I DID IT! I DID IT! I WON NANOWRIMO!!

Do you like my happy dance??  LOL!  I have been trying to win Nanowrimo since 2004 and I finally did it!  What did I do?  Well first let me say it takes a village to write a book, my friends.  I couldn't have done it without all the people that supported me and gave me the encouragement to keep going.  Our own MMW yahoo group was an amazing source of support and strength this month and I just want to give a shout out to Esther, who secured us a chat room, Erin, for her positive attitude the whole way through, Megan for being the little engine that could even through all the stumbling blocks, Shanti, who has been my example because I watched her achieve Nano status a couple of years age, and Tiffany, who's enthusiasm for Nano kept me going. The word challenges on the group and the word wars in the chat room truly kept me going.

I also signed up for the Facebook group of Nanoers in the Phoenix  area.  I received their updates and notices of meet ups.  I only went to one write in but there I met Heather, a girl who's word count kept me challenged.  I constantly stayed up "just a bit longer" to get at least two words past her word count.  I must thank everyone who read my strange or non-existant blog posts this past month as well.  My brain was consumed and I am afraid to read my posts because I don't think they were nearly as clever as I thought they were!!  LOL!

Another contributor to my success was Dr. Wicked's Write or Die online feature.  I learned that I could write 1000 words in 30 mins!  Do you know what an amazing discovery that was?  As mothers I think you can appreciate this epiphany.  I really can write 2000 words a day in just an hour!  (Ok, they are not the most profound words by any means, but they were words!) 

The biggest contributor to my success??  That would be my wonderful husband.  He committed to make dinner for the whole month of November and that's exactly what he did.  Whenever I got stressed over the things I needed to do for the children, he stepped in.  Whenever I got stuck on my story, he gave me ideas.  (One time he even wrote a 900 word football scene for me while I slept!  Talk about a dream come true!!)  My husband has always been supportive of my writing, but this was the first time I let him truly help me.  I always felt I had to do it all myself or I was a failure.  Letting him step in strengthened our relationship and made me a better person by acknowledging that I can't do it all by myself.  I can however do it all with help!!

I must also acknowledge the hard work of my hair clippie for the whole month of November.  I gave myself permission to wear a hair clippie all month and not feel bad about it!

Now how was all this different from what I've done in previous years?  Well, actually my actions were pretty much the same, make time to write, sit down and do it.  But why did I succeed this time and not the other times?  The answer is me.  I was changed.  I will talk about those changes next week.  But for now I'm going to leave you with the final NanoToon:  I'm Still Alive!!