This month I undertook a challenge that assaulted my own personal ideas about what I was able to accomplish. I know people who have done NNWM for years, and they get genuinely excited about writing a novel. I’m like whaaaaa?? What is wrong with you people? I mean, I dabble in writing some, but that it mostly poetic in nature. Writing stories has always required a focus that I just don’t have, or so I thought. The challenge to this group was to take part in it. Honestly, my arm had to kind of be twisted on this. I fight the self-doubt demon pretty hard in my life, and this was no different, but I decided to do it. I signed up on the second day, and just went with it. I cheated a little, in that I had a series that I had been working on via blogging here, and it amounted to about 3000 words. What happened after those 3000 words ended was something that I didn’t expect. I became a writer. Whether a good one or a bad one, or a REALLY bad one, I morphed into someone who looked forward to deciding what my characters went through on a daily basis. I didn’t edit. I just sat down and wrote cold turkey, and allowed the story to dictate where it went. I put my character through some horrible things, and I truly felt bad for her, but when the ending came to me yesterday, I couldn’t go back on it.

Yep, I finished my novel yesterday, 7 days before they were due. My last few writing days were massive. I averaged about 4000 words per day. For me, that is gargantuan effort, but in reality I found that it was so easy. it was fun. It felt natural. I’m a creative, so I was in my element in creating a world for my brain to play around in. When I validated my novel and received the printable certificate, it was one of the proudest moments of my life. It felt like I was walking across a stage. Now, the next question is will I seek to publish? That one is going to require some deep, DEEP thought. I’ve always wanted to be published, but don’t know if I have the fortitude to deal with rejection letters and endless editing, etc.

But for now, anyways, I’ll take this win and enjoy it for awhile.

Good job, Justin. You proved me wrong!

Happy Thanksgiving, folks! See you next week.