NaNo-ing

I broke the 50,000 word ceiling yesterday on my NaNo book.  Whoo-hoo!  I was thrilled to see that there was a nicely large slice of my writing buddies that had beaten me there.  It reminded me of the friendly competition that my writer's group had when we were going full throttle, four or five of us driven to get that golden ring of publication–and all of us having the talent to reach it.  It was an amazing circle led by a gifted writer, Faith Hunter, and I bow to her generosity of spirit and willingness to help others on this road.  She will always be in my mind, the better writer, if for no reason other than that.

It never ceases to amaze me that the act of writing is so simple when you break it down, and yet publication is elusive.  It hinges on time, spousal support, luck, perseverance, luck, perseverance, and some luck.  Oh, and perseverance.  The best part, is that the more you write, the better you get at it.  You can't help but improve if you put the time in.

So I'll be putting more time in.  I've got two more months of work on this current project before I can go back and start to fix it, and already I feel refreshed.  It's different from the Hollows in pacing and structure, and I'm seeing that I need to use different techniques to maintain interest and excitement. I have to think about what I'm doing, balancing things by intent, not rote.  It feels really good.  Yep, it feels good.