November Writing Report

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November was all about focus. NaNoWriMo type focus. A quick summary:

Novel WIP

Scattered On the Wind

This was the NaNo project, a YA SF book, more or less, with the main character being a 15 yo girl who’s just emigrated to a new world and the colony is falling apart around her. Not physically, not yet, but something on the planet is giving everyone above the age of 18 or so a variety of neuroses, phobia, and mental issues. It’s also giving everyone below adolescence the symptoms of ADHD. The teenagers, sadly, are staying normal longer than most, but are all sharing the same dream. As of the end of NanN, complete at 62,973 words, the first 545 of which I actually counted in October totals but were written after midnight on Halloween to count for Nano. The word count will still go up a little since I have some dictation clean up still to do and tend to add a phrase here and there while I do it.

The Godhead

5,992 words on the last couple of commuting days of the month. Keeping the NaNo pace going.

Short Fiction

Um, none, really. Unless you count the next section.

Year of Trek Fiction

592 words on the Scotty novelette. I got stuck in traffic during a snowstorm and finished the chapter I was dictating on The Godhead so thought I’d switch gears for a bit.

Other Writing

Editing on “Babysitting the Taran-Saurus” added 505 words to the story.

Plotting on two different projects totalled 2,717 words.

The big bucket for everything else caught 8,971 words.

Total for the Month

It all totals up to a killer 81,205 words for November, a monthly word count second only to July of this year (86,755), but that month had thirty-one days and this month had 7k more in fiction.

Goals for November:

1. The Godhead, Book 2: by my current estimates, I still have somewhere between 15 and 18,000 words to go to finish off the plot which, if I can keep the Nano pace going, should take about a week, right?

2. Once that’s done, I’m going to move back to a project I stalled on last year, Draugr Rising. Modern fantasy with a Norse flavour and Viking zombies. Sort of. That’s one of the things I’ve been plotting and I think I might be able to make it work now.

3. Some amount of short fiction, but I’m not going to put a target on it.

That’s probably lots since I’m hoping to continue on the same pace I’ve been managing for this month, looking for a similar total in fiction drafting. I also need to start finding some time for editing, and research for something else. And that’s in addition to real life.

Yes, I’m crazy.

Be well, everyone.

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