It ended up being just over 53,000 words, once I ran the NaNoWriMo word count verification widget: about 43,000 typed, plus another 10,000 handwritten. That was quite an adventure, and fittingly, I closed out the month by handwriting my final 1,000 words. While the book is far from finished (as in, not even halfway there), this was a great way to get started, and I'd definitely consider participating again next year. Now, to get back to some pen-and-ink blogging, here's a shot of my last set of tools.
Staples sugarcane paper composition book and a Franklin-Christoph Pocket 66 eyedroppered with Iroshizuku Tsuki-Yo.
I really enjoyed taking a break from the blog to write some fiction, but now I'll probably take a short break from further work on the book to let the ideas percolate for a while and get caught up on other projects. This was definitely one of the harder things I've ever done, in terms of daily commitment and discipline. I'm not sure 1500-2000 words of anything on a daily basis is sustainable for me, especially if I want to maintain the standard of quality I shoot for in my writing. While NaNoWriMo is a great vehicle for getting as much down on paper as you possibly can, I often felt that I was pushing quantity over quality, and that I had to keep going past the point where "the well was dry" for the day.
Anyway, thanks to all of you who reached out with words of encouragement. It made a real difference. I thought about hanging up on this challenge at least twice, but always managed to wake up the next day and get back on the horse.
Happy writing, and to those of you still finishing up NaNoWriMo today, write on!