Winner

Done.
With one day to spare.
I am now an official National Novel Writing Month winner having completed 50,000 odd words in 30 - make that 29 - days.
And yes, they are sequential, and no, it's not just the one word repeated all over, a la Rimmer's exam failure on the British comedy Red Dwarf.
There were a couple of days in the middle of the month when I wasn't quite sure I'd make it, but overall I was fairly confident.
What I've got at present is not a novel, it's what I would call the rough bones of a novel, (with a lot of dead flesh hanging off them, to be completely honest) but it's got a lot of meat to work with. And now to move on from the gross imagery of decaying corpses.
May I say again, done. Dusted.
And I am so excited about actually being able to edit the thing now. It's been like being unable to pluck my eyebrows for a month not being able to cut the random words/pages/chapters that just don't work. Festy. Now to read through, spell check, beat into shape. Funness.


Things I have learnt:

*it appears having a little counter telling me how much I've written in the last day and how much I need to write in the next few days to reach my target is actually quite helpful.
*It's a nice feeling to be part of a great body of writers, all scribbling down stories, creating worlds.
*If you set your mind to it, you really can achieve a lot.
*If you take your computer to a cafe and work sans internet it is perfectly possible to finish 6,000 words in a morning. Cafe Love. Mmmmm.
*NANOWRIMO gives you a nifty little certificate when you reach your 50,000 words in the alotted time. Oooh. Goodies.
*My ideas about my own productivity are being... thought over. I don't intend to write 50,000 words every month (at least, not till the kids start school) but a thousand words a day really seems quite do-able.
*A little accountability and competition... are not such bad things.

In conclusion I would like to thank: My Beloved, the kid's childcare and Cafe Crema and the great team at NaNoWriMo. These word's would not have been written without your help.
So. When's the next Novel Writing Month? And who's with me for the next one?

Do you like to set yourself goals? Targets? Give yourself big rewards when you reach them?