With eleven hours and nine minutes to spare, I completed the first draft of my novel for National Novel Writing Month, writing the last sections while recovering from swine flu.    I have many drafts ahead of me, but for now I am just enjoying the pleasure of accomplishing the goal I set at the beginning of month, to write 50,000 words in thirty days.  I’d like to thank The Office of Letters and Light for sponsoring this wonderful project and all those who supported me on facebook as I made my slow but steady progress towards my goal.

There is only one week left in National Novel Writing Month and in spite writing almost every day while on vacation at Walt Disney World, I am still only about half-way to the 50,000 word mark.   I plan to put in some marathon sessions over Thanksgiving weekend as I am determined to finish the draft by the end of the month.    I know that this draft will need a lot of work in months to come, but I will have created the raw material from which to form the finished book.   I’m glad that I signed up for this project, and even more glad that I let people know, through emails, facebook status updates, and in this blog that I was embarking on this project.   With so many people rooting for me I can’t give up now.

I’ve had many ideas for novels over the years, but when I set down to write this one, I didn’t choose any of the ideas that have been percolating in my mind for so long.   Instead,  I found inspiration in a podcast from Garrison Keillor and it took off from there.  In one week the draft of my first novel will be done.   Then the rest of the work will begin.   As Stephen King describes it “When you write you tell yourself a story. When you rewrite you take out everything that is NOT the story.”