WIP Progress Report

Half the year is done and I have been busy.

• January 2024 & June 2024: Trigun: Three of a Kind -- I have finished my edits and it is with my beta reader.
• February 2024: Cookbook -- this project is mostly me consolidating collecting recipes into a Scrivener cookbook project. It only gets worked on when I have nothing else to do. February had vacation to Universal Studios and uploads to Ao3, but I got caught up in writing what I call ad posts for DUF and Tumblr and forgot that there are still six old stories and thirteen fanmixes to upload. Oops.
• March 2024: Biker Mice From Mars: Wars Are Won: Sacrifice of Happiness -- finished the first draft.
• March 2024: Biker Mice From Mars: Evil Jack: Till Death Do We Part -- finished the first draft.
• April 2024: Strix: Forget the Sun -- still writing the first draft.
• May 2024: Star Wars: Rescue the Farmboy: Mission on Mimban -- finished my edits and it is with my beta reader.
• July 2024: BookWorm's Library update -- this one has turned into some behind the scenes changes to make things easier for me in the future when I really didn't have stories ready to be published. But I did find the FanFiction Garret files, so I can add that section with the next update.
• August 2024: Finished my edits on Evil Jack: Till Death Do You Part and it's with my beta reader now. Tweaked the future stories order in the Wars Are Won By Those Who Dare series. But my edits on Wars Are Won: Sacrifice of Happiness ended up having to taking a new course in the second draft. I forgot about complications in the story itself because I was so busy setting up future payoffs.

This is my third year focusing (as best I can) on one project a month before jumping to a new one, and I am starting to see results in so many projects. Getting the Library's website updated with new material is a huge one, along with getting back to old fandoms. Plans for the rest of the year:

• September 2024: back to writing Strix: Forget the Sun
• October 2024: finish the edits on Rescue the Farmboy: Mission on Mimban and start posting it.
• November 2024: finish the edits on Trigun: Three of a Kind and start posting it.
• December 2024: back to updating the BookWorm's Library and I should have stories ready to go on it by then.

I hope the next five months are productive for you too.

2023 My Year In Fic

2023 Fiction Word Count:

285333 / 478128 words. 60% done!

Insights To Not Forget:

Dealing with what I can write in an hour: I established 600 words as my daily word count back in 2017, but didn't start tracking how long I wrote during a day until 2018. So I focused my math on 2018 - 2023. 2018 was the only year in which I had reached an hour of writing on average until this year 2023 so far when my average time is an hour and thirty minutes. But I only had 185 days of reaching or exceeding 600 words, so that spreadsheet broke down my average words per hour at 581.

For 2019 - 2021, my time writing per day dropped significantly: 47 minutes, 36 minutes, and 50 minutes. The days of reaching or exceeding 600 words also dropped (49, 48, 85) and average words per hour dropped too (451, 390, 584). I haven't gone back to look at what I was working during those years, but just from the statistic summaries I'm looking at it is clear that I either didn't write most days of the year or if I did it was way under an hour. 2022 is an outlier from the earlier years. The total days of reaching or exceeding was 113, but my average words per day was 1309 and the average writing time went up to 58 minutes per day. So the average words per hour calculated to 1363 that year.

Now to glance back at My Year in Fic posts to see what was going on.

2022: The new words that were not Library updating words only equalled 132,008. I wrote or editing 311 out of 365 days. Also in making new words easier, this was the first year I said I was going to work on one project a month and that was a success. My three void babies joined my house and life at the end of July.
2021: Ah, the fun with getting Scrivener 3 up and running and the laptop not having enough space. That was no fun. Continuing Covid not-fun times. Hurricane Ida made landfall. And Trigun outlines took over my brain.
2020: Covid plague! I spent all of August and September editing and just editing.
2019: Actually list of accomplishements is pretty good. We had my parents' anniversary cruise in October before Mom's surgery. And then she spent the entire month of Novemember in two hospitals and a rehab facility.
2018: I increased the number of days reaching or exceeding 600 words to 105 days out of 365. Looks like I overwhelmed myself with "WRITE ALL THE THINGS" on original fiction and barely did anything on the two projects I had going then to work on fanfics instead.

