Melty Brains

No, this is not a zombie post. Although I feel like a zombie right now.

A good kind of zombie (if there is such a thing).

   

This has been a big month for me. First I had the honor of winning the "first line" contest at the WriMosFTW! website, and THEN - on Saturday night - I won NaNoWriMo four days ahead of schedule, with a grand total of 51,044 words.

I am SO very pleased...and exhausted. Hence the melty brains reference.

Of course, my NaNo draft is nowhere near finished, let alone in a condition for anyone else to look at. I employed several messy techniques to allow me to stifle my inner editor and push through, so I could get the greatest amount of narrative down during the time allotted to me. Those messy techniques included (but were not limited to):

     * Highlighting "fluff" passages to delete (or heavily edit) later in olive green

     * Highlighting substance that ought to stay, but needs serious reworking, in violent yellow

     * Line breaks between scenes that I wanted to write, but whose transitions just eluded me

All of this will probably be expanded into later blog posts of some sort, but for the moment it's sufficient to say that I am thrilled to be across the 50K finish line, and deeply thankful for all the wonderful writers who encouraged me and entered word wars wtih me, and so helped me win my NaNoWriMo certificate.

Below are the main cohorts who helped me cross that finish line. I've listed their Twitter names so you can find them there. Where possible, I've included links to their blogs. This is my online writing community, and they are all AWESOME.

@emholbert4                           @JamieOehring                         @JennyAdams
@ashviper                                @LillieMcFerrin                      @Redhed_Stepkid
@Love_Kenzie_                       @9inchsnails                            @placesense
@annaavenhoward                 @surlymuse                              @write_me_happy
@jbirchwriter                          @beccajcampbell                      @BettisiTheThird
@wrimosftw                            @LynMidnight                          @jennifergracen
@Jon_Stoffel                          @JasonRunnels                         @raineerose
@writenowcoach                     @MarkLanden                           @saraleggz
@AdrienneDorais                   @SpartaGus                               @zencherry
@lindseyEarcher                     @courtcan                                  @ColleenWrites2
@BerryKitsune                       @WordyWags                            @notashamed87

Thanks to everyone who helped spur me across the NaNoWriMo finish line! 

I hope all of you were equally successful in your writing projects, 

and I hope to see all your hard-won tales in print very soon!