I’m done. I pulled it off by the seat of my pants, the skin of my teeth and by writing some really terrible cr@pp0la. Srsly! Dreck. Drivel. Sentences and paragraphs my editor would beat me about the head and shoulders for writing. Pages that I would wad up and attempt to score “two” with if I could find my waste basket. But such is the glory and challenge that is National Novel Writing Month. I “cheated” in that I ended up working on two novels. The first one stalled horribly. I couldn’t get it off high center for love, money, or chocolate! That said, I have about 14,000 solid words on it. Something to build on once I get my research done. Delving into a “foreign” time period was just too much for my trivial brain to overcome. Every time I had to write [FILL IN BLANK WITH *WHATEVER* INFORMATION], my brain simply stalled out and I lost my train of thought.

I switched projects midstream and started in on FAERIE FOOL, the third book in my trilogy. I have about the same word count on it. GOOD words. I have a whole bunch of drawn out back story that will be cut and tossed into the research folder. Why did I switch? Because I’m back in edits and revisions on FAERIE FIRE, the second book in the trilogy. Since I was in that world’s headspace, Iffy decided she wanted to dip her toes in the FOOL pool and get to know the hero and heroine a bit better. While in the midst of writing all that drecky drivel, I discovered how they met in this life, and I discovered his black moment plus their black moment as a couple. I may be tossing a lot of the words I slapped up on the monitor, but I have the foundation for a really good story. Even if I do say so myself!

So why do I keep doing this madness every year? And why couldn’t I just accept the fact that was I way behind on my word count and trying to write 35000 words in five days was insane? I tried. Really. I tried but just couldn’t stop fretting about it. Have I mentioned I’m competitive? Oh yeah. I hate to lose. I especially hate to lose when it’s something I’ve set myself up for. And you know what? That competitive spirit is what kept me writing for the twenty years it took to sell my first book. That competitive spirit keeps me looking for new and better ways to tell my tales, to tweak my writing, to make it something others will pick up, read, and come away…touched. I want to make readers smile or cry or get angry. I want them to remember my books!

And that’s why I suffer through the madness each November. That’s why I slap sloppy sentences on the monitor, knowing how truly cringe-worthy they’ll be when I start the editing process. But that’s the point. There WILL be an editing process because I wrote a book. This year, I managed to plant the seeds for two novels. I have approximately 15,000 GOOD words on each of them. I have engaging characters, interesting plots, and words on the screen. That’s the journey. One word at a time and NaNoWriMo gives me the impetus and the excuse to write madly for thirty days.

What about you? Did you partake of the crazy this month? Will you join next year? What did you do while the rest of us were surviving on caffeine and chocolate? Did I mention my idea for my novel next year?

EDIT: I almost forgot! Today is the last day to enter the National Readers Choice Awards. Romance novels published in 2009 are eligible. There’s even a way for ebook authors to enter. Check the FAQs at the site. In addition to winners in the 12 categories, OKRWA also awards a best first book trophy. Winners are announced at a reception at RWA Nationals. You can get further information and enter HERE. This is the 19th year for this award and it’s still going strong.