What a fricken rollercoaster ride of a writing experience. I feel like I just finished a marathon. For those of you who don’t know National Novel Writing Month is a challenge for writers to write 50,000 words in the month of November.

I just moved back to Spain, got screwed over with my apartment situation, and had to keep a healthy, creative mind to outline all October to prepare for Nanowrimo in November. Well, after preparing my outline and feeling more confident with my story, I ended up moving on November 1st, the day nanowrimo began. I obviously didn’t write on day 1. For two weeks I was settling in and doing apartment stuff while trying to write The Palms of Light, the third book in The Hoarding series, to get to those 50,000 words by the end of November. Every day I encountered something new to add drama to my life. But I kept strong and made it to the end! Now I can finally write at my own pace. At 50,000 words I’m only a third of the way done from seeing an end in sight of my story and series.

Last time I did Nanowrimo was in 2017 when I wrote The Lost Soul, book 2 of The Hoarding series. I think I’ve forgotten a bit of the writing process. It’s been 4 years after all. I forgot how much you just need to write no matter what comes out, even if you know you’ll be deleting stuff later on. But it’s so important to write until you see that end. Because once you reach the end, you can take a step back and see the base you have just created. Then you can get to work and begin shaping the story into its final product and fill in those plot holes. I forgot about this process, and I’m glad I relearned it. I also was stressed because I feel like my writing has gotten worse. Writing is a lot like learning a language and growing. You don’t notice the growth, but it’s happening. I had to take a step back and remind myself that my writing has improved tremendously from book one and book two.

It’s wild thinking this is my final Nanowrimo writing The Hoarding series. Who knows what book I’ll be writing for the next Nanowrimo!

Any stories you would like to see?