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Keep doing your best! <3

Day 6 of NanoWrimo! And I STILL have a sore throat. I hate allergies and it is concerning the amount of lollipops that I have gone through BUT I WROTE!

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8,000 words is no laughing matter! You should be proud of the work that you did. Inspiration will come and you'll return to your project. Hype yourself back up, and then rock it out!

Take a moment to be proud of yourself for what you did. It wasn't easy, but you did it!

Happy Writing

Creativity is such a fickle, inexplicable thing

Going into NaNoWriMo I was capital P Prepared. I had the idea months ago. I thought about it a lot, I outlined, I researched, I was ready.

Then over 30 days I barely scribbled out 8000 words, each one seemingly more difficult than the last.

Then it was December. I put away that draft for now. I had a little idea wrinkling around my head since Monday, so I figured I'd try to write it out of my brain just to be free of it.

I managed 2000 words in a single night.

I cannot explain it. This little story is a trifle. I'll write it up, maybe edit it, then whether I toss it up on AO3 or not, I'll probably forget about it before the new year. But whatever stubbornness prevents me from writing what I want, it DEMANDS I orchestrate this piece.

Words for the word God, I guess.

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CONGRATS! Finishing a project and reaching your goal all in one month! How amazing!

I'm super proud of you, and wish you so much more success in the months to come with continuing this amazing undertaking!

The Ruby Falls - NaNoWriMo 2022 Debrief

What was I aiming for?

To finish the first draft of this story.

So how did I do?

I did it! I finished the first draft of The Ruby Falls on day 21, which coincidentally was the same day I "won" Nano. I even had some time to do a bit of rewriting... However I may have to revisit that because I'm not sure of it's quality.

Stats!

Total writing time (h): 53:38:30 Total writing time (D): 2.24 Average writing time per day (h): 01:46:47 Wordiest day: 2nd, 9520 w/c Words per hour (avg): 1,042 Average Session Duration: 00:19:38 Final word count for NaNoWriMo: 53,473 Current word count for the Document: 181,884

How does this compare to previous years?

About average I think. It wasn't terrible, and it wasn't great. The words came in a consistent trickle, and I felt okay most of the month with this.

I only started recording timed stats for 2019, so I don't have enough data to say for sure, but I think 1,042w/h is a little lower than my mean. I know getting ill and then the subsequent exhaustion that followed was not great for my words/hour rate, and in the latter part of the month I rarely went over 700w/h.

I'm not terribly upset about this years performance - it was more important to me that I finish the story than I beat my 4-day record. So while this year was mediocre, I'm okay with that.

What’s Next?

Rewrite and editing (my detested); then beta-read (my never-done-before); final edit pass and posted.

Last year I rather naively said that I would have The Ruby Falls posted by the end of Oct this year, because I was assuming I'd do Camp Nano and finish it then. I'm now considering if the same timeframe would be enough for the rewrite etc in 2023. IDK, we'll see.

At this point I'm just "We'll get there when we get there" 😆

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This is so important!

So you didn’t win NaNoWriMo.

Y’know what you did do, though?

You:

Started a habit

Committed to something

Honed your writing craft

Probably learned a bit of editing

Made the habit a bit easier for yourself when you do pick it back up

Became comfortable with your writing

Found a good stress reliever

Improved your brain’s general capacity

But most importantly, you taught yourself how to fail.

Failing isn’t bad. It’s a part of life. Even if you only wrote 15k words, you still did every other thing on that list. An author is going to fail a million times, that’s the reality of world building.

Look at God and tell him he made a perfect Earth lol.

But all joking aside, you tried. NaNoWriMo isn’t about winning, it’s about trying. It’s about giving yourself a chance, and if you make it, hey, great! I’m proud of you! But I’m also proud if you didn’t, because you simply gave yourself the chance. Every crazy thing in your life — school or work or kids or chronic illnesses — and you still managed to try. It’s valiant.

If you’re done, walk away. But if you’re not, you can always set a new goal, and try again.

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Congratulations on reaching your goals! That's so amazing!

Taking a look at your own work and pulling it apart can be such a painful thing to do, and you shouldn't beat yourself up over it! You did something amazing this month: something bordering on superhuman! And you should allow yourself a moment to feel a little self-indulgent and proud of yourself!