So can I write 600 words in an hour? No. My time so far this year is an average of writing for an hour and thirty minutes and the words per hours are 581. And another thing 600 words is my daily goal that my brain weasels twisted over to only take an hour. I have all day to get to it, but I shouldn't look at changing it until I have 365 days of reaching 600.

Stories I Posted at Ao3 Finally:

Tin Man / Medical Investigation: Alchemy: Word count = 30,166. A mysterious illness suddenly puts DG in charge and she seeks help where no one in the O.Z. expected her to. Written for TM Challenge 4th Annual Big Damn Challenge. Cross-posted on LiveJournal, FanFiction.Net, and the BookWorm's Library on June 29, 2011. The character Maggie Connor was created by ErinM_4600 for her story You Ever Wonder Why?, and used with permission. The character Margo Whitney was created for my Biker Mice From Mars: Evil Jack series of fanfics.

Nonestic Tales: What Memories Can Bring: Word count = 3237. Now I see you standing with brown leaves falling around and snow in your hair. Now you're smiling out the window of that crummy hotel over Washington Square. Our breath comes out white clouds, mingles and hangs in the air. Speaking strictly for me, we both could have died then and there. This story was finished on June 4, 2009, cross-posted at FanFiction.net on July 13, 2009, and the BookWorm's Library on March 20, 2010, and is the first of the Nonestic Tales series. “Diamonds and Rust” by Blackmore’s Night was an inspiration song.

Nonestic Tales: Pirates of the Nonestic: Word count = 112,914. Away from the familiar O.Z., the runaway Princess and the Tin Man join Captain "Blood-rage" Betsy Bobbins' quest and cross swords with sullen pirates, the navy out to stop Bobbins, and a legendary evil lurking in the Nonestic Ocean. This story was finished on May 17, 2009, cross-posted at FanFiction.net and the BookWorm's Library on March 30, 2010, and is the second of the Nonestic Tales series.

Nonestic Tales: Making Whole: Word count = 6,835. Lovers at odds seem to end up in Wonderland, but does this realm have a way to give Azkadellia what she wants no matter how hard Ambrose objects?

Stories I Posted:

Sororal Lineality: Miha: Word count = 3,129. Biggs Darklighter arrives back at the Fleet and finds out what happened to Luke Skywalker from a new defector, Mara Jade.

Stories I Finished:

A lot of writing this year, but haven't finished a first draft of anything.

Stories Caught Up in Editing:

Star Wars: Rescue the Farmboy: Mission on Mimban: Word count = 61,146. I have finished sending it through the ProWriting Aid program, but I found out I didn't create the Honoghran words one scene needed. So I got started on that and didn't get it finished.

Stories I Didn't Finish:

Trigun: Three of a Kind: Word count = 203,308 (20,838 written in 2022 + 182,470 written in 2023). This story has so many words! I really would like to reach the end.

Strix: Forget the Sun: Word count = 75,604 (26,588 written previously + 4279 written in 2019 + 279 written in 2020 + 15,328 written in 2021 + 5416 written in 2022 + 23,714 written in 2023). I only worked on it for National Novel Writing Month in November, but I joined Rachael Herron's NaNo accountability group and with permission to just flood the narrative with all the stupid thoughts in my head, and I got the highest word count on this narrative in five years! It's still not done, but I'm in the third act setting up for the climax fight.

Sherok (Martian language): Word count = 8258. I think I'm done with creating this language. What I have left is defining the words I have created.

Honoghran: Word count = 604. I finally have a question should I ever meet Timothy Zahn. "Did you have any rules for the apostrophe usage in Honoghran or did you decide every other word needed one to look pretty?" We have them in titles, in proper names, in clan names, in at least one verb that we know is a verb, and then these three words in the two sentences in Dark Force Rising that I don't know what they are. In serious conlanging though, I think the ones in titles are substituting for "of the."

