It’s that time of the year again. Kids are dressing up, the leaves are turning, the weather’s getting colder—it must be Halloween. And you know what that means. November is almost here, so it’s time to write a new novel!
This year’s entry is tentatively titled Seasons Change (how appropriate). I have done some pre-planning through the month of October. In the spirit of the competition, however, I haven’t started writing just yet. That can wait till tomorrow.
As for the story, well, I don’t know exactly where it’s going to go at the moment, but I can tell you where it falls in the universe of my writing. Seasons Change is the first in what I’m calling the “Othersides”. These are set in the Otherworld setting (Chronicles of the Otherworld, etc.), but have no direct connection to that ongoing story. Thus, I don’t need to do as much worldbuilding as for an original setting, but I can plausibly claim I haven’t done any work on the story yet.
Now, I’m targeting about 55-60K words for this novel. Given what I did with The Soulstone Sorcerer last year, you might be thinking, “Well, he’ll be done with that in about two weeks.”
Probably not. See, this November brings with it an added degree of difficulty. I’m looking for a “real” job at the moment. If I get one, expect my available writing time—and my daily average—to plummet. Add in the things I have to do around the house, the mental stress of the midterms, and an increasingly special woman who doesn’t like me writing, and…this one’s a lot harder.
Still, I think I can pull it off. And if I do, it’ll mark 7 years in a row that I’ve written either 50000 words or a complete novel in the month of November. For reference, here are the others:
- 2012: Heirs of Divinity (I promise I’ll put this out one of these days!)
- 2013: Out of the Past (Pick it up for free on my Patreon next month!)
- 2014: Before I Wake (Available on Patreon and Amazon, even in paperback)
- 2015: The City and the Hill (Only $3 on Patreon)
- 2016: Nocturne (Still my favorite, so definitely check it out!)
- 2017: The Soulstone Sorcerer (I’ll edit this one after the holidays)
This year, Novel Month is a real challenge, but I’m not giving up. I’ll be here, and I’ll also be posting my daily progress on the fediverse. If you use Mastodon, Pleroma, or any compatible platform, follow me: @mikey@toot.love.