It's Over. Whew!

I did it! I can't believe it! 

Here's a reminder for myself and a tip for next year's NaNoWriMo participants: If you use OpenOffice to write your manuscript, your word count will not match the validation word count. My word count had a difference of almost 4,000 words!

So what did I win?

1. An AWESOME sense of accomplishment. 2013 was far from productive in the writing sense. I wrote more words in November than I had in the whole year. By finishing NaNoWriMo, I proved to myself that writing 2,000, or even 5,000, words in one night is possible when you enjoy your story.

2. An AWESOME 'Winner' t-shirt. Well, okay, I didn't actually win the shirt, but it only cost me $16.67 (hehe--get it? That's the number of words per day needed to win NaNoWriMo.) I will wear it proudly.

3. An AWESOME first draft to work with after New Year's Eve. I'm actually looking forward to the editing process on this novel. I may change my views on that after the third round of revisions, but for now, I'm excited.

and last but not least...

4. An AWESOME certificate. I wonder if the certificate will help when I start looking for an agent. Probably not, but it's okay--I love it!

Right now you're thinking: That's a whole lot of AWESOME for one little blog post. Yes. Yes, it is.

Thank you to all of you for your support and encouragement.