This might get a little boring for those who are non-writers, but I hope you bear with me. I am going to start from almost the beginning of 2017 since a lot has changed this year. I haven’t written so much in a single year before this (ignoring the loads of pages during college).

Stumbling across The Writer's Workout site was one of the best things that happened and the experience of participating in the Writer's Games (Individual) was amazing. I had to write to a given prompt within 72 hours (not something I usually do).

I made new friends and went to participate in Camp NaNo in July. Since then, one of my friends has been urging me to go for NaNoWriMo in November.

Coming to the actual stuff, I had a different book planned but realized I did not have enough data and I would not be able to complete it. So, I put an SOS in the Writer's Workout FB group asking for help. The encouragement, advice, and tips I got from them were great. They pushed me to go for a new genre (fantasy) and give it a try. I followed their words, knowing they would always be there to help me and created a novel in the NaNo site on the night of 30th October. Everything about the novel was tentative since I had no real idea as to what I would write and whether I could at least touch 20k words.

Next came the regional group (WriMo India) and the awesome MLs in there. They organized constant sprints (I participated in only one per day) to make sure we were on track. I still don’t know how I completed my novel in 20 days! It feels surreal. The last 3k words were almost a nightmare for me, since I had a running nose, a sore throat, and itchy eyes. But I wanted to finish the work before I lost interest (happens to me all the time, sigh!) and guess what? I did it. I was in a totally different zone while doing NaNo and I hope to edit my work and take it to the next level soon.

This might sound like thank you speech and it is. A heartfelt thank you to all the people who encouraged me to write and hence win this NaNoWriMo.

About the author: Srivalli Rekha is a blogger, writer and amateur photographer. She has a MBA and MA in English Literature. She chose to become a writer and a poet instead of a corporate professional.