• ush = clan/clans
• Ary'ush = Savior of the Clans
• Mal'ary'ush = Daughter of the Savior of the Clans

For the clan names, I'm thinking that what is behind the apostrophe is a directional marker of where the clan was from before the destruction of Honoghr. For proper names, maybe part of the name is named after someone famous or in honor of. Since the firstchild, secondchild, thirdchild is actually child, grandchild, and great-grandchild, I don't think they have a bunch of numbered Juniors running around. With this thought, I believe in a generation or two after the events in the Last Command, the Noghri will have a bunch of "word'rukh" or "Rukh'word" kids running around. And that's as far as my conlanging got with this one.

What I Think About My Stories:

My favorite story this year: Trigun: Three of a Kind has been so much fun, I have sneaked writing it into months that I haven't supposed to be working on it.

Story most under-appreciated by the universe, in my opinion: I don't really feel any of the stories fit this one. Especially when I have posted such little new material.

Most fun story: Trigun: Three of a Kind.

Stories I wrote that I never thought I'd write: I really didn't think I need to conlang an already created language, but here I am with the amusing idea to do that and confuse a nasty Imperial. And people say fanfic doesn't challenge a writer as much as original fiction does.

Hardest story to write: Less a story and more sticking to the plan for the year. I generally kept to my month-per-project goal, but loss what I was supposed to be working on with the computer problems and when I was supposed to switch.

Biggest disappointment: My paying job's firewall messed up Ao3 displaying, so I had to stop uploading stories to Ao3 unless I was at home. And for some reason when July rolled around to finish uploading, I forgot to finish them. Also my desktop computer's hard drive died and I ended up not doing more updates to the BookWorm's Library in August.

Biggest surprise: Strix: Forget the Sun during National Novel Writing Month in November. I MADE WORDS! on everyday but one in November. Here is what I shared on Rachael Herron's Slack channel:

31,855/50,000 is where I'm calling it now
The total added to the messy, messy narrative is 23,714 getting me to setting up all the characters for the big battle of the climax. And I just checked my records, this is the most words I have added to it in FOUR YEARS! The only day I didn't do any writing was the 25th and that day was spent driving back home from the Thanksgiving celebration over 4.5 hours away. Even with the trip, I kept plugging away at this and didn't put it aside for a different WIP.
That is all thanks to the support here.

I've been keeping metrics posts for that kind of analysis later. One thing I noticed was having permission to jump around. Not that I needed permission, but I'm a very linear writer. So previously when I'd bog down in a scene and words would freeze, I'd keep throwing myself at with less and less results.
This year and Rachael's writing messy mantra finally took hold, and instead of dropping the whole novel when I hit a block, I moved to a new scene and words gushed.
Don't know what this means for the character who always gave me the blockages yet. :laughing:

What's your favorite piece of dialogue you wrote this year? What's your favorite piece of description or narration you wrote this year? Both come from this part of Trigun: Three of a Kind:

“Quiet, Punisher. I’m tired of balancing your divided loyalties.”

Wolfwood spun the cross off his back and the cloth unwrapped from around it. His right hand tucked into a hole in the center of it as he shifted his left leg back and pointed the long end at the Gung-Ho Guns. The metal split apart, showing a gun barrel in the center. It spit out bullets with sparks and smoke, and Wolfwood used them to draw a line of bullet holes at the Gung-Ho Guns’ feet. They all danced back, including Bluesummers.

“Mamajamming! That’s bigger than Uncle Vinnie’s bazooka!”

Everyone ignored Chuck to stare at Wolfwood. He smirked back at them. “I’ve picked a side, but you’re still going to have to deal with me.”

Bluesummers narrowed his eye and twitched his outstretched fingers.

Wolfwood dropped the muzzle of his cross gun to the floor as his body bent back like Milly-ma’am.

Bluesummers smirked briefly. “And you actually thought you’d be a deterrent. Gray the Ninelives, punish the traitor.”

The huge guy in brown gladiator armor lurched forward, reaching for the man in the black suit. This fit Hannah’s rule close enough. Chuck pulled out the blaster, aimed up at the big guy, and pulled the trigger. “Eat blaster, dome head!”

