Whew!

It has been a crazy few weeks. I know I always say that, but this time, I swear, it's true!

Halfway through November I decided to man up (chick up? woman up?) and write for NaNoWriMo. Have you heard of NaNoWriMo? It's National Novel Writing Month, and basically for the entire month of November, you try to crankout 50,000 words. I'm a writer, and I have never actually completed a NaNoWriMo before! I've definitely written that amount before. My first manuscript (hidden safely in a drawer) took 16 days and clocked in at 93,591 words. The latest manuscript I spent two and a half years on, and there were between 15-27 drafts, and I reckon I topped a million words trying to get that thing perfect. (It's settled at 89,551 words.) So I knew it was possible. I am a quick writer, a great first-drafter. I love new characters. I adore plotting as I go.It was frankly just embarrassing that I had never "won" a NaNo!

When I say I'm a writer first, I really mean it. I was asked earlier this year if I was interested in teaching some quilting classes. I thought about it, and I concluded that, as much as I love sewing (and textiles, and pattern-making, and everything that goes with it), I can't turn all my focus to just one thing. I also am conscious that I spread myself quite thin at times, and, perhaps because it's so portable, writing is the first thing to get omitted from my docket if there are other things on.

Not writing hurts me. And never having finished a NaNoWriMo was bothering me, too. I had given up on my first attempt at a manuscript this November because it sucked. I just wasn't feeling it. I had the kernel of the idea, but the characters weren't playing to that. I had to ditch it, and start entirely from scratch. So, eight thousand words are just sitting there, gelling in my slush pile. And that is fine.

I went back. High school. Two characters. I gave them names first, and everything else followed.

I got to 56,000 words in 5 days. I am pretty sure that's a record for me, and for the first time in a long time, I am returning to my writing "home": Young Adult. I like YA almost exclusively, to read and to write. I believe that coming of age is the most interesting part of our young lives. Everything is magnified when you're a teenager or in your early twenties. Life throws curveballs and your reactions to those curveballs can come to define you. It's a crazy time and I love to read about it, and write about it.

I don't think my manuscript is super great. (I already rewrote a rough chunk, about 18,000 words.) I like it, though, because there is real growth in all the characters. They try and fail and flop and change. And they survive. So I'm feeling pretty great!

But I promise, it does explain why I've been so busy lately! Hopefully the writing portion of the craziness a subsided. I kind of wish I'd taken longer on my manuscript, because I liked writing it so much...but on the other hand, I am facing a squillion rewrites, so I'm sure I'll be able to spend lots more time with my characters. Until them, a bit more sewing, a lot less TV parenting (I love ABC kids, and I hate myself letting Piper watch TV at all), and back to my regularly scheduled life.

It feels good to have finally won NaNoWriMo!