nano; it's getting hard to be someone but it all works out

[srchxandxdstry]

I used this picture to created Home & Oliver :)
I have won NaNoWriMo 2009!

My book was completed at around 8:14am on the 28th of November amid much excitement and tears. I was so happy to have finished it, and particularly the way I did. I was very satisfied with it and the way it all turned out - it's such a relief to have done it. It hasn't quite hit me that I just wrote a novel. A novel, like the ones on my bookshelves. It ended up weighing in at around 52 000 words, which is above the word limit! Hoorah. But the road wasn't always this sweet - there were so many times I hated what I was writing and I had no idea if it made any sense, but I kept writing and hoped for the best. I still don't know if it makes sense - I don't know how it reads, because I can never read it as an audience member. I will forever remember it as something that is much too close to my heart, and so much of my life was poured into it.

I don't want to give away the secrets of my book - those are for everyone else to discover. But I will say this; everything that is written is true in some form. Perhaps one or two of the characters are real, or maybe something that happened occured in my imagination or metaphorically. It happened and it's in there, so what your reading is real in some way. I didn't just pull ideas from nowhere, but where they came from shall remain a mystery.

I didn't write my novel in a vacuum, and there are so many things/people/events that should be recognised. My family, who gave me weird looks when I told them I was going to write a novel - not one of them smiled and said 'go for it; good luck'. They didn't believe me, and so I had to reply 'I'm serious'. My mother, who is going to read it. My friends, most of whom don't know/don't care, but those who did, thank you. Krause, who answered all my random questions - just know that what you said went in there, and it meant a lot, more than you'll know. To all the authors who came before me and inspired me, I don't think I'd even be writing without your guidance. To musicians! I think my life was mapped out as soon as a person picked up a guitar and sang, really.

The music that helped inspire this book would be a very very long list, but I will give some songs that were really helpful:

• 'Kings and Queens' by 30 Seconds to Mars. This song was on repeat for the majority of the novel writing process, no joke.
• 'I Caught Myself' by Paramore.
• 'Ocean Avenue' by Yellowcard. This inspired a lot of the scenes between Dylan and PJ/Oliver.
• 'Closer' by Kings of Leon - this is actually quoted.
• 'Imagine' by John Lennon was the basis for the entire world of Home.
• 'Forever and Almost Always' by Kate Voegle was the inspiration for a lot of the mellower, self-pitying and dramatic scenes.
• 'Sylar's theme' by Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman - thanks to Bonnie, this was the perfect background music for simple writing.
• 'The Music' by Paper Route. I listened to this song 158 times during the writing of my novel. Literally.
• 'Shooting the Moon' by OK Go is quoted but was also perfect music to just think to.
• And all the songs by Pink, John Mayer, Red and Paramore.

That's about it. Thank you to everyone who reads the novel - excuse the spelling mistakes. I hope you enjoy it and possibly take something from it, I know I did. I learnt I can wrote a novel, and a half-decent one at that. I can sustain a concept over such a word limit and possibly further, and I hope next year, everyone can join in!

The MasterList for my novel - "Living to Dream". All chapters can be found here, in order, ready to be read.