The journey of a novel

My journey for The Risen was a pretty pragmatic one. I've procrastinated for years (in part because I didn't feel ready though) but last Nanowrimo I told myself to complete a project, and so I wrote it in a month, doing around 2,000 words or more a day. I began with a theme and a couple characters, and an idea of the world, and that was it. Previously I had planned too much and what I was coming up with didn't feel very natural. With Nanowrimo, the goal was to let the characters lead the way, and to write an adventure-style narrative; and overall, to go for quantity over quality. It was a lot easier afterwards to edit, as the hard work had already been done. When you're so involved in your story every day, you live with it, and ideas come easy. I didn't know the ending until half-way through, but when it came, it was very natural.