It’s done. After a month of writing 1,667 words almost every day (with a few days hitting 3,000 to 4,000 to make up for traveling, family engagements, and the occasional bout of exhaustion), I completed my novel.

It’s 53,379 words, which is slightly over the 50,000-word goal set by the National Novel Writing Month organizers. It’s only a rough draft of course, and I’ll estimate it needs another 20,000 words or so to be complete, based on what others tell me, and on what I personally think needs to be added to round the book out properly.

November is coming. And that means so is National Novel Writing Month. In years past, I've watched and read as my friends fought their way through it, some succeeding, some failing, all glorious in the pursuit. I've sat, thought, considered and ultimately come up with one excuse or another not to do it. There's always next year, I told myself, I don't have time for it now.

Now it's next year. And I'm going to do this.