This is it: the end of NaNo 2007, aka National Novel Writing Month. My status? My first attempt to write 50,000 words in a month has failed. Ouch. It hurts. BUT, I have 17,788 very good words of a story that I will continue to work on. Perhaps I’ll finish it, my very first manuscript, and when I sell it I’ll donate a portion of the proceeds to NaNoWriMo; I’m that impressed with NaNo’s influence on getting my butt in gear. I didn’t finish, but I made a great head start.

Why I love NaNo:

1) NaNo connects me to thousands of writers around the world for a month of camaraderie via write-ins, forums, and encouraging emails.

2) NaNo sends weekly pep talks from famous authors to us struggling amateurs. I really enjoy hearing about the writing process and struggle from the big guys. This year we heard from Tom Robbins, Naomi Novik, Sue Grafton, Sara Gruen, Neil Gaiman, Juliana Baggott, Deanna Raybourn, and Garth Nix.

3) NaNo gives me an all important finite deadline and goal. It pushes me to get my ideas down on paper without editing and rewriting my first chapter to death.

4) NaNo teaches kids to write. This year the NaNo Young Writers Program supported 325 classrooms, helping 18,000 children and teens bash out their first books and realize their mighty creative potential. (Yeah, NaNo helped more kids than I wrote words!) To support this I donated 50 bucks to NaNo, even before my publishing debut.

I can’t wait till next year.