Last day of NaNoWriMo

It's the last day of NaNoWriMo, and I am nowhere near done. Yes, I will make my 50,000 deadline today, but I think the book is going to be more of an 80,000 word novel, like Heads Will Roll. Since we are on the last day, I wanted to give you my assessment (as a first time participant) of NaNoWriMo, for any of you who may consider it next year,


Pro's:

• You are forced to write 1,666 words a day. - forced to work hard at writing a novel
• There's a neat word tracker that shows you how good... or bad you're doing.
• There's a huge community you can connect with to help motivate you (I didn't utilize this function)
• You feel really good when you step back and look at how much you have accomplished in a short time.

Con's:

• You are forced to write 1,666 words a day. - you write a lot of crap just to get to your word count
• You spend more time checking your word-count than writing at times.
• There was no written-in break for cook-like-a-crazy-person day, unless you worked one in yourself.
• I drank a lot of late night coffee. 
• My friends and family haven't seen me all month (they think I'm a figment of their imagination as of late.)

As I wipe the sweat off my forehead, I know there will be a lot of things that I will get from this experience. I will probably continue with a daily word goal (though not 1,666, because I have a real job, and a second start-up business on top of writing). I will also create my own word-count graph, it makes me happy to see the growing bars of progress.

Will I do this again next year?-Maybe? It depends on where I am in a year.