Season’s greetings, everyone! Everything good? I sure hope so.
Rejoice, for now we can actually enjoy all those great holiday things, like the music, decorations, presents, treats, and so on and so forth. But we’re not here to spiel about the holidays; that’s what the December recap blog will be for, at least partially. Right now, we’re taking a look back at November. And geez, what a month it was.
I actually don’t have all that much to say about November, other than NaNoWriMo kind of kicked my ass. But in a good way, y’know? This was my first time participating, and I’m so glad I did. For those who aren’t aware, NaNoWriMo—or National Novel Writing Month—takes place throughout November. As part of the event, authors seek to write 50,000 words toward whatever novel they’re currently engaged with. That could be an ongoing project or something you start from scratch. Regardless of what it is you’re writing, the basic objective is to hit those 50,000 words.
I did not make it to 50,000 words. Not that I was really planning to, though. Honestly, I’m quite okay having not made it to that mark. My goals with this were more so to make sure I wrote every day during November and to finally make some serious progress on my Blood Sisters novel. Because yes, all those short stories I’ve been posting here on the site are really just precursors to a larger story.
By the end of NaNoWriMo, I had 26,378 words written for my novel. For someone like me, even making it halfway to 50,000 in that time span is a big deal. However, I must admit that I didn’t actually write that many fresh new words; I came in with plenty of content already written. After all, I’ve got three Blood Sisters tales here on the site.
But, that being said, I spent tons of time reworking basically everything I already had prepared to better suit the larger story. Everything that’s been written previously is in a short story format that doesn’t quite work for what I want to do with the full novel. This, in turn, led to plenty of rewrites for the existing material, which allowed me to properly gear everything towards a three-act story structure. So, while it wasn’t all brand-new writing, the end results absolutely justify the means, I think.
This does not, of course, discredit all of the fresh work I got done in the meantime. That includes completing the first draft of “The Mirror,” which I’m so excited to be dropping later this month! I tried approaching this latest Blood Sisters tale from an angle that would allow it to serve both as the original short story and as a full chapter later on when I start piecing the novel together. For a first draft, though, I’m pretty pleased with it. Plus, I’ll be doing plenty more work on it as we lead up to that December 20 release date.
Overall, I’m immensely proud of the work I completed and the progress I made throughout NaNoWriMo. There’s still plenty left to do, but it’s so great to finally have more of the concrete ideas for this story down on (digital) paper. Now, it’s just a matter of maintaining that energy and continuing the story. Given I was sort of doing a lot of this on the fly, though, I definitely need to write up a proper outline for this sometime soon. Because no, I haven’t actually done that yet. That’ll be on the docket after I’ve finished “The Mirror.”
Apart from the extensive writing business, the other typical November antics served as a great reprieve from my usual nine-to-five work grind. Spending time with family on Thanksgiving was much needed, and my friends and I had a fantastic “Friendsgiving” only two days after that. Good times were had by all, but now, I’m pooped.
But, like I said, I can’t really afford any break time. After all, I’ve got a short story to finish. So, be sure to stay tuned for the release of “The Mirror” just before Christmas! And, of course, as we roll right along into December, I hope you all have a festive holiday season and a happy New Year! Until next time (which might actually be in 2024—holy moly), peace!