Remember last week, when I was all, “I only have 7000 words left! I can do it!”

Note to self: Never. Never. Say. That.

This is when you catch the stomach flu on November 29.

Fortunately, the bug ran its course quickly, and I refrained from typing out the incoherent lists of disgusting food that I never eat that in my delirium I thought would be a good way to reach my Nano goal. (Uhhh??) Once I was well enough to sit up and wrap my brain around the story I’d barely touched for a week, I did what every author has to do:

I put down one word after another. One sentence after another. One paragraph after another.

Until, at about 5 PM on Saturday, I hit that magical 50,000.

But in the end, the number? It doesn’t matter. What matters is that I have 50,000 words toward a new book. And that’s awesome.

Know what else is awesome? 25,000 words toward a new book. 10,000 words toward a new book. 500 words toward a new book. Whether it takes you a week, a month, a year—writing a book?

It’s incredibly awesome.

Sometimes, when you do something over and over, when you get fast and proficient at it, you forget how remarkable it might be to normal people. This will be my 11th finished novel. Four of the last five novels were written in under a month (if I finish this one by the 13th, that is). I’m an author; writing books is what I do—but that doesn’t make it any less awesome. Awe-inspiring.

So whether you “won” Nano or not, if you got new words in November, congratulations!

And whether you “won” Nano or not, you probably have work still to do. Whether that’s stringing together the words and sentences to form your story or making those words and sentences shine, NaNo is just the beginning!

What’s on your writing plate this month?