The blaster bolt hit Gray the Ninelives right on the brown collar that started right under the eyes of the dome and ended at the pecs as the armor went around those muscles. And the collar and the flesh-colored dome popped off Gray’s shoulders like a bottle cap when Uncle Modo opened a root beer bottle. The face underneath was made of brown metal but no mouth, just twelve slits around the bottom for escaping heat. The blue eyes were reflectors, not eyeballs. The brown metal didn’t make a full skull and green metal circuit boards looked like a brain out of the forehead.

Chuck blinked. “More like chrome head. You’re a robot!”

“You are the most troublesome child,” Bluesummers said with a weary growl.

“Every day all day long!” Chuck guessed he was too old for ‘troublesome tot’ that Limburger called him a lot.

Gray the Ninelives recovered from losing his disguise and reached for Wolfwood again.

Chuck grinned and leaped onto the massive arm. He ran up to Gray’s shoulder as the robot straightened and tried to grab him instead. Chuck ducked behind the head, grabbing hold of the edge of brown metal at the boundary of the computer brain. “Aooow! Hannah’s gonna be so jelly. She thinks she’s the only one who can rage against machines!”

Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would, less, or about what you predicted? Honestly, less than I thought I would. I didn't anticipate getting caught up in conlanging and I didn't anticipate the computer issues that made me go "whelp, work on what has been working last month" and usually keep on writing Trigun: Three of a Kind. I'm not begrudging my words, I just thought I'd touch more projects.

Number of Days I Wrote or Edited: 333 days.

Number of Days Meeting or Exceeding the daily 600 word count: 185 days.

Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them? I made myself accountable to more people for original fiction and having people I didn't want to disappoint and letting myself throw utter crap on the page where it would count did unlock progress there. I also didn't stick with linear writing when a scene locked up on me but jumped to a different scene and got words.

Did you meet last year's goals? Let's find out. The goals from my 2023 one-page business plan are:

• Writing Strix series
  • November: Finish Strix: Forget the Sun's first draft = still not finished but pleased with progress this year
  • November: Edit Strix: Forget the Sun to second draft
  • November: Finish Strix: Forget the Sun's third draft
  • November: Send Strix: Forget the Sun to a developmental editor
• Writing Star Wars fanfics
  • March, September: Edit Rescue the Farm: Mission on Mimban to second draft = still not finished
  • March, September: Send Rescue the Farm: Mission on Mimban to beta reader
  • March, September: Finish Rescue the Farm: Mission on Mimban third draft
  • March, September: Finish Sororal Lineality: Miha third draft = finished
  • March, September: Edit Sororal Lineality: Plans and High Command to second draft
  • March, September: Send Sororal Lineality: Plans and High Command to beta reader
  • March, September: Edit Sororal Lineality: Plans and High Command to third draft
  • March, September: Finish Rescue the Farmboy: Extrication first draft
  • March, September: Finish Sororal Lineality: Kyber first draft
  • March, September: Outline Everybody Lives But Maul story
• Writing Trigun fanfics
  • January, June, July, December: Finish Trigun: Three of a Kind first draft = still not finished
  • January, June, July, December: Edit Trigun: Three of a Kind to second draft
  • January, June, July, December: Send Trigun: Three of a Kind to beta
  • January, June, July, December: Edit Trigun: Three of a Kind to third draft
• Writing Zackverse
  • April: Work on Hyrueliana's overhaul
• Writing Biker Mice From Mars fanfics
  • May, October: Find Wars Are Won series notes and see if stories can be consolidated
  • May, October: Finish next Wars Are Won story to first draft
  • May, October: Finish Evil Jack: Till Death Do We Part to first draft
• Post regularly to Intentionally Left Blank, Dreamwidth, Discipline Under Fire, and Tumblr Random Thoughts = Do once a month
• BookWorm's Library website maintenance
  • February, August: Make sure the software is up to date
  • February, August: Add any files that need adding
• Add more fanfics to AO3
  • January, July: Upload twelve already published stories = this number is now at seven already published stories and twelve fanmixes for already published stories
  • January, July: Upload Rescue the Farmboy: Mission on Mimban third draft
  • January, July: Upload Sororal Lineality: Miha third draft next = finished
  • January, July: Upload Sororal Lineality: Plans and High Command third draft after Mission on Mimban
• Other publishing
  • February, August: Upload Rescue the Farmboy: Liberation to the Library = finished
  • February, August: Upload Rescue the Farmboy: One More Service to the Library = finished
  • February, August: Upload Sororal Lineality: MJ-0002 to the Library = finished
  • February, August: Upload Sororal Lineality: Aftermath to the Library = finished
  • February, August: Upload Sororal Lineality: Miha to the Library
  • February, August: Upload Rescue the Farmboy: Mission on Mimban to the Library
  • Update FF.net profile of where newer stories are now

