NaNo Retrospective 2022

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I have three objectives for NaNo this year. To the surprise of absolutely no one, I didn't actually accomplish any of them, but I got close on one, and made what I would consider creditable progress on another. The third, I didn't even touch, but we'll get to that. 

I wrote fiction, like, actually made progress all but two days this month. The two missed days were the seventh and the twenty-eighth, for whatever it may be worth. On the seventh, I was trying to someways rearrange my sleep schedule, and lost track of which calendar day it was. On the twenty-eighth, I definitely opened up the document, maybe even put on my writing playlist, but apparently I just didn't get any words written. It must be emphasized, before we move on from this point, that "progress", in some cases, meant two or three words, not even a full sentence, but hey, two or three is a lot more than zero, and some of the days it was more like a few hundred. The added pressure of "gotta make progress every day" didn't really change anything once I had the document open, but it was an additional incentive to actually do that part. So, that's our lesson learned this year, for you and me both. Open the document. Look at it with your eyeballs, every day that you can.

I did not finish the final chapter of Ghani. I wrote most of the second scene (of three), but it's slow going. Perrin's not too hard to write for short or casual conversation, but there's a lot more of him in this one, and it's hard. Also having some of that, y'know, wrapping up a project anxiety. This is the final chapter of, by word count, a novella, and it has to work as an ending, even though this fic is also the first in a series. At least, with no release date for season two, I don't yet have a real deadline, just a general sense of urgency. 

I didn't even start on trying to write, on the computer, 5000 words of the park service faeries novel. This one was always kind of a reach - the idea was to start on it after I finished Ghani, but I didn't finish Ghani, so. I'm not terribly upset, but it does mean I'll need to create another opportunity to try drafting fiction in a word processor. I'll probably take a stab at it after I finish Ghani, even though it won't be NaNo anymore, assuming I can finish Ghani before the new season comes out, and if I can't do that, I'm not really sure what we're doing here. I do have some kind of feelings about the fact that it's been most of a year, a year less a few days perhaps, since I worked on any original fiction of any kind. Even the work I've done on things other than Cierto/Ghani has been on other fanfiction. Those who follow me on AO3 will see that work eventually, but for the time being they're side projects, and prioritized accordingly. 

So, that was NaNo 2022. Uneventful, as these things go. We will resume your regularly scheduled programming later this week. Until then, be gay, do crimes, and read all the things.

NaNo Goals 2022

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 As longtime readers know, I don't try to write 50,000 words in November. This is the first year on record when 50,000 words would not, indeed, exceed my entire annual fiction writing goal. I do, however, always try to do something, to both contribute to and benefit from the general "getting lots of writing done" energy of the month. This year, we have three goals. 

1. Write fiction every day. I already write every day at this point, even if it is sometimes only for like five minutes, but maybe, I don't know, 1/3 of days, all of that is blogging, freelance work, or other things that aren't fiction. I don't ever, ever set annual goals that can be "failed" by a missed day, but NaNo is different. We'll see how well we do.
   
2. Finish Ghani. That's my Wheel of Time TV series fic, of which I am currently writing the last chapter of the current installment. Any day now, we could get a release date for Season 2, and I already needed to finish Ghani before it begins, but I am also and specifically going to have this final chapter completed and published before the end of the month, even if it becomes clear in a few weeks that Season 2 will not start until later. 
3. Write 5000 words of original fiction, on the computer. This is the big one, and it's kind of a reach. I wrote more than 5000 words of fiction in October, but it was pretty much all fanfiction, and this goal is on top of an already rather ambitious goal for progress on my fic. The big thing, though, is that this is my attempt at actually drafting on the computer again, for the first time in years, which, if successful, should improve my overall speed considerably. 

 So that's what we're doing. As always, the exigencies of NaNo may put some strain on the usual blog posts, although it is my hope and intention to have the next Dresden Files post - which is currently partly completed - ready for you in the next couple of days. There will be a follow-up at the end of the month to discuss how I did and what I learned. Until next time, be gay, do crimes, and read all the things.