NaNo 2013 to a close

I set out to give myself a harder goal this year and I'm happy to say that I whipped myself into pretty good shape; I managed to finish my 50,000 words of NaNoWriMo in 22 days instead of the usual 30. 

It's been a manic month so far and I've pushed over 100km of survey in the field (trekking through the bush), completed over 50k words for the writing competition, read 6 books (so far with a week still left) and that's before we even get Into social territory. It's been a fun but manic month of seeing everyone I know, getting over an old infatuation and meeting some new friends who mean something special to me. 

So I rewarded myself with a mini holiday To spend time with my family in my second home (London is third) in Tazzie. And so here I am now with a week to just relax and enjoy the fact that I don't have to do much. Also it's much much cooler here and a little rainy which is a welcome reprieve from the hotter than hell temperatures of Perth and the pilbara! 

It's the perfect temperature to enjoy my homeland and do a little light reading before Christmas explodes onto the world. 

Hitting back to NaNo, the true achievement of the whole thing was being flush behind from Tuesday when I spent all of Wednesday waiting around ( in a massive waste of my time, by the way, although I did get to go shopping with my wonderful Rick), and pumping out a crazy 9,000 words in 2 days. I don't know how I did it - although it was surprisingly easy - and I finished with an hour to shower, get dressed (towel novelling win!) and hitch a ride to the arport. It was crazy and I love every second of it; In all arrogance I haven't been this proud of myself since I finished honours without blowing my brains out. 

But even despite the amount of sugar free (I like the taste better) energy drinks and coffee I've downed this month and the lack of sleep that had me narcoleptic on the plane, the long nights after a taxing day in the field at my computer, and the fact that the story is not actually finished I still think I need to up the challenge next year. I'll see how it goes, but maybe I can make it 15-20 days instead of 22 next NaNo. I'll think about it more. 

50k later and Somewhere Down the Rabbit Hole is still far from finished, but that doesn't mean it won't be eventually. The story has expanded so much and become much bigger than I ever intended it to that there's no way I could let it go unfinished. I have many more scenes to write and back stories to build, a revolution to plan and a selection of characters to assassinate, there's no telling what else I'll stumble across. 

I didn't bring my computer along on my trip or I'd post a teaser of one of the fun scenes written over the 9k mania, and I will when I'm home again, but for now I'll leave you with a kiss.

A bright-red lipstick kiss like the one I gave Tinkerbell. 

Note to everyone: do not give me a bottle of butterscotch and a tube of ruby red lipstick. It will get messy. 

Sam xox