My daily writing plans to help the above list of goals get done:

• Write 600 daily words. Can be split among stories. The yearly goal is 478,128. = I ended up writing 285,333 for the year, and had 185 days of or exceeding 600 words.
• Write and edit every day. = Wrote 333 days this year.
• Work in meditation time with Brain FM.
• Figure out how to keep the house clean.
• Figure out the house remodel.

Do you have any goals for the coming year? The goals from my 2024 one-page business plan are:

• Writing Strix series:
  • April, September: Finish Strix: Forget the Sun first draft
  • April, September: Edit Strix: Forget the Sun
  • April, September: Send Strix: Forget the Sun to a developmental editor
• Writing Star Wars stories:
  • May, October: Conlanging Honoghran
  • May, October: Edit Mission on Mimban to second draft
  • May, October: Send Mission on Mimban to beta
  • May, October: Edit Mission on Mimban to third draft
  • May, October: Edit Sororal Lineality: Plans and High Command to second draft
  • May, October: Send SL: Plans and High Command to beta
  • May, October: Edit SL: Plans and High Command to third draft
  • May, October: Finish Rescue the Farmboy: Extriction first draft
  • May, October: Finish SL: Kyber first draft
  • May, October: Outline Everbody Lives But Maul story
• Writing Biker Mice From Mars stories
  • March, August: Finish Wars Are Won: Sacrifice of Happiness first draft
  • March, August: Finish Evil Jack: 'Til Death Do We Part first draft
• BookWorm's Library maintenance
  • July, December: Make sure software is up-to-date
  • July, December: Add Sororal Lineality: Miha
  • July, December: Add any other files that need adding
  • July, December: Add recipes to Cookbook
• Ao3
  • February: Upload already published stories
  • February: Upload Mission on Mimban third draft
  • February: Upload SL: Plans and High Command after Mission on Mimban
  • February: Upload thirteen fanmixes

I'm aiming for 600 words everyday which will be 219,600 for the year.

Here's to 2024. We'll get through all this together.

Strix: Forget the Sun NaNo 2023 Metrics 30

31855 / 50000 words. 64% done!

METRICS Previous Word Count: 73,743
New Words: 1861
Total words for the first draft: 75,604
NaNo 2023 Cumulative Word Count: 31,855
What I Accomplished in the Narrative Today: I finished Robert’s dream sequence and his real conversation with Peggy’s ghost inside of it. Then I started Jane’s scene of trying to talk sense into Peg on the topic of the teenager being Strix and that got interrupted by David. And then I ran out of NaNo time.
Fave line: “And he wanted my mother to be around to do. We should all know we never get what we want. So sorry not sorry, Aunt Jane, I’m not stopping. Someone is chopping up prostitutes and I promised to find out who.”
What Else I Accomplished Today: I found old Discipline Under Fire My Year In Fic posts that will be useful for the number crunching I need to do in December. I also got my Sprouts run completed.
What I'm looking forward to: The final results. I didn’t make it all the way to 50,000 words in a month but holy moldy, that’s my best NaNo month since I won it back in 2008! And it is the most words added to THIS NOVEL in years. I only missed one day of writing! The official website won’t support that because I forgot to update one day early on. But bring on confetti!
What I'm not looking forward to: Going to the DMV tomorrow.