I wish you continued progress on your writing, whether that takes the form of more words, or editing your work!

I'm 3 for 6! Someday I'll go back and do second drafts of these things. There were a couple chapters in there that might be salvageable.

I will say, NaNoWriMo has taught me planning and discipline, which are key. Unfortunately, it's also inadvertently taught me to just be a sloppy writer who never edits, uses whatever sentence structure comes to mind, and relishes in the fact that his stuff is output crap ... which are bad habits to pick up when you are a technical writer for a living, and people actually expect you to use proper grammar.

So I technically finished at 1AM on November 30, but then learned another fun fact: Different apps will count your words differently, and if you are somewhat OCD, you will stay up another hour adding 500 words to your novel rather than spend the rest of your life living with that nagging feeling that you "didn't really win in 2022."

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Jenni is doing amazing! Trial and error is one of the hardest parts of writing for me: knowing that I put in effort to make something, and then don't want to keep it...

Remember to save the writing you've decided won't make it into the final product! You never know when there will be use for it, later!

And congratulations on the progress you made during November! Happy Writing. ♥

And what do we do after NaNoWriMo ends?

We rip out an entire sub-plot because I suddenly don’t like it and I can’t write further until it is gone.

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That averages to over 1,500 words per day! That is such an amazing accomplishment, and you should be total proud of yourself! I know I am!

Congratulations on making such amazing progress on your memoir, and good luck with continued writing in the future.

I Didn't Win NANOWRIMO but,

I Didn’t Win NANOWRIMO but,

I didn’t win, but I did manage to put together 46,444 words for the rewrite of my memoir, which I will take down the old one and replace with this one once I am done. It will be much longer than the first one for sure and hopefully better written. Tessa –  Advocate for mental health and invisible illnesses New Author’s Website – http://www.tessadeanauthor.wordpress.com Author – Old Writing…

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Take a moment to sit, and relax, and drink a warm cup of your favorite warm beverage, and realize you just did something amazing! Reflect on your progress and realize what a superhero you are!

Congrats on a great NaNoWriMo, and Happy Writing in the days to come. ♥

what am I supposed to do with myself now that I don’t have to write 1,667 words every day. I have so much free time all of the sudden

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CONGRATULATIONS!

Reaching these goals is so amazing and can feel so uplifting and inspiring. I'm so glad you were able to accomplish what you set out for, and I hope that you continue with making amazing progress in the future!

Happy Writing ♥

It’s over.

My gosh, y’all. 50k!! And with that, I’m back in the world of the living.

The draft of my BkDk Big Bang fic is finished. Now we’re in final editing stages, and the story will begin posting on December 17th with chapter 1. The rest of NaNo was spent on my old Pokemon wip from 2015 ahaha 😭😭😭 But I may have a new bkdk idea started, who knows 😏 

Seriously, I know that NaNo isn’t possible for everyone. I work full time but I don’t have kids and it’s only the one job (and I may or may not have done a lot of work on the clock). But even though this was my 4th NaNo, it surprises me every time. Sharpens my skills, reminds me of what I’m capable of. There wasn’t time to question plot decisions, so I just slapped them down and hey, they’re working so far.

It’s a chance not to second guess and to just write as fast as you can. I was amazed, yet again, that I could. So while NaNo isn’t possible for everyone, I think doing a challenge that feels completely out of reach is a great opportunity to surprise yourself. It was huge for me the second time I did it in 2019, and the first time I won.

I just love this yearly event and wanna show it off a little. It’s not as crazy as it sounds, and you can do it!!

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Setting obtainable goals and doing what you can, when you can, especially in the face mental health, is so incredibly essential! 50,000 is an arbitrary number for the month. 1,667 is an arbitrary number in the day. Pushing yourself to exhaustion, or over-exerting your mind when you're at your limits is not going to make your novel better!

Be kind to yourself, and give yourself room to travel the path in the way that works best for you.

Congratulations on the progress you've made, and the progress you will continue to make in the future. ♥ I'm proud of you.

