Late last night I surpassed the 50,000 word mark for the 9th of the 12 times I participated in NaNoWriMo.

Oh I’m not done…yet.

When I get home after having my burger and two Old Fashioned’s at the Timber Grille, I’ll finish my novel tonight. If not tonight it will definitely be done by tomorrow after I get home from work. At that point I’ll have the word count validated and collect my Winner’s Badge and certificate.

Since my last post things got busy with the holidays (as it does with most people) and time to write was still a priority, but it came at a premium. I wrote in drips and drabs whenever I could – late at night before my brain shut down, or for a few minutes before going to work. When I finally had more time, I put my head down and wrote.

How did you keep up the pace through the holiday week?

Knowing you won’t have as much time to write during Thanksgiving, it’s always a good thing to use the time prior to that to build your word count higher so you don’t fall behind when you’re just too busy to write.

What are you going to do when you finish your novel?

I’m putting A Brutal Life: The Warrior on the shelf (so to speak) for the month of December. On January 2nd, I set a calendar reminder to begin the re-write process. After completing a couple of re-writes of the novel, it then goes to my First Reader, who also happens to be my wife, Loly – a language teacher – for editing.

As I’m going to self-publish my novel as an e-book, when my wife has put my novel through the wringer, I’ll send it out to a professional editor. While that’s being worked on I’ll commission a cover artist to create an ebook cover.

In the mean time, I’ll build my platform using this blog and a dedicated website for my novel, and get set up on Facebook and Twitter. Once the novel is done, I’ll release it in formats for Amazon, B&N and Smashwords.

While all this is going on – I’ll be writing the second and third book in the series. Yeah, I’ll be busy, but it’s the way I like it.

I have to make an appeal to my fellow writers – try to self-publish your own novel. At least in the beginning, forget the traditional publishers; it’s a hard, long road to travel with little to no reward.

Also please avoid the so-called self publishing businesses – most are an elaborate rip-off. Dave Gaughran just published an eye-opening post about this scam. I highly suggest you check it out: Simon & Schuster Joins Forces With Author Solutions To Rip Off Writers

See you on November 30th!

Werner