Hello all!
It seems like it has been forever since I last posted an update here. The past few months have been wild with work and judo and everything else in between. First a quick update over the last few months, and then onward with the plans for the rest of 2019.
In the past few months, I have started with a new medical company at my job, which is just about as stressful as it sounds, starting and adjusting to the new company and the lack of trust that causes in the patients, especially since not all the pieces are quite in place yet. Along with that, the Judo club I have been going to since July of 2017 closed its doors at the end of April. That means that along with the new medical company at work, I’m now trying to help start a new judo club as well.
All of these new activities and new projects have made it difficult to write over the past few months, but luckily that turned around in June. I finally finished my NaNoWriMo project from 2018 and broke through the huge block I had had for months. That primed me for what I’ve been working on since July.
Camp NaNoWriMo!
This year for Camp NaNo, I’m working on a piece that I started in 2010 and then put away for a while, or got stuck and then got busy with school, I can’t quite remember. I titled it The Kiss, and that name just stuck. So far, with five days of a lot of writing to look back on, things are going well. I set my goal for 25K and I’m sitting at around 10K once I add today’s word count.
So far, the story is cooperating well, but we’ll see how that goes for the rest of the month.
Looking back on my writing plans from earlier this year, I’ve realized I’m probably not going to reach my goals that I set in January, before everything seemed to hit.
I had wanted to write one million words from November 1st, 2018 to November 1st, 2019, but judging by the word counts I’ve had in the past few months, sitting around just about 150K for the last eight months, I doubt I’m going to make one million words unless I do nothing but write for eight to twelve hours a day. So I’m changing my writing goals now, in July.
Instead of one million words, I’m going to do my best and write every day and see how far I get. Whether it’s five words, or five thousand words, I’m going to see how far I can get if I do a little bit (or a lot) of writing daily. The goal, I’ve had to remind myself, isn’t number of words, but projects finished. However many words that takes.
Over the years I’ve been working on my series, I’ve left a lot of holes to fill. There are parts of each book written, parts that need to be typed up, and parts that I haven’t even fleshed out since I’ve changed the series so many times. Finally, I think I have a decent trajectory of where I want the series to go, so it’s time to go back and fill in the holes in the months before November.
In November, I plan to start book nine of the series, which I had intended to be the last book in the series. Thanks to plot bunnies, and of course lovable characters, book nine will now be the penultimate book. I’m hoping that if I stay motivated enough, and continue to write every day, I can have that book finished by January of 2020.
There will be a lot going on, but I think if I stay focused, I can get it all done and continue my writing dreams.
In short, here are my plans until 2020:
July: Camp NaNoWriMo The Kiss. Goal- minimum 25K, but I want to see how far I get if I write every single day. It’s not too late to join me
August: Continue The Kiss; Continue with books 3, 4 and 5 of the LOVED series. Goal- Anywhere from 25K upwards.
September: Finish The Kiss (if not complete); Continue with books 3, 4 and 5 of the series. Possibly attend a local writing conference (It’s in the works). Goal- 25K and upwards.
October: Finish up any projects that aren’t complete by the end of the month. Plan book 9 for NaNoWriMo 2019. Goal- Minimum of 30K.
November: NaNoWriMo! Book 9 of the series. Goal- 50K minimum (to win), but I plan to shoot for at least 100K.
December: Finish book 9. Supplement with fanfiction for a palate cleanse. Goal- minimum 25K or to completion.
We’ll see how things go, but stay tuned for updates!
