Done! Fini!! Finito!!!

It has been a month of drive, uncertainty and pressure but above all it was good. The novel “The Forbidden” has been drafted. Indeed I agree with Chris Baty that a deadline can generate a product even if it is in its rough form. Yes, the novel is in its rough form and certainly not for anyone’s eyes. There definitely will be re-writing and re-writing but I believe the challenging part has been achieved. I have been planning to write this novel since 2007 and never got round to it. There always seemed to be more important things to do.

Last year I registered for NaNoWriMo but did not write a word. This year I decided to spread the news to help motivate me. It was a good move because I did not want to back out a second time. Although I am undergoing a postgraduate program, I did not envisage to still be on the program this year. I started the program in 2008. The past years I zeroed down to the program to finish it but it has been one challenge or another. So this year I resolved that although the postgraduate program is important, writing is also important. I decided to treat the program as a 9 to 5 work. So no school work was done at nights. Planning in that manner gave me an opportunity to write the novel at nights.

I realized I could have actually written the novel back in 2007 if I had been deliberate and scheduled a time daily for it. Perhaps it was because there was no urgency in it. Registering and committing to NaNoWriMo has indeed been helpful and also visiting the forums on NaNoWriMo site provided the motivation to achieve 50,000 words.

I have learnt some lessons which I will share in the next post. So watch this blog!