Novel month 2018 wrap-up

I know it’s late, but I felt awful yesterday. I just didn’t think I’d be able to write anything, let alone a wrap-up of the last month. So here it is a day late. Seems like that fits everything else in my life right now.

Seasons Change was, by the rules of the game, a success. I completed a story of at least 50,000 words in the month of November, and I did it without stressing myself to the breaking point. (Other factors in my life took me there, of course, but that’s neither here nor there.)

The story itself isn’t my best, I’ll admit—that honor still goes to Nocturne. This one I’ll call solidly average. It didn’t have any big moments. Instead, it was more of an opening piece intended to fill in the backstory of the Otherworld. In that, I think it worked. Especially the ending, as it directly connects to Falling Into Place, the penultimate entry in the “season 2” set of Otherworld tales that I’ll bring to you in 2019.

On the writer side, I also had a lot of good fortune, relatively speaking. Except for this head cold (or whatever it is) I’ve suffered the past few days, most of the month was decent. Not great, but passable. I didn’t get into a bizarre sleeping schedule that effectively took away a writing day. The weather was both unusually clear and unseasonably cold (highs for November averaged 7 degrees below normal!), so no storms knocked me out of the zone. Debian was kind enough to hold off on any breaking upgrades. And my family made it through what’s often a tough time without too much hassle.

All in all, this year was both a nice change of pace and a great return to form. The last time I truly “won” Nanowrimo, in the sense of completing both objectives, was 2015, with The City and the Hill. Maybe that’s the trick. Otherworld seems to work for me. Which is a great thing, because I’d really like to spend more time there. It can’t be worse than here.

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