About a month ago I blogged that I had been convinced to do NaNoWriMo, although at the time I felt my chances of Novelling success were next to nil.

I am very happy to report that on this evening, around 6:13PM, I stopped writing the first draft of my NaNoWriMo novel, having reached over 50,000 words in 22 short days.

Woo hoo! This has obviously, by no means been an easy feat. I could not have done it without God's strength, Kirsty's faith in my abilities, and the unwavering support of my family and friends. (Edit - Forgot to mention DragonForce for providing the sound track to my literary world, and the author of the Q10 text editor for providing a comfortable environment to write in.)

The achievement of writing a Novel in a month has no given me new confidence in myself. If I can write a 50,000 word Novel in a month, then can I make a success of myself as a Game developer? I feel, more strongly then ever, that the answer is yes!

Over the course of three weeks, I have lived and breathed in the world of literature. With my story I have brought an idea to life that has been lingering in my conciousness for the better part of a decade. Without someone pushing me to actually write it, perhaps it would have sat there my entire life, plauging me with guilt and regret for never letting it out of my mind. The small sacrifice of a few hours each day over three weeks was well and truely more then worth it.

Is my story poorly written? Probably. Will I be the only one to ever enjoy the plot? Maybe. Will it ever be commercially published? Almost certainly not. But that's entirely beside the point. I lived a dream, and that would more then counterbalance any critical drubbing it could possibly get from anyone.

So, what next? Well, I plan to do a bit more tweaking to the story before letting my family and close friends see the book, and who knows, if they give it a thumbs up it may even get published on Earok.Net. Since I've been neglecting the Blog recently, I need to get back to making regular posts on various gaming related things. Also since the Unreal Developer's Kit and the Unity Engine have both been released freely, I need to trial both of them to see which one bests fits my game development needs.

Time to get back to making Games and chewing Bubble Gum. And I'm all outta' Gum.