Well, I’ve done it.  I’ve collected 30 NaNos (1 NaNo=1,667 words) to make one NaNoWriMo (50,000 words).  In fact, it’s a little more than that, and I’ll probably add more to the final word count tonight and tomorrow.  But for all intents and purposes, I have crossed the finish line.  (I’ll post the final stats tomorrow around midnight.)

I had really hoped to finish up while we were on our recent road trip to Scottsdale, but events conspired against me.  (Though I did get darned close!)  So I really finished up at lunchtime yesterday.

Which is not to say that the story is anywhere near being finished.  (So what else is new?)  Though I did have a flash of inspiration that let me condense a good half-dozen (not-yet-written) scenes out of the story yesterday.  So I am perhaps a quarter of the way through the story.

I know that a lot of what I’ve written so far this year desperately needs editing, more so than in other years, I think.  Not sure why, except that I’m having a harder time than usual seeing the plot and themes in this one.  I know the basics; but looking back on the first two volumes, they seem a lot “denser” to me, somehow.  It’s probably just because both have had at least a little editing, so they seem more polished to me.

And, of course, my style during NaNoWriMo does tend to ramble on a bit.  This week, I am also editing the first chapters of Book 2, so I can submit them to my critique group, and it rambled, too.  I’ve already cut out a good thousand words of excess wordiness, and that was from chapters that originally came out reasonably tight and polished.  I can’t wait until I get to the next bit, which includes the infamous 5,000-word description of an airship!

So my plan is to submit this year’s manuscript for verification sometime tonight, just to make sure I get it done.  I’d hate to wait until tomorrow and have the website crash or something like that.  And then I can collect my winner’s badge and certificate, to add to my collection.

Any other NaNo’ers out there?  How’d it go?