The End of NaNo

NaNo was officially over yesterday. It says so on my NaNo home page which makes it official. I have mixed emotions about December starting. The 50,000 word bump to Atlantis brings it up officially to 84,000 and I'm about 2/3 to 3/4 of the way through. I think that another 20,000 is a good round number to shoot for so that I have plenty of wiggle room for the editing stage (which I'm planning on beginning around the second half of December.), which is one of my favorite parts.

So, why does NaNo ending make me sad and happy at the same time? I'm glad to get a break from the non-stop tippity-tapping of pounding away on my keyboard. I have to admit that for the rest of this week I probably won't get much writing done because I'm so spent. It feels like I'm dry for ideas. Which I know is not true. I'm sad that it's over because I don't have any "official" excuse to punch out 1,700 words each day (no certificate to print, anyway). But overall, this has been one of the best NaNo experiences I've had.

I think where I need to go next with Atlantis is figure out the order in which the ending happens. I plan on this being a stand alone book, so everything needs to be answered, and quite frankly, I'm not sure what questions I've raised in writing the past couple of months to make sure I answer them. So, I'm going to go back and skim my book thus far (red pen securely locked away tight in a far away drawer) to see what I've covered and what I need to still do. Plot holes I always fill in during the editing stage. Hopefully I will be more secure by then to know how to finish my book and have it some-what polished before February turns around.

Two months. That's it. I can do it. I think.

Number of times I used the word "official": 5 (including the one in this line). Apparently, I need to invest in a thesaurus.

--Me