Hello November

I love writing. I love talking to people about writing. Some days I even write about writing. When a writer writes about their life as a writer, sometimes it’s difficult to decide how much to share about your life and how much to keep to yourself. Tonight I am making the conscious decision to share a little bit more about my writing life. Mostly in an effort to explain why there will be no new fiction this weekend.

November brings cooler temperatures, fallen leaves, cider, and pumpkin spice flavored everything. For a few thousand people it also marks the beginning of NaNoWriMo. NanoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) is a program that encourages anyone to write a fifty thousand word novel over the course of thirty days. I have only reached the fifty thousand word goal on time once. The year that I wrote “Heather Darling and the Case of the Killer Tampon.” I skipped a couple of years, participated again last year and wrote about two-thirds of “Heather Darling and the Case of the Clockwork Cannibal.”

I spend a lot time at a computer at my day job and have been adapting my life choices to reflect that; which means spending a significantly lower amount of time at my computer at home. This year, instead of fast drafting a novel I will be finishing my final edit of “Heather Darling and the Case of the Clockwork Cannibal” before it goes to beta readers. I was over a third of the way through my third edit of the book when spring hit with its myriad of outside chores and other activities. There are editing months within the NanoWriMo program but I didn’t quite stick with it last year. Okay?

Then I lost my third edit. It’s on the hard drive...somewhere. So for NaNoWriMo this year I am editing. A good edit can take about two weeks...without a day job, errands, socializing, household chores...you get the idea. With all of the other stuff, it takes a little bit longer.

My plan for this year had been to start writing a stand alone young adult fantasy novel tentatively titled, “The Wizards in the Woods,” which stems from a tall tale I told my great nephew when he was two. Raiden is six now. Seven? No six. My point is that this story has been cooking for a bit. In order to start the fantasy novel, I have to edit “Heather Darling and the Case of the Clockwork Cannibal” that’s the deal that I have made with myself. I would like to start “The Wizards In The Woods” during the final days of NanoWriMo 2018.

I am an editing fool at the moment.

You may not see much new fiction from me this month. I regret not being able to finish the story that I had been writing before November began. It will continue in December at the latest. If you haven’t noticed, I can be a bit long winded at times. I wanted to let readers know what is going on and to let y’all know that if you do not see new fiction I will try take a few minutes here and there to share my NanoWriMo journey with you.

The process of fast drafting a novel may no longer work for me in its entirety but the practice of focusing closely on a writing project for thirty consecutive days is still highly useful. It was what drew me to the program initially, I want to take advantage of that and as a result, write better books.

Welcome to November and a little bit of craziness in my neck of the woods. (Looks behind reader). Did you bring a sleeping bag? This could take a while. You’ve got a backpack there too huh. Did you bring any snacks? Dinner was light. Dessert isn’t so great either.