So, what have I gleaned from this month? First, I missed writing. I hadn’t done anything for a while before NaNo. I finished a second draft early in the year, and since then it was just plotting. Well, some minor writing, but not much. It was fun to dive into a story again and see where it would take me.

The other main thing that I learned is that I just need to write. It’s amazing to see how quickly words add up. Heck, in just one day, you can go from being behind to being more than caught up.

The last that I’ll mention. Just write. NaNoWriMo isn’t about quality, it’s about quantity. It doesn’t matter that those 1,000 words you wrote are worthless. It matters that you wrote them. November is for creating, not editing to make it publishable. That’s what editing and rewrites are for. NaNo is about the first draft.

Ok, I lied. One more: Let the story flow. You might know where the story should go, but sometimes the most interesting and unexpected things happen when you just let your fingers fly across the keyboard and be a conduit for your creativity, instead of thinking about what you’re writing. I know that makes no sense to a lot of people, in the same way that the story and characters are alive and will do their own thing sometimes. But, when you understand the concept, it will make sense and fun things will happen in your story.

So, what am I going to do post-NaNo? I’ve got a few things that I’m working on now. I have an online character sheet for the Destiny Quest gamebook. I haven’t worked on it for a while, and I’m getting back to it. It’s quite an undertaking and will take a while. But it is a lot of fun.

I also have a Vote Your Own Adventure idea that I want to work on. I’ve got a bit written for that, but it will take more time.

My last project is why this site was created, a serial story. It’s in the plotting stages of the next rewrite.

So, at some point, I’ll find time to do all of this. And finish my NaNo novel. After all, I’m only half way done.