondering where I was, lost in the middle of some strange story.

   But I carried on and tried as well as I could to wrangle and beat my story into shape. My characters beat me right back, and mostly nothing got done. Somehow. This seemed wrong to me.

   But I think my characters just wanted a smarter author who wouldn't force them to behave for the whole of November. Especially when the author had no idea whatsoever about what was going on in her story.

my characters, complaining about me

   Anyways. Somehow the days kept rolling by, and soon enough I came to the last week of NaNoWriMo (not sure how that happened. I was kind of in a daze, I think) - and I was behind on my word-count. Which I had told myself I wouldn't do. But somehow it had happened, and I was internally freaking out.

   So I sat down and had a nice little chat with my characters, and promised them candy if they would just behave (last resorts, people, last resorts). Of course, they said no.
   So I sharpened my sword pen, decided not to take no for an answer, and went at it with all I had.
 

    Maybe it was my magic Legolas sword that helped - or maybe it was just that my characters thought they might as well indulge me for just one week - but I finished my story.
   I repeat, Savannah Grace completed NaNoWriMo 2016 (not sure how many of my brain cells survived through this endeavor, but still *shrugs*).

   
   But all NaNoWriMo writers know what it feels like to finish a story during this crazy November event. We kind of look at the 50k words we just wrote, and we're not sure what to think.
   I don't even know how half of my scenes (... or characters ...) got into my story, and half the characters I'm simply annoyed at xD.  

   Anyways. That was my little adventure (*cough* that took up the whole month *cough*). I don't know how much of my sanity is left after all that, but insane writers are the best writers.

   Also, BIG thank yous to all the writers who encouraged me to keep going during the whole of November, especially to all of you in the Hangout (and to my sister Skylar for surprising me with gel pens when I finally beat NaNo). Without all of those crazy word sprints (and our ridiculous/writer-ly conversations) I definitely wouldn't have made it xD. You're all the best!

   *deep breath* Okay, I'm done. And I may or may not be sharing some snippets from The Dreamer's Game in my next Monthly Highlights posts - so be on the look out for those *nodnod*.   

~ Savannah Grace

   How was your NaNoWriMo adventure, friends? Are you ready to start editing, or are you simply blocking all thoughts of it? If you didn't do NaNo this year, are you going to next year?