Yes! I won NaNoWriMo 2012. I wrote over 52000 words in November.

I crossed the line on Wednesday November 28.

I didn’t have the same exhilaration as I did last year. I did not cry with relief. What happened was I crossed the line and could not stop writing. I kept writing. I kept going and going for another 2000 words, eating jelly beans all the while.

The thing is, I am nowhere near finished. There is still so much to write. The great thing about this year’s NaNo is that it has got me into a good habit of writing every day. I have really been enjoying writing every day. I have learned to just write with complete abandon, aiming to go back later to check it and edit. It has actually made writing much more fun.

Very slowly I am learning the art of not aiming for perfection!

This year’s NaNo also showed me how much I love my blog. I have really adored writing blog posts during NaNo because it is a different genre of writing. It is very easy for me to write blog posts because I am so familiar with the topics because they are all about our life here.

Something else I found out, the hard way, is that writing with complete abandon whilst eating jelly beans with complete abandon is not so great for my waistline. I will have to create for myself a good routine of exercise and writing – and less jelly beans!

I don’t know if I will participate in next year’s contest. November is a difficult time to strap yourself to a chair and write for hours a day, especially when there is a garden to grow, children to raise, animals to feed and dinner to be made. I have lots of plans for sewing projects that need to be done before Christmas and I don’t think I will get everything made in time. Plus, I had reports to write and lessons to plan. It has been a very very very busy month!

I am glad I achieved my goal though. Really glad. I am glad I created a story that I like and I feel motivated to continue with it, even though it will be a long process.

And the other great thing about the NaNo process for me this year is that I got into writing poetry again. I would write poems as a writing warm up activity and it felt good to lay myself on the line like that.

It was good to give myself some ‘me’ time to do something that I have always loved, but have put aside in order to be a working mum and a farmer and gardener and house builder and homemaker. I feel like I can say I am a writer now. It feels good to be able to say that because it has been my goal since I was a young girl, who would sit at her desk whenever she could and write and write and write. What happened to that girl? I think she is doing everything she ever dreamed of.