NaNoWriMo, Cheating, Losing, and Winning

National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) was an odd experience for me this year. I’ll cut to the chase and tell you that I didn’t meet the “winner” requirements. I didn’t make 50,000 words for the month.

I finished at 37,154.

How would one even write out that number?

Thirty-seven thousand, one hundred and fifty-four?

Such a clunky word-count total. Nothing sexy about it at all.

It would’ve been nice to reach 40,000. But that didn’t happen, either. So yeah, I lost.

But that’s okay. There’s a bright side.

I spent part of NaNoWriMo finishing a book that I had started writing in June. That’s right. I cheated, doggonit.

NaNoWriMo participants are supposed to start writing a brand new book on November 1. Instead, I continued writing the book I had been working on before. New words are what counts.

Luckily, NaNoWriMo cheating isn’t a big deal. They even call us rebels. I’ll take that. Sounds kinda bad-ass.

Bringing my WIP across the finish line during NaNoWriMo—typing “The End” on my manuscript—was a great feeling. I think that’s why I’m not too upset that I didn’t reach 50,000 words.

I achieved an end-goal that makes me very proud. And I’m excited to see what happens with this finished manuscript.

So yeah, I lost. By twelve-thousand, eight hundred, forty-six words.

But you know what? I still feel like a winner…

And a rebel.

How did you do for NaNoWriMo? Will you try again next year?

Photo by Robert Anasch on Unsplash, Photo by Fauzan Saari on Unsplash, Photo by Lydia Winters on Unsplash