Nanowrimo Week 3
Update 24 15-21 November 2021
All of my plans for this week did NOT happen in any of the ways I predicted. But I still got a lot done!
The original plan was to get in a lot of short writing sessions, every single day of the week. But instead, I got two blocks where I sat down and worked my ass off, while then getting dragged away to do other things.
I’m finally starting to feel a bit better health-wise as well… though it’s still day by day on that one. Besides the health issues, I’m dealing with a broken office chair. So, I either have to try an balance on my broken chair at my desk (with my laptop open in front of my monitor to my dead PC)… or I need to move out into the kitchen and put up with the sounds of my everyone else in my house. With holiday prep that becomes even harder.
Excuses Aside
Well, I made plenty of excuses, but words were still created. Many of them good, though really I know I will have to cut a lot of fat from this book. I tend to run on a bit and become overly verbose. I’m sure the handful of you who read these posts every week are well aware of that.
Ha ha.
I managed to finish three more chapters this past week, and I have officially pasted the point where I stopped the 2.0 version of the story! YAY! I’m super happy to finally get past the previous mark.
My storylines are coming together for the mid book massive set piece. This is also the point where I set up a lot of the work for the future books in the series. And as I write that last sentence, I realize that I might have to shuffle a couple chapters around, because I failed to include a VERY NECESSARY scene in my outline. A goal left unfulfilled. I’ll worry about that after Dec 1st. Let me finish Nanowrimo and then I will fix the problem.
Words
Three chapters (really 2.5 but I digress….) 8158 total words for the week. My nanowrimo count sits at 34,247 and the novel itself is sitting at 98,040 total words. Once I finish this blog, I will try and finish a whole chapter today, and by the time this goes live on Monday, I’m hoping to be a couple thousand words over 100k.
Podcasts
We’re still working on streamlining our editing process. So the Podcast has not been coming out with the regularity that we wished for. But I want to assure the handful of you that enjoy it, that we have 16 episodes recorded, meaning that nine more will be hitting your ears eventually.
Our goal is to get at least 1 more out before the end of the year and then starting in January, having an episode out every other week. And if you haven’t checked out my Podcast, there are links on the side board to the left of the screen. The What Am Games? Podcast is all about gaming, wargaming, and hobby. We talk about Warhammer 40k, D&D, building models, painting, and other hobby. I’ve had it described as sitting in on a conversation between friends.
What Else is Going On?
I mean, I guess I’m a boring person… but we are living in a pandemic and my life is pretty much… Writing, Reading, Running a Comic shop, Hobby, Movies… and that’s it. Should I be hunting for a better job? Maybe. But this is the first time I’ve ever had a job where I love it… every day I get up and head into work early and love every minute of it.
My writing should perhaps be prioritized… but I’m getting rejections or no responses from the agents I’ve queried, haven’t sold any of the essays I’ve sent out… and I haven’t written short stories in over a decade. So, it is something I devote time to every week, but its not making me a dime. Ergo, some days I have to devote my time to things that pay the bills. Just the nature of the beast.
I won’t digress further. The purpose of these posts are twofold. First, I want to hold myself accountable to making my word goals, and not give up on writing. By publicly posting my word counts and my misgivings. My doubts and fears. I am holding myself up to public scorn. Not that anyone has ever given me a hard time about missing my goals.
My second goal, is to let other students/writers/aspiring writers, see what the struggles and issues are of the life. If my floundering helps inspire then awesome, and if it maybe takes the luster off someone’s ‘fantasy’ of what its like to try to write for a living then that is also great. I mean I know I’m not handling things in the best way. Maybe I should be sending out more queries, but I’ve been very lax and slow to do it. Or trying my hand at writing more shorts and trying to find markets for them. But despite having taken classes on the subject and having many resources, I still find it really hard to find markets. Also, I tend to hyper focus on a single story. I don’t like working on multiple things, because I know I will drop things and keep starting others if I don’t focus.
Stop… Focus… Aim
You know… I had a bunch of other things I was about to say. I almost had a rant ready. But I need to stop. It’s the end of the year, and we’re getting into the darkest and coldest time of the year. I have suffered under Seasonal Affect Disorder and the above paragraphs would started me thinking and heading into a depressed state.
This could have wrecked my entire weekend, and definitely would have colored the writing that I want to do after this blog. I already know that I will be fighting these feelings for the rest of the day, and that’s a problem. But recognizing the beginning symptoms is going to help me through.
If you have issues with the season. If the darker days bother you, or you find yourself moody, or preferring to be alone. These are all signs of a mood shift that could be caused from the lack of sunlight, or from an aversion to the cold and darkness. Sometimes I get (or at least feel) better by simply interacting with people more. My body is screaming to just close the door and put on a movie or binge a tv show. And those are fun for me, but maybe go out and talk to someone else in the house if you don’t live alone.
If you are alone, maybe call someone or get online and talk to some friends. Talk to some strangers on discord, or other social media. The interaction can help get you out of your own head (at least that sometimes works for me. What works for me might not work for you, so take all advice with a grain of salt—which makes me wonder how that saying was first crafted? Maybe I will go down the rabbit hole of google and look that up?)
All I’m saying is look out for yourself. I changed my writing habits to try and stay a little healthier. And I forgive myself for failure a LOT more. If you can’t forgive yourself… then I’m pre-emptively forgiving you. It’s ok if you didn’t make your word goal today. Its ok if you skipped writing. Its ok if you felt like just reading all day (or watching TV or listening to music, or whatever else you did). I’m giving you a pass today to just take care of yourself.
Thank you for reading.
