November Books: 5/6 (Songs of Power, The Keeper of Magical Things, and The Night Guest)
(The Night Guest shared a lot of similarities with One of Those Faces from last month that I didn’t like at all. This one was less convoluted and actually made sense, but I didn’t really like it still, so I guess we’re off that genre for a bit.)
Let’s see, as of yesterday, I’m at…31.5K. So we’re good on my backup goal of 35K, but it’s unlikely that 50K is going to happen. Which is fine! I knew it was a long shot going into it.
I’m also not sure what to do with this story. Part of me wants to be like, eh, you know, it was good to get back into things, but it’s not actually very good and maybe we should just abandon it.
But arguably no book is good while you are writing it, and it’s hard to tell whether or not it’s actually bad, or you just feel weird about it because you’re the one creating it.
And, if you recall, I chose something hard! I’ve got two different, at first seemingly unrelated, viewpoints. I’ve got an in-book important text (which is probably my favorite bit, not going to lie. It’s called Minnie Hopkins and the Well of Memories). I’ve got to balance the beats of both viewpoints and also not give away how they’re interconnected too early.
So it’s possible that it feels like pulling teeth just because it’s a lot, and not because it’s inherently bad.
I might see if I can get a writing friend to read what exists when November is done here and see what they think about the story.
But, also, traditionally, I don’t keep going on the same story come December. There have been several years where I’ve tried, but December is historically a very busy month with holidays and activities and all that jazz, and the amount of time I have to write is much less. Plus there’s always some burnout post-Nano (which is always interesting to me, because I often do write 20-35K in other months without issues) so the motivation to keep going on a story I’ve beat my head against for past thirty days is very low.
What normally happens is: I do Nano in November. I attempt to continue in December. This goes very poorly and I get mad at myself either for not getting anywhere or for trying when I know this always go bad. I put the story away until January or February or March, when I work through to the end of the draft.
I suspect why I attempt to keep going so often is because once you hit 50K (IF you hit 50K) you get a endorphin kick. I’ve done it! I’ve won! Plus I almost always write fantasy and 50K is about halfway, so the hard part of the story is done. (Alternately, with some genres, like the year I wrote the cozy mystery, 50K is about the whole draft and why not just finish it then.)
But this year we won’t be at 50K, so I’m not feeling the urge to keep going even though I know it’s a bad idea.
So, yeah, definitely not continuing into December. Though I might go through Dec 4, which is thirty days after I started (on Nov 4) and is the deadline I set for myself in TrackBear.
So, December. If we’re not continuing the draft, what are we doing?
Well, I might take the month off. It is very busy and I do tend to get very stressed. I could use my free time to play Steam games (I might have bought 3 more on Black Friday sales) or work on my travel sketchbook (still about a year behind–currently working on the cruise we took over LAST Thanksgiving break).
Alternately, I might work on one of those short story projects I was considering for November. Maybe the horror ones, because there was a section in my Nano novel I wrote last week that veered very close to horror, and I was reminded that I am very good at atmospheric creepy and that my fantasy novels are probably not the place to do it. But maybe the interconnected fantasy ones! But probably the horror ones.
Anyway, that’s how things are sitting, squiders. How are you feeling? If you’re American, I hope your Thanksgiving went well!
See you next week!
