You won!

So it’s official.

Our word-counting robots have analyzed your November novel, and they’ve delivered their final, binding assessment: Winner.

You did it! You did it! You did it!

This was, without a doubt, one of the hardest years on record for NaNoWriMo participants. At some point in the literary marathon, most of your fellow writers fell by the wayside. They lost their books to work, to family, to school, and to the hundreds of other distractions and interruptions that tend to shutter creative undertakings like NaNoWriMo.

But not you. Not this year.

This November, you set out with the ridiculously ambitious goal of bringing an entire world into existence in just 30 days. When the going got tough, you got writing. Now you’re one of the few souls who can look back on 2007 as the year you were brave enough to enter the world’s largest writing contest, and disciplined enough to emerge a winner.

We salute your imagination and perseverance. The question we ask you now is this: If you were able to write a not-horrible novel in 30 days, what else can you do? The book you wrote this month is just the beginning.

From here on out, the sky’s the limit. . .

On behalf of everyone here at NaNoWriMo headquarters, I offer you my congratulations.

Warm regards,

Chris Baty
Program Director, NaNoWriMo

But, fool that I am, even though I hit my 50,000, my story isn’t near finished so I will be writing like a fiend tomorrow as well to see how close I can get to the end. Technically your 49,999th word and 50,000th word should be “The” and “End” so at this moment I regard myself as cool, but nearly as cool as I will be if I somehow finish the entire book by midnight Friday. Expect word count updates up until that point.

Dear god my whole body hurts from too much typing. I must go to sleep.

"By now, NaNoWriMo has taught you that writing is not for the faint of heart. You must be stalwart and brave, like pioneers of old, unafraid of uncharted lands or crossing vast frontiers. It was exciting at first, wasn’t it? Preparing for the journey, stocking supplies, counting down the days until the start of the great undertaking. That enthusiasm would have carried you through the first weeks, and even the pitfalls along the way might have seemed like thrilling opportunities for adventure. But now you have come to the bleak no-man’s land just before the last great push to the end. It is barren and empty and it seems as if no one has ever passed this way. Except for every other writer who has come before you. This place lurks along the journey of each book for all of us. Here we hate our characters, our plot is mundane, and our prose is as flat and unlo vely as the landscape. Be watchful; it’s dangerous, this place. I have heard of writers who lacked courage and who turned back to safety, never to return. They simply stopped being writers because they could not find their way across this nothingness. That is not an option for me, and I don’t believe it is an option for you. You have come too far, weary travelers! And there is a way across, I promise." -Deanna Raybourn

From me to you, here is wishing you and yours a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!

Now, go eat Turkey until you pass out!