And There was Great Joy and Rejoicing (and a lot of sleep)

Yup! That's right! I did it! All the way, right until the last day, but well before midnight :D

I have a grand total of

51,356

words and a full rough draft. Of course there are GAPING plot holes and a number of things that have to change completely because I discovered things (like the fairy godmother's role) as I went along.

But I have a story arc and I discovered SO many things about this story that wouldn't have happened the same way if I hadn't had to just push through and keep writing. A lot of good things.

You bloggy and Twitter people are totally what kept me going.

A random conversation on Twitter led me to a MAJOR plot change, that turned into the catalyst for the climax of the story. Gnomes FTW!

I would like to give a giant thanks to Lindsey aka Dangerous with a Pen and Darby Karchut for being what felt like my own personal cheerleaders. You two commented on pretty much every random post I threw up over this crazy month and I do believe that it is time to reveal the NaNo cheerleader costume, Lindsey *wink wink* Thank you so much for believing that I could do it!

That goes for all of you *group hug!*

I also started playing with Wordle. Mostly now as a treat to myself for having finished. Here are some of my favorites to share with you.

 Um, yes, my main characters are Layla, Tavares and Erandell. How did you guess?

 I like how this one kind of looks like a tree!

And that's a wrap! Now I put my novel aside for a few weeks so I can do real life stuff and survive the end of the semester. At least, that's the plan. I have a feeling it's going to keep whispering at me until I play with it :D

Congrats to all of you that finished! And to all of you that attempted! I didn't even come close last year, but I felt so proud of the work I did, knowing it was more than I would have written without NaNo!
See you in December!