nano_writers | NaNoWriMo 2009 Day 30 (Reply)

Day 30 - it's down to the wire...

It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.

- Ursula K. LeGuin

And what a journey it has been...

Beginning from the early days of May, we've covered a lot of ground on this journey: challenges and contests, conversations and constructions.

And it all comes down to this: the last day of NaNoWriMo! The word count is 50,000! We have many Nano Writers who have crossed the finish line (congratulations!) and others who are very close... To these members I say: don't give up! Keep writing! But lose the inner critic that keeps whispering in your ear "this is bad" or "you won't make it." No first draft writing is bad and every word counts! And you will never know if you could write that last 3,000 words (more or less) if you don't try!

But...

In the end, it is the journey that matters... the one started on the day we wrote that first sentence about a character who has this problem...

And it's a journey shared... with all our story's characters - characters we've nurtured, abused, loved, fought with tooth and nail, who, in turn, showed us ultimately what it means to be human (and yes, that includes paradoxically all of our non-human characters as well).

And it's a journey shared with each other... all of us! You lurkers too! It is and has been a wonderful, beautiful journey! You are all to be congratulated! Take a bow! Be proud of all that you have accomplished whether you cross that 50K finish line or not.

You are writers!

But this is not the end... coming up over the next several months, we'll talk about the revision process and the next draft. And then sometime after we've put the last finishing touches on this year's novel, we'll talk about how we can prepare for the next NaNoWriMo and then...

We'll keep writing!