I did it! I won National Novel Writing Month. I hit the goal of 50,000 words last night, although I’m only about 2/3 of the way through the story. There is a lot of work yet to go, and a lot of revising ahead, but I like what I’ve got far more than I did two weeks ago. Strange, what achieving a goal will do for your views of your own work.
That being said, I can’t decide if this is something I want to do next year. Mentally, sitting down to write 1,667 words every day (or more!) was mentally taxing, and I feel like I missed out on going out and doing some things because I had to come home and write. On the other hand, I think I’ve become a lot more focused during the times that I am writing, and so I get a lot more done in a single sitting. So there are positives and negatives, and I don’t think I’ll have made up my mind about doing this all again next year until the end of October. There’s a little bit of time to think about it, anyway.