November Conclusion

First of all, apologies for not posting during the entire month. The reason is pretty obvious – I was putting all of my creative energy into finishing NaNoWriMo. And when I wasn’t doing that, I was either doing my masters, trying to keep up with work/social life, and getting ill. Fantastic time to get ill really (but I have medicine from my wonderful doctor now so it should start getting better).

First of all, the big news. I won – I wrote 50,000 words in the month. Yay!

However, this year was really difficult. As you can see, for most of the month I was actually behind where I should have been, and although I caught up at the end, it was difficult to get the words down on the page. Also, the novel I said I was going to write – The Blood Within? That’s didn’t really happen. I got about 10K down on it, and then it just stalled. I couldn’t seem to get it out of my head and onto the page.

So I swapped projects, choosing something which I knew I could get out of my head and write down. It’s probably never going to see the light of day, but it got me writing.

This was actually the first year where I doubted that I could make the 50K. Giving that I’ve been overachieving for a few years now, that was a pretty scary thought. But, I have to remember, that I was doing a lot this year. And actually, managing the 50,000 words alongside everything else that I was doing? Not a bad feat.

So how is the other stuff doing? Well we’ve started the dissertation preparation module in my master’s course, which has me internally screaming every time I have to think about it, but I do think I have an idea for what I want to do, which is a really good start. And I’m mostly on top of that work, which is good.

Work is…well, at least it’s nearly Christmas.

Social life is good, and the tabletop games I’m playing in continue to be excellent. Actually, I’ve been invited to play in a new one that’ll be starting up next year and i’m super excited for that.

The LIFE BOSS hit pretty hard this month. That’s been on and off terrible, but I am getting it sorted out, slowly, but getting there. Stress is a big thing for me at the moment, but I plan on spending December taking things a little easier, and the 365K club comes to a close at the end of the year, so that’s another thing I can take off my plate. That’s actually going pretty well, and I’m sure you’ll hear about that before the end of the year.

So yeah, November was hard, but I am glad that I did it, and I’m super glad that it’s over. December is going to be getting things back on track, back on a steady progress level, rather than the frantic pace it’s been for November. And next year in November, I’ll have finished my degree, so there’ll be more time and brain space for writing epic amounts in a month.

I hope that if you did NaNoWriMo, that the month was rewarding for you, whether you hit the goal or not.