I WON NANOWRIMO.

(I wrote this late on the 30th. I know today's an irregular posting day for me but I wanted to get this up soon because, like I say in this post, I have some other posts I want to get up soon. Plus, this is kind of a special occasion, so I guess it deserves special treatment.)

Guys. 

I just won NaNoWriMo.

Wait a second, what?

I JUST WON NANOWRIMO!!!!

I just hit 50k a few minutes ago and I CAN'T believe I actually did it! It's almost midnight and I have to work tomorrow and I really need to go to bed but I'm still up because I am feeling so happy and excited right now. And I wanted to capture that excitement while it was still fresh and real.
So here's that excitement!!

You guys, I am so proud of myself and so psyched that I DID IT. It was such a surreal feeling when I updated my word count and saw that 50k. When I validated my novel and saw the "Congratulations, Wrimo!" banner and watched the winner's video... and I heard the words "A NaNoWriMo winner is YOU!"... Guys, don't judge. I may have gotten a BIT emotional.

 I've done NaNoWrimo three times before, but I've never won before. The highest word count I hit was 35k in 2016.
I always had trouble getting to my word count because I always got stuck. You guys, I get stuck SO BAD when I'm writing a novel. I don't what it is, but the hardest part about writing for me is figuring out what needs to happen throughout the story. I know the beginning, the climax, all those important moments. But everything in between? It's not that I don't like writing it, I just find myself CLUELESS as to what it should be.

This year wasn't perfect. I'm not going to pretend I came in with a big old outline, every chapter planned out. I'm not going to pretend I didn't get stuck a few times. (Although never as stuck as I have been before.) Guys, I didn't even have all my characters created and I made one up in the middle of writing.

I didn't have everything planned out, but somehow this story flowed pretty well for me. I'm a pantser (also known as a discovery writer, which is a term I really like), so full disclosure, I made a lot of stuff up as I went along. That's just me.

But guys. I WON.

I'm not sure when I'm going to get this post up because sadly I've been neglecting my blog lately. I didn't even try to get those other two NaNo updates up because I was too immersed in ACTUAL NaNo. But hopefully now I'll get back in full swing because I have some exciting posts coming up (At least they're exciting for me. xD)

Well, I'm going to bring this post to an end because I really do need to go to bed. I just wanted to share my fresh excitement immediately after my victory.

For all those who won NaNoWriMo: CONGRATULATIONS!!! I know how HARD it is, so you're SUPER AWESOME. And for those who participated in NaNo but maybe didn't quite reach 50k: CONGRATULATIONS!!! Because here's the thing: YOU WROTE. I know everybody's saying it, but seriously. You wrote something. You invested in your story, and you have more words than did when you started. I participated in NaNo three times without officially winning, and I still felt like it was a victory because I WROTE.

And you know what, even if you didn't participate in NaNo, congrats to all you writers!! Because writing is HARD and even if you didn't take part in the craziness that is NaNoWriMo, you deserve a medal.

Keep writing, everybody! And once again: CONGRATULATIONS!

(Also this is a really last minute thought but I just want to say that it's raining right now and raining is my FAVORITE writing weather and I love that it's raining the night I won NaNoWriMo. )