My last post on Nano for a year, I promise. But now that the mad dash to the finish line is over and done with and the pulse rate has steadied somewhat, it's time for perhaps the most important part of Nano. And that is: reflecting on the experience.

Back at Uni, I had to write reflective essays for every single piece of assessment. What was I trying to achieve, did I feel I achieved it, what did I learn from this piece, what would I do differently, what did I think was and wasn't working, which authors did I feel were influencing me... such an endless barrage of questions that, I must admit, I generally resorted to the tried and true student tactic of Making It Up.

I'm not going to ask you to review your piece, or find out who influenced you (though those things are definitely useful to know.) Instead, I'm going to borrow some questions (and anecdotal responses) that my mother, a creative writing tutor, has been asking of her students who attempted Nano this year:

• What did you get out of attempting Nano this year? (Besides the obvious "50,000 words of story")
  
  • "I realised I can actually write 50,000 words!"
  • "I learned how to actually make writing time for myself"
  • "I realise that I need to look at my priorities to fit writing in"
  • "I had a blast encouraging others and being encouraged"
• What did it cost you - what price did you have to pay?
  
  • "I missed an entire month of Big Bang Theory!"
  • "I had to choose between writing and my social life too many times"
• What did you learn about your writing or yourself from this experience?
  
  • "I use the word 'actually' all the time, and it's actually really annoying!"
  • "Keeping a fridge behind your desk is a really bad idea."
  • "Writing with arthritis makes it worse. The arthritis, that is."
  • "Character's names can change halfway through the novel without you even noticing."
  • "I found that I kept all the 'fun' things, like lunch with the girls, and gave up all the 'shoulds' like housework."
  • "Shirking lots of responsibility can help your family realise this is important to you and take up the slack!"
  • "Just because I can write without a plan doesn't mean I should."
  • "Why does discipline have to be so hard?"

That last one is the most important - this kind of pressure test of any kind of activity will reveal things about both yourself and your skills in performing the activity. Hopefully, you can take from Nano not just the length of story you write, but new insights into how you work, things you need to improve on, things you can bolster your confidence with, and things to consider in your life and writing.

And that's all I'm going to say about Nano, until near-November 2012.

Probably.