Yup, you read that right, I've hit my word count goal of 10k. I've never actually been a writer, so I set a more realistic goal for myself, one that gave me a chance of actually succeeding.
And there you have it, I did.
I didn't do so good on my other goal of writing at least a little bit every day. I probably hit about 2/3 to 3/4 of the days, but there were several days where my schedule just did not permit it, and at least one or two where my energy level had a thing or two to say on the matter. But there were more days where I didn't feel like it, but I did it anyway, and that's what I was going for.
I considered cut'n'pasting my manuscript into the NaNoWriMo validator 5 times to compensate for the fact that my personal goal was 1/5 that of their goal. I hit MY goal and I felt I should get something for that. But, I didn't hit THEIR goal, so I decided against it.
Now. The question becomes, what happens next? I'm only about half way through the outline I already have, which is only about half to a third done. And, the 10k words I've written now are filled with TODOs. Read: There's a crap-ton more work to do on this story if its ever to see the light of day.
NaNoWriMo was an interesting experiment. I'm glad I did it. I might even try it again next year with, say, a 20k word count goal. But a lot of other things have been put on hold for this that I really should get back to. I'm about a year late for some Between The Lines editing, I have about four new computer projects in progress that I really need to get back to, and my Seebeck Clock is collecting dust and staring me in the face every time I sit down at my desk. I'd really like to see this story finished, but it will probably have to wait a while.