For those interested in statistics I wrote:
55,460 words organised into 16 chapters and an epilogue in 29 days.
The finished product is a first draft so would need a lot of work to bring it to publishable standard but I’m delighted to have completed the task in the allotted time. It felt today when I posted my final work for verification as if I’d completed a marathon – and I’ve done that twice so I know it’s an accurate analogy. There was that same feeling of elation and exhaustion but spread over a longer time period.
My first attmept at a novel (A LIFE OF CHOICE) which has gone on for years will now get a major revamp. I’ve always thought of the adage, ‘write what you know’ but up until recently I’ve taken it too literally with that story. In my NaNoWriMo story, ‘HAWK, A HUMAN HUNTER’ I found myself easily slipping into the zone each time I worked on it. The characters became living, breathing people. Some I liked, some I despised.
Whatever happens to HAWK, the novel, this has been an invaluable experience and I’m more pleased than I can say that I attempted … and succeeded in completing the challenge. An entire, structured novel written from scratch inside a month.
It seemed only right and fitting that I used my freshly claimed certificate to adorn this post. Having read about the National Novel Writing Month Challenge over the last couple of years and decided it was beyond me, this felt like the right time to try it. The ingredients for a novel may be similar to a short story but the scale of the project is the major difference. My idea from the outset was to use a tight timeline even though it was a novel. In my opinion it would generate pace but only feedback will tell me if I was right.
To relax I’m now going to write a poem about the experience and tomorrow I’ll start a fresh short story.
tombensoncreative.com 
CONGRATULATIONS!!!
Now that I have my life back, I will sit down and read your complete novel.
Interesting thing about the characters. I also have a novel started for years that is based on autobiographical data and I have not been able to finish it.
The one I wrote for my challenge are all people I have known only from observation, and others from imagination, and I found it much easier to move them around and place them in different situations. All are very different from me…at least that is what I think. I think yours have a lot of you in the main character from what I have read.
At 9PM I was able to post mine and I also became a winner. I think it was an amazing challenge as well–something I thought I could never do, although mine needs maybe more editing than yours. Thanks for all your help!
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