"But orderly to end where I begun..."

That blog title is me quoting Hamlet like a nerd. Welcome to the final hours of NaPlWriMo 2009, everyone. I wish I had been a far more active blogger. I started off writing this post as a comment in the daily check-in thread, but for once I actually felt like my thoughts were organized enough to warrant a blog post.

I don't know about everyone else, but this month for me was so exhausting. I have one more week of classes for my MFA and then my first semester is over, which is absolutely crazy. I've been working so hard between classes and my job that the month just flew by in a stream of coffee and sleep deprivation. I am left today with 51 pages of my full-length, although not all of that was written in November. No win for me, but there is always next year. I feel like I've grown SO MUCH as a writer since last November, and in that sense I feel like much more of a winner (how sappy of me).

I felt inspired to write this blog entry because of a comment I received when we workshopped my newest scene in class this afternoon. I wrote it last night and tweaked it a little this morning. The actors read through it, and when it was over, my professor said that it seems like now, six scenes in, I finally found my first scene--where the play should begin (not that everything before it should be scrapped, but that scene six could be moved to the opening). I find it funny and oddly appropriate that I seem to have found my beginning as NaPlWriMo ends. Because if you're like me and didn't quite make it this year, or even if you've been done for over a week now, November 30 doesn't mean it's over. It could, on the contrary, be just beginning.

I want to say congratulations to everyone who took part in NaPlWriMo this year, whether you end at midnight tonight with a win or not. There's still just about seven hours left in my time zone, so I wish everyone luck in the home stretch. I hope you find your endings, or in some cases like me, your beginnings.