There’s less than eleven hours left of NOVELmber, the month many writers accept the challenge of writing a minimum of 50,000 words in 30 days.

I’ve learned a few things from participating in NaNoWriMo. I’ll do a wrap-up of my experience and why I won’t be doing it again any time soon in tomorrow’s post.

Until then, I’ll just say, “Yes, I met the challenge.”

I reached 50,000 words on Friday November 27th. It wasn’t because I wanted to be ahead of the game going into a busy market weekend. The reason why I reached the goal is because of the days I forced myself to plough forward regardless if I wanted to write or if the story excited me. Slogging through the mud got me to those peaks where the writing took off and sailed for a few thousand words.

That sailing often produced more than my minimum word count for the day. Each day, I started anew, having to write 1,667 words. I didn’t use the banked words written the day before.

But my story—The Salvation of Mary Lola Barnes—isn’t finished, so I’m continuing to write. As of yesterday, I’ve written 54,247 words. I’ll add another 1,667 today. The plot is thickening and the main character is on the verge of having to make a decision that will change the rest of her life. But before that, she’s gotta go through a little more trouble.

If you’re nearing your goal or have a few more thousand words to write, good luck, and keep those keys going. You can do it!