Just to be clear– Nobody ‘fails’ the Novel Push Initiative. Sure, you can get knocked-out, but you absolutely positively cannot fail. Just by choosing to participate and giving it your all, you’ve succeeded.

And no, I’m not saying that just because I got knocked-out, too ;D

I’m concerned that some of you were saying ‘Sorry I failed’ to some degree in the form of Tweets or E-mails to me or others, and I want you to know that … you didn’t. You’ve got more words and experience than you started out with at the beginning of the month– You’re further along in your works-in-progress, and that’s got to count for something.

Life happens, even during NPI. And sometimes it gets in the way of writing a single word in the course of an entire day.

After I got knocked-out, two people asked me what happened. I had a rough day at work and didn’t feel like writing. Considering I hadn’t recorded how many words I’d written the two days prior to that, I pretty much knew I was out. I wasn’t saving up Days of Reprieve, rested on my laurels, and paid the price.

It’s almost like knowing that I could earn more days of reprieve made me squander the ones I had. Hm….

Anyway, tally-time!

If you’d like to check the wordcount repository, it’s here.

And the Winner is:

The only people to make it through the gauntlet this time were Julie K and Megs. Wow … I thought since it’s Spring now and we had the ability to earn Days of Reprieve … Well, I didn’t think this month would be so brutally merciless!

But my wife and I came up with some fun awards this time around– Hope you like!

The Highest Word Count:
This award goes to the person who’s most likely able to pass a NaNoWriMo :P
Julie K (Selestial) with a total of 27,713 words.

The Consistency Award:
This award goes to the person who wrote a consistent number of words over the longest period of time.
Janette Dagliesh with 300-350 words per day over a period of 20 days.

The Flash in the Pan Award:
This award goes to the person who kicked tons of butt in a short amount of time before geting knocked out.
Cassie (J.C. Hart) with an average of 349.27 words per day in a period of eleven days.

The Extra-Lives Award:
This award goes to the person who earned the most Days of Reprieve.
Julie K (Selestial) with 14 Days of Reprieve earned.

The ‘I’m Spent!’ Award:
This award goes to the quickest TKO.
jk :)

The Saving Up for a Long Vacation Award:
This award goes to the person who had the most Days of Reprieve left-over.
Julie K (Selestial) with 5 unused Days of Reprieve.

The Honorable Mention:
Megs was our all-arounder and deserves a special mention. She wrote 25,360 words this NPI, earned 10 Days of Reprieve and wrote over 4,000 words in a  single day.

Congratulations to everyone! Treat yourself to some well-deserved cake. I hope you got closer to completing your stories this past month and that you are able to join us again next time. Have a happy Easter!