I'M A WINNER!!

That's right, folks.  I'm a NaNoWriMo winner!  Quite a few times this month, I doubted that I would finish and I doubted that finishing would be worth it.  Now, from the end of the road (or, at least, the end of November) I can say that it was totally worth it.  Is my novel finished?  Of course not.  I'm about halfway through the plot, and the half I have written was written in a crazy rush based on an arbitrary deadline.  But the important thing is that I met that arbitrary deadline.  It has given me a huge rush of confidence that I can, in fact, finish this novel, and that it's worth finishing.  So, I have set a new deadline for myself.  I'll finish the novel by October 31, 2011. 

In the meantime, I should have more time for baking!  The holidays make me cookie-tastic, so I'm looking forward to many delicious posts in the upcoming weeks.

Cathartic Cooking

It turns out the main problem with working 12 hour days and trying to write a novel in a month is that I really miss cooking!  I kind of binged on vegetables and bread flour at the store tonight, then came home and cooked enough food for a small dinner party.  After making soup and a frittata, and around the time that I was shouting while banging the dough on the counter, I decided that I need to be cooking something every day.  I think that only shouting at bread dough could have made me feel better about my crappy day.

NaNoWriMo Progress

Usually, on a lovely, gray Saturday morning when I don't have anywhere to be until 1pm, I get up and make bread.  I get the coffee going and put on OPB and have myself a nice relaxing morning.  I'm usually starving by the time the bread is ready, and then I eat half the loaf, but the system works for me.  This morning, I got up and wrote 4,000 words.  I wrote them at the coffee shop down the street because I've been stressed out and I didn't feel like making my own breakfast.  I think I need to find some life balance!