NaNo is over...

Hey guys,
As you may have noticed, November is over. And, by looking at the widget above, you may have noticed that I didn't finish my novel in the month of November. After starting out with so much enthusiasm for my project, my attitude that writing 1667 words a day wouldn't be that hard, I didn't reach my goal.
Last night as I was going to bed knowing that I would wake up in the morning and my word count would be set, I was thinking about my month. About whether or not I had failed. I kept asking myself the same question. Are you disappointed in yourself?
My answer every time was, No.
I may not have made it to fifty thousand words but in the month of November, I accomplished so much more. I visited a foreign country, got awesome grades, made a friendship that I hope will last a lifetime, figured out how to do my hair so it doesn't look like a bomb went off in the morning, got along with someone who I never thought I could ever get along with and had an amazing Thanksgiving with my family. I grew as a person this November. And, even though I didn't finish, I grew as a writer. I found out what I was capable of.
I realized that I can do anything I want to if I set my mind to it.
And I am proud of every single one of my 37,451 words. I fell in love with my characters and found out how hard and rewarding writing is. How incredibly personal it is. How much of yourself you give away when you write and when you read, how much you find out about the person who put the pen to paper. It made reading a personal thing for me. I found out more about myself and how I've changed throughout my life in this one month that I think I have in my entire life.
So am I disappointed that I didn't finish my NaNoWriMo?
Absolutely not.
I know that I will finish my novel. I also know that the most likely situation is that no one but myself and a few friends will end up reading it.
I know it was worth writing it anyways.
More to come,
OfficiallyMRS

NaNoWriMo

So as many of you may know due to the shiny badge of the left hand side of your screen (go look! Do it now!!), I am an official NaNoWriMo participant. Many people do not know what this is, including most of my teachers, my parents, even some avid readers and YA Lit bloggers I have run across. So let me explain:

The Short Version: National Novel Writing Month is a suicidal mission where people from all over the world attempt to write 50,000 words of a novel (defined as a lengthy work of fiction) in the month of November.

If you want to read the long version, click here.

Tonight at midnight I will be embarking on a journey that poses threats of carpal tunnel, lack of sleep, and rodents of unusual size. Actually, I don't know how the R.O.U.S.s fit into this, but it seemed appropriate.*

I am writing a novel called IN THE LAND OF THE BUTTERFLIES (ILB), but I am keeping that as a working title. I have also considered THE SPELLING GAMES, but I chose ILB because it doesn't remind me of The Hunger Games by Susan Collins, of which this book has absolutely no likeness to. What do you guys think?

This is the basic pitch, although new elements are always being added: theatre, parties, characters, ect. It is the wonderful part of writing- you can play God.

As the oldest daughter of the king and queen of the light court and rulers of Devas, Isabella and Kiran De Rege, Melkenza De Rege is expected to be the pinnacle of perfection. And now the perfect daughter must marry to save the crown and stop the dark court from taking power.But Kenza is fed up with everyone expecting her to be something she's not, and she abandons her family, her sister, Odessa, and friends as well as the only life she has ever known, and flees to the biggest city in Devas: Toria.

There, Kenza meets Segori and Felix, two siblings living with their aunt Liesel. She begins to love Segori as a sister and Felix as… well something more... And she lives a completely different life, spunky attitude and love for rebellion included. She feels like she can finally be herself - or herself except that part of her that's a princess expected to one day take over the magical kingdom of Devas. But between school, freedom, friends, Kenza faces a deadly struggle. She must find out what the dark court is planning before her sister will be forced to meet the same fate Kenza has run from- to marry someone she does not love.

Soon, things start to get weird in Devas. Odessa is having terrifying nightmares, Segori is disappearing at regular intervals, and people all over the country are vanishing without a trace. And when Kenza's secret is revealed, she must deal with the consequences and dangers of two lives and find her way home to save herself, her family, and her country.
Full of awkward teenage moments, wit, sarcasm, and a deeply sinister plot, IN THE LAND OF THE BUTTERFLIES is a story of magic that follows Kenza and those around her in her struggle to save her kingdom and find balance between being the princess she is expected to be and a girl true to herself and her heart.

Am I nervous to start my first novel? Absolutely. I have no idea what the helk I am doing!!! But I know I love to write, I love to read and I have a fun story to work with that I am crazy excited to start writing.

Plus, I have a lot of friends to cheer me on!! My friend Meg is also doing NaNo with me!!! And I have met some really cool people online who are going to bug me to finish this novel while I bug them to finish theirs.

The challenges that this month will bring: keeping up with school and getting my word count to 50,000 even though I will be in England for a week (so excited!). November is going to be my month of insanity, adventure and possible caffeine addiction.

(shown above is my friend Victoria, whose book, NEAR WITCH, comes out in 2011 from Disney Hyperion!!! So excited!!! She is a fellow NaNo participant, cupcake lover, twitter fiend and my official cheerleader for the month of November. You can read my interview with her here.)

What does this mean for the blog? It probably means that I am going to neglect you. I barely have had any time to read and post reviews with school alone. My writing time means that the little reading time I had left is going out the window. Not to worry though. This problem struck me the moment that I signed up for NaNo. Therefore, I have lined up some really cool people to do guest posts on this blog during the month of November. Writer-y people I mean. Like the cupcake (my friend Victoria) pictured above. And the awesome Melissa Walker. Excited? So am I. If you are a writer or

NaNo-er interested in doing a guest post in November, shoot me an email at officiallymrs(at)gmail(dot)com!

I am going to try to get a widget up with my word count on it for you guys to follow my progress and may even post an excerpt or two every now and again!!! If I can't get a widget up, you can follow my progress here. And of course, I will still be on Twitter, so you can follow me there too!!! If you are a NaNo-er, please buddy me!! My screenname is OfficiallyMRS!
More to come,

OfficiallyMRS

*R.O.U.S. refers to The Princess Bride. If you haven't seen it, go do it, NOW, as I am pretty sure there are going to be some more references to it in the near future. *cough- Victoria*