November Update: NaNoWriMo

With the arrival of November comes yet another National Novel Writing Month. My eleventh year participating (although if I'm honest, it's really only the tenth year I've committed to it: the first year I wrote a thousand words then quit). My seventh year as municipal liaison.

And I'm tired.

I was tired last year, but decided to keep on keeping on. I'll get excited by the time next NaNo rolls around, I thought to myself. I'll have the time and energy to keep the region afloat. Besides, even if I don't, I have a co-ML and a whole region full of veterans to back me up.

The trouble is, we're all tired. NaNo has been an amazing way to bring us together and encourage us to develop a writing practice...but the thing is, we've all been doing it for so long, that nothing much changes in November. We already write every week. We already go out once a month to socialize. We have all taken our writing to the next level, to the point where the idea of writing quantity over quality for fifty-thousand words is ludicrous.

So we're at a weird turning point with NaNo. None of us want to lead next year. We'd all participate if one of it is, but there have been talks of mass exodus. Would anyone take over if we all disappeared? It's hard to say.

And while we can't all stick around with nostalgia as our only region, I do feel the need to leave the region in good hands before I quit. It's true, I may burn out (I may already be burned out: I've been late to every event I've gone to, I've skipped events, I have made other people write pep talks and make event reservations) if I don't quite now, but as much as NaNo and this town have done for me, I feel a lot of responsibility to take care of it. Like putting my parents in a nursing home, or something. I can't just leave them at their house, knowing their health may fail at any moment.

From a professional standpoint, it's probably time for me to retire. Trying to run a freelance editing business, write end edit my own novels, write for the Cafe every month, put out a short story collection, and potentially start a publishing company...I need my Novembers to be free and flexible. I can spend a few hours each month making sure all of the writing functions happen every month, but it's hard to put together and attend 3-5 events a week for a month. Even if it's only a month.

Part of this might be the Week Two Blues for NaNo. Some of it might be that Jack has already basically given up writing this month. Part of it might be the continued rejection of stories I think are really good. A lot of it is that I've been sick and exhausted.

I'm going to finish out this NaNo, though. I may not hit fifty thousand words. I may be the most uninspiring ML ever. The region may suffer a bit from my lack of enthusiasm. But I'll see it through this year. And next year, I may need someone to slap the ML application out of my hands.

Because unless someone takes it away from me, I will probably keep doing it forever.

It's probably a good thing I'm not doing weekly posts on the Cafe for NaNo this month. I've had nothing good to say about the event this year.

Even my novel, that was going so well the first week, I've started to dislike and not want to work on anymore. So. Right on track, basically. My pattern is that I finally get into it once I hit thirty thousand, so if I can just write ten thousand more words, it should get easier.

At least I am not alone.I have a whole bunch of writing friends to help me through this.

October Update: Weddings and Nanowrimo

Well, friends, I am officially married to Jack Campbell Jr. The honeymoon was relaxing and amazing and the wedding was fun and went off without a hitch. Well, without any big hitches, anyway. We had amazing weather for the wedding and we vacationed in California for the honeymoon, so of course the weather was perfect for that whole week, too.

The only downside to the honeymoon is that I did not get any writing done. Jack was super productive, but I mostly just relaxed and wrote in my trip journal and read a ton and emailed about last-minute wedding details. And ate and drank a ton.

As fun as it all was, I am glad it is behind me, though. It was a lot of stress and money and my life in absolute chaos. I'm relieved to be settling back into my routine.

Although that routine is already slightly off.

Because National Novel Writing Month is almost upon us. I've been working on scheduling and event planning and organizing the region for November. And also doing a bit of novel prep myself. Things will be nuts for the next month and a half. But at least I'm pretty much old hat at it by now, and I've had a ton of help from the LFK Writers, since most of them are veterans of at least a few years.

The only thing I'm sad about as far as this update goes is that I never did get any editing done on Monsters of Lawrence. I had hoped to be done with that by now, but at this rate, it looks like it's going to become another one of my 2016 projects.

My list of 2016 projects has become quite extensive. I might need to take a few steps back and prioritize some things while allowing other things to take a back burner. I doubt I'll be able to edit and submit my novel, put together a collection of all of my stories, and start a publishing company all while balancing my freelance editing projects and writing for the Cafe.

The rest of this year is dedicated to NaNo and writing one last story for the Cafe this year (a tie-in story for Monsters of Lawrence, so at least I'll be revisiting that world this year). I imagine I will post at least once during NaNo (We'll be live-blogging at the Confabulator Cafe during NaNo, so I'll try to remember to link those here, as well), and do a kind of wrap-up retrospective plus what I want to do next year type post in December.

We'll see how I feel about my project list once the holidays are over. December is usually for being lazy and catching up on reading and TV. If I can write a novel next month and a short story for January in December, I'll consider this year a success.

September Update: Progress and Deadlines

The past few weeks have been, as the upcoming ones will be, mostly dedicated to getting things ready for the wedding. We leave for our honeymoon in less than two weeks. We get married two days after we get back. We're mostly ready. I just have a dozen little small things to buy and do before the big day. I'm working on the wedding soundtrack today. It's making me want to write, honestly.

But as I was laying in bed making mental to-do lists this morning, I came to a couple of realizations. The first is that I've done a pretty amazing job reaching all of the writing and editing goals I set for myself at the beginning of this year. The other was that I could realistically take it above and beyond if I give myself some deadlines.

I have decided that I want to have my novel on submission by ConQuest next year. I mentioned that it only needs a few weeks of intensive edits to be ready. And then it just needs the query letter and synopsis and stuff for publishers and agents. I have been working on an agent list, and Rachel has promised to lend me hers, as well.

But with National Novel Writing Month coming up, and me both participating and being Municipal Liaison again, I am running out of time this year to pursue other writing endeavors.

So my goal is to have it edited before NaNo. I need to have it done by then so I can push it out the door and focus my energies on a completely different story. I don't want the pressure of my characters from Monster of Lawrence, asking when I'm going to pay attention to them. They do that enough with the next two pending books.

Between having an urban fantasy novel on submission, putting out a short story collection (I'll worry about that early next year), and having three collections and three novels worth of editing under my belt, I will actually feel worthy of participating at ConQuest next May. I felt like a baby with training wheels this year. And while I won't be a seasoned vet or anything, I will be able to rub shoulders with most of the people in attendance.

But that's only one reason. I use ConQuest as kind of a signpost these days. It's that time of the year where my creative energies get renewed, and I think about all of the things I have accomplished.

I've done a lot this year. I got MoL edited and sent to beta readers like I had planned. That was a huge step for me. Now I just need to take it this one step more. I need to get it out into the world by the end of this year.

The collection is something I can focus on early next year. I truly hope that next year I will continue to write short stories for the Cafe every month. But I also need to get back to novel writing and editing. I have a long list of books to write, and writing is just the first step.

I am still struggling with the idea that my writing isn't any good and that there's no point in putting my voice into the world, but I can't let that stop me. I need to keep trying to make progress, even if it's just going through the motions until I get the passion back. Editing is something I am good at. I can edit my own story into submission shape.

And then in November I will write.