November & NaNoWriMo Wrap up

So this month was an adventure. I’m not sure where most of it went to be honest. I was doing really well that first week. Getting up early getting a few hundred words in. Then I fell back into the struggle that is full-time school, full-time work, and being a human. Somewhere started slacking, which happened right around when my last paper was due shocker I know.

I’m not upset though. How could I be. I’m feeling closer to being me than I had in a long, long time. I will credit that 100% to the Witchlanders, and NaNoWriMo. Reminding me of things that are wholly me. Reminding me of the creative side of me that had felt so suffocated, not that I could figure out what had me out of sorts until after. 

I stopped writing about halfway through the month. You’ll see it pick up a bit here and there. I thought I’d sit down over Thanksgiving break and hammer out all the words. In reality? I needed a break. A break from everything. So I went and saw Fantastic Beasts with a friend, I ate too much food, I shopped for my family’s Christmas presents, I read the excerpt of Susan Dennard’s Bloodwitch, and I took photographs for Bookstagram, I even started to indulge in a secret project for a friend that one day I hope to tell you all about. I let my soul settle a bit. 

Victoria Schwab says there are writing days and there are thinking days. I had a lot of thinking days. I went out and lived. And it payed off. 

I realized that I wanted to get through the story so much that a lot of what I did write, wasn’t what was in my heart. Bits are, but in trying to figure out how I’d involve a character, I got lost. Then, then I had an epiphany. I figured out how to get from the beginning through the middle. I knew how I’d get to the ending that is so clear in my head. And it came from a line in NCIS. That was all it took for those pieces rambling around up there to come together. 

So I started a bit fresher. I’m going back to the idea I had at the beginning, and not what I want it to be. But honestly. From here until potentially April, for the next Camp NaNo I’m going to settle down harder with the Susan Dennard way of plotting draft 0. Note cards and ideas, working my way around my world. I need to know a lot more than I do if I ever want this story to be the best thing that it can be. 

So I’m ending, ending with just over 10,000 words closer to the story this will one day be. Ending after cheering friends on to win their own NaNo. Ending after falling in love with fall and our world again. I helped raise numbers for The Mighty Pens, and together we hit 1.6 million words and over $6,500. Isn’t that amazing?

Thank you all, for those that cheered me on, for those that struggled with me, for those that I’ve interacted with at all over the last 30 days in person or online. I’m surrounded by a community of love and support and I couldn’t be more grateful. So here’s to you all, and here’s to the last month of the year. Go out and hit those last few goals. I’m cheering for you. 

P.S. I was able to read the Bloodwitch Excerpt, and A Gathering of Shadows if you’d like to see my book reviews! I can already promise you’ll be getting more reviews next month. Cheers!