Month: November 2013

So it’s been a while since I last blogged (read three weeks) and it’s NaNo which has been fun, although really busy.

First off the stuff I’ve been doing that’s not NaNo, but still super cool.

<– This. I launched the paperbacks for Sherdan’s Prophecy and Sherdan’s Legacy. I know only one is in the picture but both are getting there, ( I had some snaffu with the dark green and the printers) so that was a lot of fun, as parties often are.

It took some time out of NaNo, but I don’t think I mind. Also taking a chunk of time out of NaNo but totally worth it was the TRC Christmas fair I mentioned a few blogs back. It was awesome and I had three books in print for it, as you can see from another cute photo of me with a table full of books.

This is the first time I’ve done something like that and it was super fun and had the added bonus of raising money for my favourite charity. I met some great people, sold a bunch of books and hung out with other amazing creatives for a day. It also led to some online sales after which is also awesome.

Of course all this did have an impact on NaNo so currently I’m behind the 52k word target I’m meant to be at for today. Also I’ve had more snaffu with the book I intended to write, Sherdan’s Country.

So I stopped writing it at 38k and gave up. I know I was forcing myself to write and it was mostly just churning out crap so I stopped. Instead I’m writing the story I actually wanted to write, a short story for an anthology that had a december deadline anyway. By the end of the year I should be at the same place I was anyway, assuming I can get Sherdan’s Country going again, but it does mean I’ve managed to get myself out of my rut and my current word count for the month is 49,550 words. I’m still aiming for 60k and as I said I’m a bit behind, so I think I better get back to that.

So I’m doing this challenge again, just like  I did both of the previous two years. I’m writing Sherdan’s Country, as you can see from the progress bars to the right. This is the third book in this series and has been very easy to write so far.

I’m at 19k as of now and still going fairly strong. I’ve slowed a little, but I think it’s mostly because I’m writing a chapter I’ve not plotted at all at the moment. I only realised I needed it yesterday evening as I was going to bed.

So far there’s been a few surprises for me, especially on Anya’s side of events. She’s acting on impulse a lot and it’s proving quite interesting to write.

Sherdan is the one I’m most proud of. Since Sherdan’s Prophecy he’s grown a lot and I’m really enjoying writing from his point of view.

As NaNoWriMo is going so well I’m seriously considering trying to write the entire book this month, not just the 60k I was aiming for, but I need another couple of 4k+ days to make me really confident about going for such a mammoth number of words in only one month and I’m slower today and not available to write this evening so we’ll see.

I’ve also got quite a few events mid-month which will swallow some of my time as I get closer. Most notably the print launch of book 1 and 2 in the Sherdan series, Sherdan’s Prophecy and Sherdan’s Legacy.

It’s a very Sherdan themed month.

For those who want to keep track themselves you can find my NaNoWriMo stat page here. I update that several times a day with my progress.