Post NaNoWriMo

Another NaNoWriMo has come and gone.  I didn't hit the goal of 50k words.  I'm not too bummed out about it though.  I finished Hero Unit 3: Fallout, which I've been struggling with for months.  I made progress on a story that I started as whim.  I didn't think it would ever amount to much, but now I'm starting to hit my stride with it, and I like where it's going.  For me, that means my efforts over the last month were successful.

The next question is always, where do I go from here?  Well, for starters I have a read through to do on Hero Unit before I send it to my editor (yes I have an editor now).  Of course, I want to continue with my new book, though it requires quite a bit more research than anything else I've written.  The biggest challenge is to keep the momentum I gained during November.

Every year I put for the effort to participate, either officially or not, I struggle to maintain that momentum, the drive to finish books.  There are a number of reasons why, some legitimate, some not, but I always lose it.  I'm hoping this year will be different, even if it hasn't been so far.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Beginnings and Endings

When it comes to the end of a series I’m always of two minds.   There is my reader mind that is happy and sad at the same time.   Happy, because the story is wrapping up, and the characters are usually ending up in some form of happily ever after.   I’m sad, because for however long I’ve been a part of these character’s lives, I don’t really want that to end.   Then there is the writer side of things.   I ask, will this plot be satisfactorily resolved?   Does this feel like an appropriate ending?   I analyze the heck out of the thing.   This occasionally ruins the end of a book, but that’s the price I pay. The reason I’m addressing this point is simple; people have asked me if Hero Unit will have an end.   I’m not really sure.   If I was to follow the trend of a lot of the crime novels out there, a series doesn’t really end, at least not for ten or fifteen books.   It’s not like crimes stop happening.   Evil will sti...
Read more

Dramatic Fights

An interesting problem I’ve run into as a writer is where to build dramatic tension.   Often in works of fantasy writers like to use the duel as a place to build suspense, or to throw in spontaneous witticisms to help with character development.   For me, personally, the duel is a terrible place for this.   The reason I say that is because I’m a practitioner of Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA).   This is a rather broad classification used to cover a wide range of fighting styles used throughout Europe.   My group, Medieval and Renaissance Swordsmanship (MARS), focuses on swordsmanship of late Medieval and early Renaissance masters.   As a result of this study I’ve learned that duels last about ten seconds.   Not really enough time to dispense plot development. Another side benefit is I’ve learned that using wooden swords as a training tools, as is often the case in the media, is a terrible idea.   I won’t go into specifics right no...
Read more

I've felt better

One of my biggest hurdles in life is trying to work when I don't feel 100 percent.  These past few weeks I haven't been doing great.  I have a sinus infection that is just lingering.  It makes concentrating difficult, it makes caring difficult.  There are people out there, writers, and so on, that will just work through the pain and discomfort.  I've never been one of those people.  Just sitting and writing this is difficult.  I'm doing it because I know that I need more exposure.  There are lots of people who have no clue who I am, and what I write.  It is up to me to remedy that. So here I am, writing a blog post, not because I want to, but because I have to.  Indie authors, we don't get paid benefits.  Heck, traditionally published authors don't get benefits.  Our career choice is a hard one.  And just to get something clear, I do not want, or need your sympathy.  I was aware of all of this before I started writin...
Read more