Nano Freaks
Ok, so I was feeling pretty good about my progress on my Nanowrimo novel. My word count is now 36,811, putting me two days ahead of the count for the day. Friends, that's impressive. Not to get too excited about it, because I still have a long way to go, but being ahead of the game for a change is a grand feeling.

Then, I went to the Nanowrimo website and stumbled onto the winner's page. This page lists the names of the people who have already completed their novel. Today is the first day eligible for validating the 50,000 word requirement to be considered a winner.

I expected to see a few names there. No big deal. Some people are just over-achievers, and that's totally fine. What I found, hoever, was TWO pages already full of people who had completed 50,000 words or more. And by 'or more' I saw a listing or two of over 100,000 words.

And one big freak who listed a novel at over 500,000 words. Big Nano Freak.

Can you believe that? Not only has this person ridiculously gone overboard with something likely equivilent to the length of War and Peace, it is being flaunted, finished earlier than the deadline, and just truly heartbreaking. No way that was done only since November 1.

Incidentally, I didn't start my novel until November 4. And I'm now two days ahead. And I have to finish early because I'm on vacation part of next week. That's impressive, right?

Anyway, to make myself feel better about my measly 36,000 words, I rewarded myself by ordering a Nanowrimo t-shirt to celebrate the success of my surely-to-be completed novel. Now I have to finish the novel because otherwise I will not allow myself to wear the shirt, and it will be a total waste of $14.00.

Read more of my not nearly 500,000 word novel here.

C.T.