I Won NaNoWriMo!!!

I did it I did it I did it I did It!!!

I wrote a novel in a month!
It's a jumble of ideas and characters! It's a big gorgeous mess of words and events!
But it's mine and I wrote it and it's alive and out there!

Now, I get to read what I wrote! Now, I get to revise and revisit. Now, I get to have people read it!!!

YAY!

The following is the message from NaNoWriMo to me:

You Won!

So it's official.

Our word-counting robots have analyzed your November novel, and they've delivered their final, binding assessment: Winner.

You did it! You did it! You did it!

This was, without a doubt, one of the hardest years on record for NaNoWriMo participants. At some point in the literary marathon, most of your fellow writers fell by the wayside. They lost their books to work, to family, to school, and to the hundreds of other distractions and interruptions that tend to shutter creative undertakings like NaNoWriMo.

But not you. Not this year.

This November, you set out with the ridiculously ambitious goal of bringing an entire world into existence in just 30 days. When the going got tough, you got writing. Now you're one of the few souls who can look back on 2007 as the year you were brave enough to enter the world's largest writing contest, and disciplined enough to emerge a winner.

We salute your imagination and perseverance. The question we ask you now is this: If you were able to write a not-horrible novel in 30 days, what else can you do? The book you wrote this month is just the beginning.

From here on out, the sky's the limit.

We wish you well on your many upcoming adventures, and hope to see you for Script Frenzy in April, and again for NaNoWriMo next November.

Before you go, though, we have some NaNoWriMo Winner gifts for you.

The first are a couple of winner's icons, meant to be posted on a website or blog.
Winner Icon Winner Icon

Please do not link directly to this image on the nanowrimo.org site. Please download copies of these images and place it on your webserver for your own use. Most web browsers have a Save Image or Save Picture feature: PC users can right-click on the image to bring up a menu, and Mac users can just hold down the mouse button over the image.


Since your achievement should be proclaimed far beyond the internet realm, we've also created a special Winners Certificate for you to print out and hang anywhere novelist groupies tend to gather. After downloading from our site and printing it out, you'll just need to grab your favorite calligraphy pen or re-run it through your printer to customize it with your name and the title of your new novel.

If you haven't made a donation to NaNoWriMo already, please visit our Donation Station and add your name to the list of wonderful folks who believe in NaNoWriMo and our Young Writers Program enough to support us. Even $10 does a world of good!

On behalf of everyone here at NaNoWriMo headquarters, I offer you my congratulations.

Warm regards,

Chris Baty
Program Director, NaNoWriMo
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YES!
Leila