I Didn't Win...But I Brought Home the Silver!!!

All the way to the finish line, I thought for sure I had this in the bag. When Michael crossed the finish line at 6:43pm with 21,068 words after only 8 days, I was shocked and not because it had only been 8 days but because I was certain I was going to cross first. After all, I got up before 6am this morning and pounded out 400 words before I got the kids up for school. After I tested out all the haunted house equipment, installed batteries and made dummies, I jumped right back on and pounded out more than 1,000 words. Then after Karate for the boys, I was at it again until my husband finally tore me away for dinner at 6pm. He can take me away from my laptop but he can't force me to leave my notepad and pencil behind. I shoveled down food at my sister's house and then grabbed my notepad and started writing feverishly. I left my sister's house and got back home right in time to see Michael cross the finish line. At 6:43pm I was only 1,507 words away from the finish. I finally crossed the finish line with 21,283 words at 9:46pm.

What a fun event. I'm so thankful to erica and christy for hosting such a fun event and for Michael for being such a fierce competitor. He made it all that more fun.

The last 8 days of pounding out words have not been easy mentally nor physically. Aside from the fact that my candy bucket is nearly empty now (aside from the lollipops) I also have a cramp in my right hand, and a twitch in my left bicep. The cramping and twitching really set in yesterday after breakfast. I'm suffering from so much fatigue in the arms that I've got a mark from where my arms have been resting on the edge of my keyboard instead of in the proper position. Other things I noticed included getting overly anxious to the point of frustration because I didn't want to drop any of the story forming in my head. James would try to talk to me and I would snap because I was mid-thought. By last night, I was so sure I had this thing beat and could finish today that my heart was racing and I started to feel like I was on a 5-hour energy drink like the ones you get at the gas station. At one point, last night, I couldn't stop rubbing my hands over my face and hair. James literally stopped me and asked me if I thought I was going to be all right.

I'm looking forward to a 10-day break from writing before NaNo begins.

In the end, I won a fancy silver medal for my blog and a T-shirt.

This just went to show me that there are people out there much faster at creating story than me and I'm about to encounter some of them during NaNo.

Stay tuned for my next post about my upcoming 16-hour NaNo writing event on November 6th, hosted by my husband for me and my NaNo writing group. 
Until then, I will be trying to go to sleep so I can get up bright and early tomorrow to start building the haunted house for Saturday night's event.  Pictures and posting to follow.