I just finished writing my Nanowrimo novel for the year, and I’m feeling elated. For those of you who don’t know, November is National Novel Writing Month, and every year, more and  more people sign on to try to write a 50,000 word novel in just thirty days. It is both exhilarating and aggravating. This year was the hardest time yet for me, because I spent the first 10 days this month out of town, visiting family, and only managed to write every other day or so.  Then I came home and lost a few days to oral surgery. So I had to put in a lot of days where I wrote 2000+ words, instead of the standard 1667. It doesn’t look that much different, but I found it a lot harder to do. I’m not sure it wasn’t the on-again, off-again nature of my writing this month that made this so much harder than the three other years I’ve done this.

For those who are interested, this year’s novel is a fantasy based on the tale of Rapunzel. I’ve always loved Rapunzel, even though is is one of the less popular fairy tales out there, thanks to all the darker and adult-theme details that most people don’t know about. Like: did you know the prince is blinded by briars when he falls from the tower? Or that Rapunzel bears twin babies after she’s banished to the desert? And don’t forget that she gets put in the tower at the age of 12. How would she feel getting locked up and left all alone after having been out in the world for the first 12 years of her life?

I had a lot of fun playing with the characters and the situations, but I also know that I’ve just barely scratched the surface. I hope I get to go back and work more on this some day soon. But now it’s time to get back to editing the novel I’m trying to finish…

For all the participants still writing – you’ve got about 34 hours left. You can do it! For those who’ve never tried it and are at all interested, check out the website and think about giving it a try. It’s a lot of crazy fun.