(Image description: two graphs chronicling my nanowrimo progress in 2020. The first is a graph that shows im consistently under goal word count for most if november. The second shows an average of under 1k words until mid November where i jump to an average of 7.5k words a day, with November 29th's data point spiking to a 10k word day)

In 2020, I wrote 2 90k word stories each. One of them was in November for NaNoWriMo.

I was super proud of that (and that 10k words in one day moment), but my writing productivity tanked after that year. Some of it was depression/fatigue/insomnia related. Some of it was burnout.

November is a trying time for me. Some will say, oh the spirit of NaNo isnt the word count, it's writing every day.

To which i say, you do you.

But, for those of us where that isnt sustainable, word count isn't everything. Writing every day isnt everything.

Happiness as a goal i find reductive, so i cant really say do what makes you happy in good faith, but find the writing journey/path that's accessible to you.

And you'll be golden.

Im still trying to find that for myself, and i hope you do too.

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Finished?

For those who met their objectives in November, congratulations! For those who didn’t quite manage what they set out to do, think about how much you did accomplish. If you set out to write a full-length novel and only completed half of it, not problem, you now have half a WIP you didn’t have when you started.Take a deep breath and keep going. You’re well on the way to success.

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Don't forget how amazing of an accomplishment it is, whatever your feelings about the end product! You did a stupendous thing, both by reaching your goal, and by creating something from your own imagination!

Congrats on your victories, and here's to more successes in the future!

Realized my feelings of lackluster about finishing NaNo yesterday were because I was left unsatisfied with the story I wrote. Which happens! Because it’s a first draft!

Anyways, today I started rewriting the novel I’ve been working on for the last two years for the *checks docs folder* fourth time.

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Congrats on hitting so many goals! Don't forget to give yourself a moment to breathe and appreciate the work you've done so far!

Good luck on the rest of the draft, and on future rewrites!

NaNo Done!

Anyways I suffered but I got all the badges so I guess I've accomplished things. Unfortunately, this draft isn't done so I have to continue to suffer for a while. And then the real work comes in the editing because this draft is... something.

Final Word Count: 55183

Final Page Count: 156

What's This Fic About?

Young Jim and Spock meet at a San Francisco high school and become friends. Yup. That's it.

Featuring

adorable 12 year old glasses Jim

constantly cold parka Spock

sandwich-based platonic courtship rituals

blanket forts

intimidation by horse

Spock doesn't understand the difference between domestic dogs and coyotes

camping trip of friendship

accidental hot chocolate intoxication

snow

best friends forever! (for now... bwahaha...)

When Are Chapters Coming Out?

Spring, sometime. My original projection was January but uh... lol that ain't gonna happen, I still have to finish this draft and editing it is going to be hell in a handbasket. Stay tuned!

NaNo Graphs and Badges!

Happy December everyone <3

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Goodbye November

Goodbye NaNoWriMo

November has come to an end, and that means another NaNoWriMo has ended, too. 2022 NaNoWriMo is in the books. And whether you “won” or not, you did it. You wrote for a month as much as you could and that is a win in my books. I hope you felt great getting those words for your story out of your imagination and down on paper or saved on your laptop. It always feels great to get your ideas out, doesn’t it? I love when I can get those thoughts out of my head and on paper. That way, my mind is calmer. Of course then other thoughts, ideas, and characters scream for my attention.

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com It never ends!

Photo by Godisable Jacob on Pexels.com But no matter how much you wrote for NaNoWriMo, take a break this month from writing. Put aside that story for a bit and give your mind time to recuperate after being used every single day for a month. Unless you are used to it. Then I say, charge ahead and keep on writing. But don’t give up! Keep writing that story, poem, whatever it was you were working on for NaNoWriMo. Your stories are important and they need to get out there. If you “won”, YYYYEEEESSSS!!! You are amazing and you did it! Now it’s time to edit it. If you didn’t hit 50,000 words, you still are amazing and you still rock since you wrote something. I know life can get in the way and make it hard to keep going. But again DON’T GIVE UP! Keep writing and you will hit your goal by finishing it on your own time. That is all that matters. Writing in a month can be hard. And whether you won or not, get ready for next year and hit that ground running. Keep doing NaNoWriMo because it is so helpful in the long run. Or if you can’t do it in Novemeber, there is always Camp NaNo in July. Or even do it in a month that isn’t too crazy. I’ve told that to others before because they said that both Novemeber and July are so crazy for them. I said then start in whatever month you can on whatever day you can, and go from there. But just write! Set that goal to at least hit 50,000 in 30 days at least once to say you did it. It is such an amazing feeling when you hit that goal in 30 days.