Strix: Forget the Sun NaNo 2023 Metrics 29

29752 / 50000 words. 60% done!

METRICS Previous Word Count: 73,057
New Words: 686
Total words for the first draft: 73,743
NaNo 2023 Cumulative Word Count: 29,752
What I Accomplished in the Narrative Today: And poke, poke, poke dragging on the Sagara p.o.v. scene because I’m not happier with an earlier scene and haven’t mastered the skill of writing as if I have already fixed the scene. So finding a new scene and see if I can make some damn words now. Still don’t know what Raven and Ferris have been doing after they couldn’t find Alexander and warn him about Sagara, so I skipped that place holder. Maybe have them go investigate Ladiespoint where Strix was injured, but I think that could get them meeting Peg or Alexander too soon. I ended up on Robert’s dream sequence while he is healing and it has turned into a ball with his dead that Peggy’s ghost will interrupt to give him some boots to the head, but only after he gets some prophecies from Matt Roger.
Fave line: He turned to offer, but it didn’t leave his mouth as he gazed upon Matt Roger lifting a champagne flute to his mouth and taking a sip. “Still don’t have a taste for this dry stuff,” the dead detective said. “But I see you really don’t have space to set up a bartender in here with this crowd. Peggy did promise me I could have an Old Fashion at this affair.”
What Else I Accomplished Today: Getting really annoyed with Texas tolls system and Louisiana DMV. So I got another toll invoice from around Austin. So bully on for this license plate that looks like mine possibly on the same Dodge Stratus that I used to own for driving in the same places as I would except I know better than to get on Texas toll roads in Houston and Austin if I had gone to Texas at all in 2023. Which I have not.

Anyways, it did remind me to call again and see what they needed. That part went smoothly and the other agency sending me an invoice actually sent a second page of what to do if you get an invoice for a car you don’t own. So then I go to Louisiana’s DMV page, select that I want a notice of vehicle transfer, and then get an error because they want a registration expiration date which I don’t have because I traded this car in back in 2018. So call the phone number given on the website for if you’re having problems, and their computer hung up on me “due to high call volume.” So now I have to go back to the DMV on Friday and see now that I’m armed with what the stupid form is called if I can get it in person. Which is what I should’ve been given back when I went in about it the first time but got sent to the dealer instead.
What I'm looking forward to: Hey Matt is offering cryptic statements about Peg dancing with the devil, Alexander. And she really needs to meet a nice boy like his nephew. Okay I am totally using that tomorrow.
What I'm not looking forward to: Going to the DMV on Friday. At least I won’t have this story results looming over my head because Friday is December 1st.

Strix: Forget the Sun NaNo 2023 Metrics 28

28444 / 50000 words. 57% done!

METRICS Previous Word Count: 72,599
New Words: 458
Total words for the first draft: 73,057
NaNo 2023 Cumulative Word Count: 28,444
What I Accomplished in the Narrative Today: Finished Peg and Peggy’s conversation and closed out that scene. Started the next Sagara’s viewpoint scene. And kept forgetting to use my focus music.
Fave line: It was a pitiful distance that would only be covered in a few strides and didn’t leave enough room for groveling.
What Else I Accomplished Today: I cooked bacon and rice when I got home so food for tomorrow is set up.
What I'm looking forward to: A better writing day tomorrow.
What I'm not looking forward to: Everything else on the list. Has anyone seen my list?

Strix: Forget the Sun NaNo 2023 Metrics 27

27926 / 50000 words. 56% done!

METRICS Previous Word Count: 71,746
New Words: 853
Total words for the first draft: 72,599
NaNo 2023 Cumulative Word Count: 27,926
What I Accomplished in the Narrative Today: Got into another conversation with Peg and her mother’s ghost over how patrol went. I guess Robert may have to play the heavy that their daughter thinks she needs to be a superhero too.
Fave line: Peggy’s ghost smirked at her as she sat on the side of the sofa closest to the bed. “It is May. No where close to Halloween. So the only reason for you to be dressed as Strix was to go into the city as Strix. How did it go?”
What Else I Accomplished Today: Doctor’s visit accomplished, so drugs should be handled for at least six months. And now I know it’s six months time frame. Also made it into paying job, which then proceeded to give me grief by uninstalling a necessary program. I’m still not sure if that will work tomorrow.
What I'm looking forward to: Payday this week!
What I'm not looking forward to: Scrimping until payday.

