I really can’t fathom at this point how I won NaNoWriMo in 2016. What demonic powers took hold of me then?!

I’ve enjoyed trying to keep up with NaNo this year, but man, my writing progress standards have changed.

As of last night, I’ve written 1,491 words so far this November. Not bad, considering some of my recent writing totals, but not good enough.

I have a few excuses though (when do I not).

First of all, I finished the first draft of my Mythology  series. That’s not an excuse, come to think of it. It’s just nice to put a period on something. The next step is to let my editor read them before making revisions, and find an illustrator. I’ve been procrastinating on that front, because I do have neither the energy nor the time to sift through applications on Upwork. I’m going to reach out to an artist I’ve worked with previously and check her availability before subjecting myself to writing fifty rejection notes and one acceptance.

Secondly! Jessie and I met with my friend and fellow author MLS Weech this week! It was nice, because I got to prove to one of our readers that Jessie is, in fact, a real person and not an alternate personality of mine.

She exists! And the three of us had a good time helping Weech’s trivia team and hashing out some details for… dun dun duuuuuuuun…….

AWESOME CON!

Yes! Jessie and I will be attending DC’s Awesome Con to sell our books! And we’re (very likely) sharing a table with Weech! This has been in the tentative works ever since I visited his booth during Baltimore Comicon, so I’m glad we’ve all agreed to do it. And we’re always super stoked.

Thirdly, because I’m still running through my excuses for not writing much this week, I hit a small bump in the road. Upon completing my myth drafts, I moved back to The Warden of Everfeld: Legacy, as planned.

However, I had trouble progressing in the section I left off on. Something didn’t feel right. I was trying to move a particular scene forward before moving on to the next scene, which is really the meat of the section. I didn’t want to overlook potentially interesting plot points in the first scene, but I also didn’t want to just drag it out to fill space.

So I moved the second scene to the start of the section. Kick it off with a bang, then move to the other scene as a wrap-up. I think this will work a bit better narratively, and it allows my POV character some time to mull over events in the first scene before wrapping up the seciton in the follow-up scene.

Did that make sense?

I don’t care. I feel like I’ve shaken off some rust, so I’m hoping to make some legit headway this coming week.

Goals for 11/16

1. Write 5,000 words for WoEL
2. Reach out to that one illustrator about more work
3. Maybe bug my editor about her progress on my first set of myths

Steve D