Well, it’s really, really official: I won NaNoWriMo 2009 (along with tens of thousands of others).
I uploaded my manuscript to their official word-count bots, and after they did their number-crunching thingy, I was directed to a page with the following graphic:
And this nice little note:
You did it, writer.
Pitted against a merciless deadline and battling hordes of distractions—including the most tempting fall TV season that’s been unleashed upon novelists in decades—you kept at it.
Now you’ve arrived at a place that very few NaNoWriMo participants ever see: The winner’s circle. Overhead, the November sky is bursting with fireworks celebrating your victory, and the entire NaNoWriMo staff joins me in applauding your creative achievement.
You did something amazing this month, novelist. We couldn’t be prouder.