The WDC NanoLounge

Last night I made the final push, and managed to finish up the last few words I needed to cross the finish line. I'm excited that I won, but mostly I am just exhausted and extremely relieved that I can spend all of December writing what I want, when I want. Getting my word count done the past few days has been particularly hard; the last 1000 words of my novel is actually an erotic love scene between my two main characters, because it was the only thing that I could motivate myself to write.
The novel isn't finished yet but after a lot of contemplation I have decided to set the draft aside, and begin working on the rewrite as soon as possible. I really like my initial idea, but it got way off track, and I'm not at all happy with the direction the story took after I reached the midpoint of my second chapter.
I think I know what my problem was: I over-planned. I created an entire outline, and in doing so I shoved too many ideas into one novel, each of which actually deserves its own story. So I am going to spend the next few months developing each idea into it's own piece. Perhaps, in the end I will have gotten way more stories out of NaNoWriMo than I ever expected to.
For everyone who has already finished and succeeded in completing their rough draft - you guys are awesome! I am hopeful that I will have my own draft completed soon; it's just going to take me a bit longer than I initially anticipated.
For everyone who has yet to reach their goal - there is still time! I am always blown away by the stories of writers who manage to finish the majority of their 50,000 words within the last few days, or even the final day of the challenge. Anything is possible!
Ali