By the publication of this article, the end of the first week of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) will be arriving. I first discovered its existence a few years ago, intrigued by the idea that anyone, let alone the hundreds if not thousands that participate, could, in fact, complete anything that large so quickly.

Up until a week ago.

See, back in 2014, towards the end of November, I wanted to compete, but college courses were thick at the start of that month. But I did resolve to have my own personal challenge, and began on November 25th, resolving to have it done by Christmas, if not sooner. Before that time, the fastest story I had ever produced (Pirates of Salari, now published and available on Kindle) took two months and a week, roughly 30,000 words. This time, the objective was 60% larger in less than half the time.

And need I mention that the 2014 project, unlike any of the previous nine books I'd completed, had only a simple premise with only a couple of concepts I wanted included?

I like knowing what to do for any given task. But the 2014 project, named Shadow's Light, I decided to just plow into it without any of the traditional mulling. And I crossed the 50,000 word threshold and reached "The End" with two days to spare. And all this in the midst of a daily 15 minute word-carving project I'd set myself up with (to ease my mind of some of the classes), and finals swarming me like Kroll's fleet in Star Trek Beyond. But it happened. And as a result of the mental strain, it was more than a year before I began any new writing projects. And until recently, I thought I was very accomplished.

On October 23 last month, my parents and I departed for a week-long trip to Oceanside, CA. A new idea had surfaced, one I wondered if would ever be much of a story. Since I had brought my laptop to work on editing for one of my completed novels that was in the Beta Reading phase, I decided to put that on hold a little bit to see what would happen with this new idea. I went for as long as I had battery power, then did more at the hotel before bed. Charging the battery overnight and continuing off that power, until we arrived at our cottage, I pounded away. In between meals and time on the beach, I focused on writing, with zero internet access and no TV distractions. By the time we traveled home, arriving about a week after we departed, I was 90% of the way through, and spent two more days before the book was completed. Since then, I have done rigorous editing to ensure continuity, and also spent time drawing images to ready it for immediate publication.

My purpose is not to discourage anyone participating in NaNoWriMo. Instead, I wish to encourage those that have begun. My book only took nine days. But that factors in a number of blatant typos that I corrected as I went (though I did miss a few), not to mention that I am a slow typer, had moments of battery failure, had to stop to think of new names, and had I went ahead and published, the story would have reflected a glaring revelation of insufficient research. Bear in mind, no story is ever perfect as soon as the author types "The End". Just get your story out, and then edit it. If you really feel it, you can surpass the deadline before December.

Hope you enjoyed!