FINISHED!!!! As of Monday afternoon, at 143,310 words, I am officially finished with writing my NaNo 2012 novel More Purple than Amethysts. I was determined to finish this story up before New Year’s because I have so many other writing projects I want to work on during 2013. I was terrified I wasn’t going to make it though. By December, I looked at my outline and groaned at how much more of the story I had left. The incentive to finish was with me though as I thought of all the other things I wanted to work on, and I had promised I wouldn’t start a single new writing project until this story was done. Thus I pushed myself, on and on, determined I’d do this thing. Then the ending approached and it was one day last week that I was all, “O___O I can totally finish this thing before Christmas.” Challenge. Accepted. After writing so much throughout November, I was desperate for a break. I love writing but sometimes I just need a rest from it. I was really hoping I could enjoy Christmas and New Year’s without worrying about scrambling around trying to finish this monster of a novel. So with more incentive in place, I charged forward, tore my keyboard apart pounding on it mightily, forced my characters to get along so the story could end on a happy note, and “The End” came at last!! Despite hoping to finish it quickly, this story proved to be an extremely enjoyable one. I don’t recall ever having a novel go so smoothly. Usually I always come across scenes I just don’t want to write, or find myself abandoning it for a while because I’ve lost interest, but these things did not happen this time, which was a blessing, indeed, since I wanted to finish it as soon as possible. An awesome thing also happened the day I finished… My NaNo Winner’s shirt came in the mail!! I thought it was the coolest thing that my Winner’s shirt happened to come the very day I officially finished up my NaNo novel; it was like a happy little reward. Now that the novel is done, I plan on not even thinking about any writing projects until after New Year’s. I’m taking a break! But come 2013 I have many a writerly thing on the agenda that I’m quite excited about. For now, I’m trying to catch up on all the things I abandoned since NaNo and am in great anticipation for Christmas. …Can anyone believe it is next week? o.O