NaNo Days 26, 27, 28 & 29: Winner!

I won! I won the fight against no time and deadlines and my Inner Editor and most of all myself, and I wrote a novel (story) of 50,000 words (50,024, to be exact) in one month! Yay me!
So today was the day this was going to happen, because I was only about 4,000 words away, and what started on a Sunday felt right to end on Sunday too. So I wrote 2,000 words, took a break, Skyped with a friend, walked around, read the newspaper, and went back and wrote the remaining 1,700 words. Which actually weren't that bad, those final words. But I had one of my nicer characters to end on, whereas the earlier 2,000 were for the character I dislike the most (and I'm hoping the reader will too) so those felt like more of an accomplishment. And then I validated my novel, and my word count bar became purple, which is the Colour of Victors, and I had a bunch of NaNoWriMo people shout congratulations at me. Which is always great fun.
So what did I do, according to NaNo?

You are incredible. Here's a quick rundown of your accomplishments thus far: 

1. You made the surprisingly tough decision to commit to your creativity and write a novel. 

2. On November 1, you put pen to paper, leaped, and started something. 

3. Every day of this past month, you chose your novel, your voice, and your story. You stayed up late or got up early. You stole minutes here and there. You created time. 

Which sounds (and feels) pretty good to me.

Buutttt, of course I'm already looking ahead. The story isn't finished, actually, I'm just a little over halfway. And there's some parts missing. And some parts I want to go back and do over. And other parts that badly need editing. So I'm thinking I will keep this novel hanging around for a while, try to write some more whenever I'm in the mood or can find the time, try to edit some bits, and see where it goes. Because I am feeling pretty good about it, not just about finishing it, but about the thing itself too (which is a NaNo first, for me). Who knows, maybe it will lead somewhere some day. But that's for later, for now, it's time to celebrate (and relax)!