Objectively, November is the worst possible time for me to try to write a novel. In November, we usually have two family birthdays, a family holiday, and usually — though bizarrely not always for the same reason — a trip lasting three days to a week.
However, the first year I did Nanowrimo, I wrote Darkship Thieves.
Since then, I’ve finished other novels in November, and once two novels.
So, this year, having lost my mind, and also needing my butt kicked hard, if nothing else to pull me out of this vile, formless depression, I’m going to try to finish all the stories that I have in various stages of completion.
All together it’s not much, probably 80k words, but of course there are difficulties inherent in bouncing among the novels. OTOH I’ve lived with all of them so long that it’s time.
Now, I’m not joining Nanowrimo proper — I don’t think I ever did, though I might have joined the first year, back in 2002 (?) when I wrote Darkship Thieves. But while I might have posted wordage on line, I never did the get togethers, etc, because i was busy laying down words.
I’ll be honest, I might fall on my face this year. some years I have.
BUT I’m going to try to finish:
No Man’s Land
Winter Prince
Witch’s Daughter
Chalked up and Dead
And Rhodes to Hell.
Okay, so I miscounted. that’s five novels. It’s probably not doable. But I’m going to give it a spin.
I’ll post progress here. If I progress, that is 😉
See you on the other side.
Mad Genius Club 
27 responses to “November Novel Writing Through The Years!”
Three. Days.
I have them. Three of them. Days, that is. That is all I expect to have in the month of November. Anything else would be wildly, unbelievably optimistic bordering on cackle-laughing insane. The pile of work ahead of me at work would be unreasonable for three people, but they have me, so I guess they think it’s fine? That I told them it would get worse before it gets better has apparently settled into no management minds.
But during that time, there will be days. Three of them, to be exact. That no work at work will be done, because I am not there.
I think I will write. Maybe it’s time for a little… side project.
I’m cackle laughing insane. I have maybe two weeks.
November is probably the second worst month to try to write a novel, with December being the worst. Today millions of women are looking at their houses and saying, Dear Lord, Thanksgiving is in three weeks and this kitchen is a mess. I’ve got to shop, write cards, decorate, cook…two minutes ago it was summer dog days and now we are frantically domestic.
Of course I’ve tacked a bathroom renovation into the week before Thanksgiving and a big trip into the week after! 😃
It’s the worst, for us, since we homeschool (so the Christmas break isn’t a disruption to normal schedules, even though we do the 12 days of Christmas), it’s when Everyone Goes Visiting, and it starts with the Halloween hangover, now with bonus folks complaining because they think they saw something Christmas themed before football after turkey. [:eyeroll:]
We’re not doing the “leave home for a whole week before Thanksgiving” this year, at least.
EVERYTHING is a mess here. And the kids and their spices (One wife, one fiance) will be joining us.
I’m fundamentally broken as a woman, I think. My kitchen is a complete disaster, and I’m looking at it and saying, “Eh, I’ll do the dishes, run a rag over the counter, and it’ll be fine.”
Only copious quantities of Scary Putty can help with my kitchen. Or a wrecking ball and bulldozer. Too many years of neglect and decades of clutter.
And I’m just trying to finish one novel, with 70K words written and finding little continuity demons crawling out of every page.
Well, I did the first step. Save the wordage on the novel I’m trying to add 50,000 words to
*Waves pompoms*
As for me, I’ve got a short novel to polish, its sequel trying to shove scenes into my head, Stupid Fanfic ditto, a short story in the same setting as the novels (which I ought to be writing instead instead of Sequel or Stupid Fanfic), and Guilder to frame for it.
I just finished the Next + 1 Familiar Generations novel. I need to research the next Merchant book, and the next Elect story is lurking, waiting … Oh, and that really dark fantasy story that bopped me over the head two weeks ago. SIGH.
I’m not NANOing, because Life. But I’ll write.
I’ll count it a win if I finish this damn short story before the end of the month.
F-it. I’ll commit to 30m writing time a day. No clue what the word count will be, but I did finally break the structure jam on w(n)ip with the South Park recommendation. (Put every plot point, and each needs to link to the other with either a ‘therefore’ or a ‘but’. Actually helped a lot.)
I’m a little over 40,000 words into ‘Texas in the Med’, and I think I’m about half done, plot-wise. Looking to get it out by the end of the year.
I don’t know if I’ll do the NaNoRiMo this year, but I am writing. Two stories, even!
…okay, one of them is porn, but it has a plot because that is the second-best form of foreplay I can think of…
Good luck!
A Military Fantasy? Me? Hahahahaha! I’m insane.
I’m writing the cursed book. You can write this.
My second concern is that there’s not enough story there for even 50K words. Eh. Just throw in a couple of disastrous tries and it’ll stretch, right?
Strangely enough, I think NaNo might be a bit of a break. In October, I was trying desperately to get my NaNo novel completely outlined, and finish any remaining short stories that I wanted to submit this year (with the exception of my steampunk story, because that’s going to be a chapter of the novel). At the moment, I’m looking at November and thinking, “So all I’ve got to do is 1667 words a day? Cool.”
I’m also trying to do a writing retreat in the second week. No spouse, dog, or child. No video games or internet access. Just me, a word processor, and a choice between writing or staring at a blank screen.
So guilt sons and spice into doing all your householdy stuff. Promise them acknowledgements for clearing the way.
Sons don’t live with us, and only coming for the day. it would be mena.
I’m going to try to finish the (extremely) rough draft of Colors.
I expect there to still be holes and “X NEEDS TO HAPPEN” all over the place. But I’m going to try. The bunnies keep trying to drag me into other stories and I’ve got to get the rough before that gets serious!
I’m not doing NaNo this year, alas. I’m in edits. Makes me sad.
I’m hoping to get a bunch of novelettes and novellas finished to use as rewards for higher tiers and stretch goals in the Kickstarter I’m planning to launch in January. (I’m doing a collection of 100 flash fiction and short stories for Make 100). I have altogether too many half-written things in my files, and this is motivation to clean them out during the winter downtime before convention season starts again with Hall of Heroes in March (or at least we hope it does, and someone doesn’t pull a corker on the level of COVID-19 to shut everything down for the election).
Oooh, organizing them?
By theme, how much work they need, world….?
Embrace the power of AND