I did this funny thing with words recently...

On November 1st, I attempted to do something I have never done before. I set out to write a novel, consisting of at least 50,000 words and 100 pages. And I only had one month to do it.

I started out and felt good about it. I had an idea, I had characters. I had iTunes and Starbuck's. I had ambition.

And then I had writer's block. And I had stomach aches, colds, bad moods, lack of motivation.

I loved what I had written. And then I hated it. I kicked and screamed and forced words onto my computer. I was tempted to put characters into comas in which they just said random words for 50 pages.

Characters developed. I loved some, hated others. I smiled, I yelled, I got frustrated. I laughed and I cried. Oh did I cry.

I spent a lot of time on MSN and AIM, complaining about writer's block, complaining about having to write but not actually doing it.

I even got into an argument with Dr. McCoy. YES. THAT Dr. McCoy.

I watched my word count grow and became hopeful. Things began to flow together. I could see the finish line.

Now, 3,300 zombies, 25 days, 53,635 words, 107 pages, 5 deaths, 2 broken hearts, and countless tears later, I'm finished.

It was quite the trying experience. More times than I can count, I questioned why I had even tried this. But I'm glad I did... and I'm glad I finished. I can honestly say I'm an author. I'm no published, but I wrote something from an original idea, beginning to end, and - while I hate some of it - I genuinely like how the story unfolded.

And I finished. I can actually say I started it and I FINISHED, no matter how many times I wanted to quit. It really is quite a feeling... I mean, I feel like I've done something great, even though all I did was write a bunch of crap on a page.

But I wrote a book. It's one more thing to scratch off the list of things to do. I wrote a book and I actually put myself into it, put effort into it.

There was a small satisfaction in watching my nano bar turn purple, watching my blog bar turn green.

All in all, it was an interesting experience.

Thank you so much to everyone who has helped me through this!

WOOOOOOOOOO! NANO IS OVER!

*has a party*

Now if you'll excuse me, some nice guy in a pizza hut hat brought pizzas to our door. I suddenly realized that I haven't eaten in 25 days. I honestly have no idea how Stephen King does it.