Conquer NaNoWriMo – It’s over. And now?

Exhausted Author

Exhausted Author

Today is the last day of this year’s NaNoWriMo.

Maybe you’re making a huge push to win today, like I’m doing.

Maybe you already know you won’t make the 50,000 words.

And yes, it does matter in a way, and it doesn’t matter in another.

Why it matters that you win NaNo

Writing those 50k words wasn’t easy. You probably had to push yourself, you had to make yourself write even if you didn’t feel like it, and it probably was a struggle to find enough stuff to even put into the story.

You worked harder than in every other month of this years. And you stuck to your committment. You did this, and you should be proud of it.

What’s even more important – you proved to yourself that you can do that. That you can write every day, that you can create a story, and that you can finish a huge task by tackling a bit of it every day.

Well done!

Why it doesn’t matter that you win NaNo

Even if you didn’t make it all the way to those 50,000 words, even if life intervened and broke your writing back  – chances are, you still wrote more this month than before.

You tackled a lofty goal: To write a novel.

Granted, you didn’t quite get where you wanted, but you still have more than you did before. You have a half-finished novel on your hard drive. You have a project you can still finish, polish and publish. Just not this November.

In my eyes, that still makes you a winner on some level. Well done!

What’s next?

First of all, at the end of this day, you should celebrate.

Now matter how far you got, celebrate what you have, and if you won – celebrate that win! Celebrate hard! Celebrate loudly. Everywhere!

Plaster that sticker on FB, on your blog, and print out that certificate. Make it real.

Do a happy dance. Hug your family. High-five your friends. You did something awesome!

Take a day off!

And then?

This is the biggest question, and it’s a really good one.

You see, you created not just a novel this month. You created a habit or three. You wrote every day. You kept track of your word count. You kept thinking about your story and your characters. You kept developing your story, your characters and your world.

And it was intense, and now you’re exhausted.

But hang on to those habits.

Scale down the work a little. Go for 500 or 1,000 words per day, instead of the 2k that were hard to put down. But keep writing every single day. Even if it’s just a little.

And definitely keep track of your word count. Watch your story grow, and keep an eye on your achievement.

And most of all, finish your story.

I’m betting that your story isn’t done. Mine certainly will be longer, probably another 20-30k. Most novels are, unless you’re writing YA.

Honor your story. Honor what you created.

Finish it. Edit it. Publish it.

And then start the next one.

Because you’re a writer now – if you so choose.

This is the ultimate win of NaNoWriMo.

You probably can’t see it because of the exhaustion. Because right now, all you want to do is forget about the story and play with your cat or dog, and dive into Christmas. You want to forget about that writing crunch every evening. And I totally get that. But it would make me a little sad.

Because if you hang on to a little bit of NaNo, chances are you’ll write more, get better and create more stories. Give yourself that chance.

You can be a true writer.

Here’s the tapping to help you do that.

Tapping phrases

Even though I’m so exhausted after writing my heart out for a month and pushing word count every evening, I’m totally okay the way I am, and I’m open to the idea of writing a little every day to stay in the habit.

Even though I just want to forget about that story, it was sooo hard to create, and it’s not good at all, I’m totally okay the way I am, and I now choose to keep working on the story and make it good.

Even though NaNo was incredibly hard, and I can’t sustain that effort for now, I’m still totally okay the way I am, and I now choose to be a writer and keep my writing habits at a pace that I can sustain.

Asking you:
Did you win NaNoWriMo?
What kind of story did you write?
What happened while you were tapping?
And finally – will you keep writing?
Please share in a comment.

Image Source: F. Moebius

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About fmoebius

I'm a writer and coach. I love helping writers be more creative, more productive and more profitable. With EFT, life gets easier. Blocks can fall away. Limiting beliefs just shift. You can build your dream life. Let me help you do this.
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