I Did It...WHAT A RUSH!!

I finished Warrant for Damnation in the 3-Day Monday night with one hour to spare.  WHOO HOO!  If I had the energy yet, it'd be time to celebrate.  I still have to mail off the manuscript, so maybe then.

I was going to write this blog post yesterday, but I was in a vegetative state.  Have to say that today is like waking up from a comma.   But other than that, as the title states, WHAT A RUSH!!

I don't think I've learned as much about my writing abilities in my career as I've learned over the three days of the contest.

All in all, it was a BLAST!  I loved the challenge and that everyone rallied around my progress.  It really helps to have family support. 

Probably the greatest lesson I learned about my writing is that I don't connect as easily to the story and characters while typing.  When progress slowed on Saturday afternoon, I decided to write long hand.  I immediately picked up speed and the story came out of me quicker.  Unfortunately it means that my hand is still a little sore.  I feel like I should have known this because I've written quite a bit of most of my novels using a hand held recorder.  It's another method that flows well for me.

What I loved the most is there's no time to let the negative thoughts take over.  I only remember twice, thinking the story was crap, but squashed the feelings in a matter of seconds.  So while The Artist's Way is helping me work through my writer's funk, the 3-Day opened the block with explosive force.

Will I do it again?  Hell yeah!!  Time permitting, next year I'll be entering again, but I won't be writing book 3 of The Courier.  I plan to write it in NaNoWriMo this November.  You read me right.  I've already collected all my ideas for #3, and I have a month and a half to outline.  Stay tuned...