I submitted my 50,001-word novel today.
I started writing on November 1, with a setting and a character. The setting was Montreal in 1967. The character was a twenty-two -year-old woman, who becomes a private investigator. I decided two other things about her. She would be driven by a need for Justice and she would have an overdeveloped sense of smell.
With just this to start with, I dove in and wrote the first chapter. I decided to write in the third person, but in a few places I would write in the first person. That was when she was a woman in her sixties, writing in the present time. I liked her right away. She had spunk.
I found myself doing research every day. I needed to check out fashion, music, vehicles, police uniforms, Expo 67, Metro, names, geography, even firearms, and much, much more. I learned a lot.
My most challenging part was writing the felons. I had to force myself to make them more violent and unscrupulous than I was comfortable with.
I write books for pre-teens, my Magda of Mayne Island Mystery Series http://www.treewithroots.ca/ so this novel, written for adults, was challenging for me.
I’ll let some time pass before I go back and rewrite this book, I think. Idon’t know if I’ll be interested in writing for the adult market in the future. I’ll have to wait and see.
Treewithroots Blog 
Shine your light Amber, Well Madame write non-stop until the cows come home…CONGRATULATIONS! Do you do this once a year now? David
I have a feeling I’m going to do this every November. I just loved the process.
Way to go! Looks like a great book 🙂
I think I’ll do this again next November. It was an exercise in writing without the heavy editor intervening. The creativity gets free rein for a month. I loved it and would recommend it to any writer who has trouble letting go of “perfectionism.” It’s very liberating.