Photo by Ayşenur Sağlam on Pexels.com As for me, Azriel High, my Young Adult Paranormal book, is complete. I finished my book even with a few days I had to stay in bed due to really awful food poisoning. My last word count was 59,980, and I had 220 pages. I feel great about this book, though I know I need to edit it a lot. This is my third time writing this book. The first one I lost. The second one never got finished and again was lost. This one better not run away or get lost. I will cry if it does. But it is finished and now I can work on editing it and work on my other children’s books for my publisher and for my boss with Reading Gate. And of course, work on my blogs. I feel like a weight has been lifted after I finished my book. This is my third finished book and I can’t wait to spruce it up, make a lot of changes I know it needs, and send it to my publisher to see if she would like to publish it in the future. Never stop writing. Never stop making art. Just never stop living your dreams!

Photo by Jessica Lewis Creative on Pexels.com Read the full article

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SO MUCH DRAMA! The best thing in a story, in my opinion.

Congratulations on making your goal! It sounds like you made progress in more ways than one, and that's amazing!

Happy Writing ♥

NaNo '22 Complete!

Word goal: 50,000

Words written: 50,363

I kinda messed up with posting my progress the last two weeks, but I won! In a lot of ways, this is the easiest NaNo I've ever done, though of course I still had plenty of days where I was like, "I don't want to write any of this what is this outline" or "how exactly did I think this would work" and I definitely should have also been paying more attention to schoolwork, ha. Once I hit my final word count and got the coveted daily par badge, I immediately went in and removed about 8k words from my draft folder in Scrivener. When I wrote them, I felt like they fit, but they turned out to be stepping stones toward better ideas. I also restructured things a bit to hopefully make time flow better. Some interesting things that got added over the course of NaNo:

Anni's introduction, prior to her going to meet Hoven, is now waking up at Zel's rather than getting ready at home, so I get to introduce them together and give them additional time to be cute and flirtatious and develop Zel's character. A side effect of this was giving Dez more time to be impatient to hear about what happened with Hoven, and hence more time to do art with Julian.

Dez has no electrical charge, so he can't use standard capacitive touchscreens (i.e. what most touchscreen devices in our world have. I spent a while learning about styluses and such and it turns out that's complicated, and honestly it's funnier if he, the literal computer person, cannot use computers with his own fingers).

A whole lighthouse. Because when I realized Elbas Island did not have one I could not resist. I haven't decided what pattern it has yet though.

One of the Elbas Island Councillors working with Anni to set up a cover story for when she goes through customs with Dez in her suitcase. The story completely banks on said Councillor recently managing to import a used set of paint coloring and mixing machines, so of course the next step for their fictional vision for the island is "animatronics", a term they chose not because it fits Dez at all but because it sounds more innocent than "robot".

Currently, I'm ironing out the dramatic betrayal scene I wrote in the final days of NaNo, in which one of Dez's new friends tells the Council that perhaps they shouldn't be giving Dez a chance at communally supported citizenship if he doesn't plan on staying around and being part of the community, and Dez starts to worry that this really isn't going to work after all. But that's mostly happening in my head, because it's final projects season now. :D:

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Congrats on the great progress! Reaching the end of one stage in the process is always this huge feeling of relief, but also dismay, for me. But moving into the next stage, when I'm ready, is also an amazing joy!

Good luck on the rewrites!

Yesterday I began the rewrite of my NaNoWriMo project, In Bed with the Demon Lord. I never finished NaNo, since I stopped writing Demon Lord on Nov. 19, but I was able to completely outline the rewrite. Some scenes from the original version I’ll be including while others I’ll be completely discarding. (For example, the scene where the love interest uses his powers to bring a dead pigeon back to life and keep it as his minion. We don’t need dead pigeons in romance novels.) Originally I was going to wait until January to write this but I decided to start on it yesterday, while still working on my Wattpad story, since the last two weeks of November were a nice break from Demon Lord and I can continue working on it again.