Well, it's 30 November, so many of you NaNo-ers will have already passed your 50K mark, while others of you may be facing a late night as you try to get those last words in before the end of the month. Others of you may have already realised you were not going to hit 50K and have accepted the fact.
Whichever camp you're in today, take a moment to congratulate yourself. You may or may not have "won", but whatever you managed to do, you're better off than you were on 1 November. You may have only just started your book. You may have "finished" it. You're probably still working through the last third of your story. It doesn't matter. You have words on a page, words that didn't exist 30 days ago.
That's an achievement! A huge achievement. How many people do you know who have even started writing a book, let alone finished one? Compare that with the number of people you know who have said they'd love to write a book one day and you'll realise which group is bigger.
And the best thing you've done this month is get into a writing habit. Keep it up. Don't stop writing just because November has ended. Most books are more than 50K words, so unless you've been writing at an awesome pace, you've probably got another 15-40K to write to actually hit the end. So keep going while you have the momentum behind you and writing time factored into your day/week.
Then, when you're done, put the book aside to rest and take a well-deserved break.
Leave that book alone for as long as you can - a month or more - then go back to it with fresh eyes to revise. You'll be amazed how different it looks with a little distance.
But right now, just take a moment to feel proud of what you've already achieved. It's a long journey, but you've made it through the first leg already.
X O'Abby
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