The December Plan

Hey look! A bonus post. In December, no less.

So with the wrap-up of NaNo, and the start of December, I am, oddly, feeling more inspired and ready to work than ever. I guess one benefit of not truly participating in NaNo is not getting the post-NaNo blues.

Since I didn't burn myself out writing 50k last month, and I'm feeling motivated, I'm going to try to get some stuff done to make up for it. I'm going to try to do somewhere between 25k and 35k. That will put me closer to what I had hoped to write this year, and it will give me a chance to work toward a few of my projects I had abandoned. Maybe I can salvage some of my goals.

Here's my plan.

Week One: 5k – finish writing my December Café story, then do Towers of Kansas edits. Those are my two big obligations for December, so they come first.

Week Two: 10k – add another few chapters to Witches, while it's still fresh. I managed to get to about 10k before NaNo wrapped up, and I'm finally getting into the story. I need to build an outline based on my brainstorming document and tweak a few things before moving forward, but if I can double its word count, it will ensure that someday I will go back to this novel. I've rarely abandoned something I've put that much work into, plus I'll have a solid foundation and direction for when I want to go back to it.

Week Three: 10k – This is where I have options as far as projects. If I'm on a roll with Witches, then hey, I'll keep working. If not, then I might try to throw some words at Sally Prescott 2.1. I did promise her I'd start the first adventure in season two this year, and got stuck at 2k. If I can throw 10k at it this month, I'll at least feel like I almost finished another adventure. But. If I'm not feeling it, then I might switch over to Scions of Mythos.

Week Four: 10k – I'm off work this week (probably). I have until Friday the 29th before I head to Manhattan for the holidays. So, regardless of what I do during week three, this is the week I dive into Scions of Mythos. If I've written 10k on it already, I'll add another 10k. If I worked on something else up to this point, then it'll just be 10k. My big goal before NaNo was to get it to 60k, or approximately halfway through the book. I didn't manage it then, but if I can get it to 60k before the end of the year, I'll consider it a success.

So much for my plan to be idle in December. I've just been so idle for the last two months, I'm ready to actually do things! And there's so much to do.

I may or may not do my end-of-the-year post later this month. I may use January to talk about it, instead, since I still have a whole month to try to achieve my goals for the year. Some of my goals, like publication, obviously won't be possible in the next thirty days. Those were goals made in ignorance, anyway. As for the rest? Well, I'll address that when the time comes.

Happy holidays, friends. And if I don't update before then, have a safe and happy New Year.