That’s right, kids, only 5 keyboard pounding days left in National Novel Writing Month!

A week ago, I’d just about given up on this year. My life, as you may see from a previous post, kind of exploded for awhile, and I lost many days writing. Understandable, and failing to get to 50,000 words in 30 days is nothing to be ashamed of.

Except I’m going to win this sucker for the sixth time in a day or two. I’ve got 48,248 words in the bag as of just now, and I’ve got two writing days ’til Thanksgiving and Starbase Indy prevent me from writing any more.

As a dear friend keeps telling me, I’ve got this. Restless Spirit had 4,000 words going into November (which I am NOT counting toward the total above) and I’m going beyond 50K this month for the rough draft. After I do a first pass edit, I’ll recruit some alpha readers to check out the result. That’ll buy me time to NOT work on it for a few months, then I can revisit it with fresh eyes for a rewrite based on feedback.

This has been one of the roughest months in recent years for me even without NaNoWriMo to gobble up my time and energy. Restless Spirit was a half-assed idea to start with, but it’s really come into focus in my mind because of the pressure and constantly thinking about it all month. I’m pleased with how it’s coming out. I hope you will be too.

If you’re still cracking away at your own novel this month, I salute you. Type like the wind and remember to thank your friends and family for putting up with you all this month. In December.