I Win.

Dear Wal,

This time yesterday, I was on the edge of glory, with 49,500 words and counting. I really didn't think I would make it through that last 500 words, but I did. But by no means did I reach an end. Jason's story is so vast and complex now that an end looks a daunting 100 or 200 pages away from the 120 pages I've already written. It's incomprehensible to me that I've come up with that much story in the past...what, two years? It feels insane and impossible and ridiculous. Just like the story itself.
There isn't any common thread of plot throughout the 120 pages I've written, except Jason (no duh) and there are so many gaps. But that's the only way I could make it through NaNo. Every time I got bored, I went back and started on one of the many stories I planned but never wrote. They exists as parts of chapters in what I've officially christened as a legit book. Which is weird, because few things that I've written I would consider books. Most of them are short stories, collections of short stories or novellas. About 90% of them unfinished, of course.
The thing is, I've got to finish Jason's story (or at least get caught up to where I am in my head) but it's going to be a very long ride. But that's alright, because-for the most part-Jason is a happy guy. He isn't going to go on tormented tirades and wreck my plot, or drown in the little evils of too many subplots. He's also a superhero, and that makes everything easier. Things in superhero land don't have to make sense to the readers, they only have to make sense to the superheroes. Over thinking superhero stories (unless you're a GENIUS like Frank Miller or Allan Moore or Grant Morrison) is where you get into trouble.
Anyway, I'm rambling. A lot. Which is funny, because this is a rant. So, technically I should be ranting. Here I go with the over complicating things again.
What do I think about my astounding accomplishment?
It was actually slightly...I don't know, easy. Easier than last year, anyway. The biggest problem I had to grapple with was boredom. I was going crazy with boredom. My writing ADHD was like: BUT I CAME UP WITH THIS AWESOME IDEA FOR TOM'S STORY...and I was like: NO. ONLY. JASON. DANGIT. NO. MUST. KEEP. WRITING! Writing has become like a switch in my head, I turn it on and I may or may not be able to turn it off. Or direct it where I want it to go. It's like that puzzle with the three light bulbs in one room, and the three switches in the other. You're in the room with the switches, and you have to figure out which switch goes to which light bulb, but you can only go in the room with the light bulbs once and you can't see that room at all from where you are in the room with the switches. It's like that, only I don't get to go into the room with the bulbs at all. I flip a switch, and I haven't got a clue what bulb turns on.
Yay for complicated analogies.
What am I going to do now that NaNo is over? Why, exams! What else? All my classes end on December 14th. Finally. And then my sister is coming home for Christmas on the 17th. I'm excited. I haven't seen her in over a year. Christmas is going to be fun this year, because my aunts and my uncle and my brother and my niece are all coming as well as my sister and her boyfriend. It's going to be awesome.
Furthermore, what am I going to write?
I honestly have no idea.
And you know what? That's exciting. I'm leaving the promised land of winning NaNo, and venturing out into a new frontier better armed and more fit than ever. It's going to be a bumpy ride.

/endrant

P.S. I've never eaten a twinkie. They look nasty.