National Novel Writing Month: Dispatches From My Living Room #7

--by Hanje Richards

I have completed what I set out to do. I have written a 50,055 word “novel” in a month. I have been talking about writing a novel for as long as I can remember, and I am estimating that this is the closest I have gotten, by at least 48,000 words. I have never written anything anywhere near this long. I have never written anything anywhere near this difficult, and I have never written anything anywhere near this intense.

I did this with the full support of my employer and my family. I did this with the support of friends, some of whom jumped on the bandwagon as I progressed. I did this with the support of other NaNoWriMo writers who were having their own struggles and successes.

I feel very hesitant at this point to celebrate… to say I have completed something, because I feel this was very much a beginning for me.

After I take a break for a couple of days, I have every intention of reworking the whole book and rewriting and editing and cutting and embellishing. In other words, what I feel like I did was write a first draft of something I hope very much will eventually become more than that.
So, for people, like my husband, who are going to tell me I did a great thing, and I should be happy, I feel like I started something, that I worked very hard on it, that it was emotionally wrenching and that it is a first draft. I want to work with it until it becomes something that I would feel comfortable sharing with other people, and I look forward to having some time in the early part of 2011 to do just that.

Thank you for reading my blog, thank you for cheering me on, thank you for your support as I tackle this project and others.