nanowrimo
Mid-November Goals Post
November is a curious month. It feels as though winter is well underway, even when I know that the rains have only gotten started and the coldest months are usually January and February. It feels as though 2022 is almost gone, even though there is still a month and a half left in which to achieve my goals. It also feels as though I spent most of November fighting off various colds and unfriendly viruses, which is… not far off-mark, actually.
November is also National Novel Writing Month, which is when my local writers’ group generally dusts itself off and picks up new projects and a few stray members. This year, I’m honing my peripheral skills, outlining and editing, in the hopes of producing not the first draft of a new novel, but rather a shorter, but more polished text. Working on a short story allows me to focus on the processes of writing outside the straightforward putting down of new words, and what’s more, I can balance the new story with working on my ongoing projects.
Turncoat Chronicle is currently in the last stages of drafting the final chapters. The Flower of Fairmont has been on hiatus for almost a year. It will go back on the front burner once I’ve wrapped up the last loose ends with Turncoat Chronicle. After a long break, I’m looking forward to diving back into the complexities of telling a story through the exchange of letters. It’s a unique challenge that never fails to surprise me.
Still forthcoming on this blog are my reviews of the farming sim Wylde Flowers and of the Motts Cold Case Mysteries book series, by Dahlia Donovan. These two have occupied my time very pleasantly, this autumn, and they deserve wider recognition. I’m excited about going back to posting the occasional review on this blog, though reviews and blog posts must take a back seat to my ongoing fiction projects.
All in all, it’s been a productive autumn, hopefully, to lead into a productive winter, regardless of the goings-on in the wider world.
National Novel… Again
One of the best things I’ve done as a novice game dev is get involved in game jams. Itch.io’s Finally Finish Something Jam motivated me to finish the alpha of my largest Twine project to date, Wreath of Roses, and submit it for feedback. After that was done I took a short break to focus on short stories, and just as I was wondering what my next project should be, I remembered that March is NaNoRenO.
I’ve blogged about NaNoWriMo before. It’s a month-long challenge to complete a novel draft, which has been running for years and engaged thousands of writers. NaNoRenO takes its inspiration from there, but is a rather more modest affair. The challenge is to create a visual novel or story-driven game, in one month. While some people can work alone to create all the writing, code and art for their game, most people prefer to work in teams and focus on their strengths.
Nothing Is Wasted – That Old NaNo Update
I promised an update after NaNoWriMo, didn’t I? And now it’s been nearly a month since I wrote my fifty thousand words, and I still haven’t written anything. A lot of things got put on the back-burner for November, and so December has been pretty busy. I didn’t find a lot of time to set aside for contemplating the nature of my chaotic little manuscript, and how to move forward with it. Although I’d been meaning to break my habit of adopting overly ambitious story ideas, and then getting stalled trying to solve them…
Hazel Gold 