Strix: Forget the Sun NaNo 2023 Metrics 26

26889 / 50000 words. 54% done!

METRICS Previous Word Count: 71,447
New Words: 299
Total words for the first draft: 71,746
NaNo 2023 Cumulative Word Count: 26,889
What I Accomplished in the Narrative Today: I missed yesterday with packing up to go home and then driving home. My brain just shut off by the time we got home. So today is not a make-up day (we aren’t doing those in Rachael’s group) but a resuming day. And then I couldn’t resume. I added some narrative in David’s scene that he saw the female Strix and got Peg home and put Jane to bed. And then I got distracted, so I’m in the middle of a scene for tomorrow?
Fave line: He didn’t want to spend his entire lunch period speculating who would put on Strix’s outfit and how she had known to knock the suspect out or if he had really seen her.
What Else I Accomplished Today: Unpacked my suitcase, cooked food, emptied the sink of dirty dishes, and loved on my void babies.
What I'm looking forward to: Having a bit more of a normal routine.
What I'm not looking forward to: Everything I still have stacked up to do.

Strix: Forget the Sun NaNo 2023 Metrics 24

26394 / 50000 words. 53% done!

METRICS Previous Word Count: 70,076
New Words: 1371
Total words for the first draft: 71,447
NaNo 2023 Cumulative Word Count: 26,394
What I Accomplished in the Narrative Today: Today was a very distracted day. My sister took pity on me and left alone so I could make words. I finished Peg fighting with Kaveh and his group, and Alexander scene, started and finished David’s scene finding out about the riot guns and buying two of them.
Fave line: The man in armor straightened up with a pointed stick extending from his fist. “Anybody else got fangs?”
What Else I Accomplished Today: I made friends with all my sister’s cats today.
What I'm looking forward to: Getting back home to my void babies.
What I'm not looking forward to: Saturday is a Game Day in Baton Rouge? LSU has a home game? Yup, we’re driving home through Mississippi then.

Strix: Forget the Sun NaNo 2023 Metrics 23

24875 / 50000 words. 50% done!

METRICS Previous Word Count: 68,409
New Words: 1667
Total words for the first draft: 70,076
NaNo 2023 Cumulative Word Count: 24,875
What I Accomplished in the Narrative Today: Finished up Peg and Jessie’s scene. Started and finished Alexander’s scene seeing Peg. Started Alexander picking the fight with Peg scene that just got interrupted by who from Sagara’s group? Will have to figure that out tomorrow.
Fave line: Son of a bitch, that bastard is not only alive and well, but so well to be running around here taunting people that he was alive?
What Else I Accomplished Today: It was Turkey Day, so ate and had obligatory family time. Also played BeatSaber for the first time.
What I'm looking forward to: Updating everywhere I have to update and writing more fights.
What I'm not looking forward to: Driving back home on Saturday.

Strix: Forget the Sun NaNo 2023 Metrics 22

22902 / 50000 words. 46% done!

METRICS Previous Word Count: 68,305 New Words: 104
Total words for the first draft: 68,409
NaNo 2023 Cumulative Word Count: 22,902
What I Accomplished in the Narrative Today: Fifteen minutes on the text before I had to finish up house chores and drive to my sister’s house for Thanksgiving.
Fave line: “Maybe you can actually do something. Girls and guys who work the streets have been disappearing. And then body parts have been showing up. So far, only Ashley got named, Ashley Tang. Maybe she’s the only one with all her parts in the morgue.”
What Else I Accomplished Today: Today is a travel day. I got the house set up for being gone three days-ish, then drove for six hours and forty-five minutes with a few stops along the way. There was no more writing after I was able to stop.
What I'm looking forward to: Not being in the car.
What I'm not looking forward to: Having to drive again on Saturday.

Strix: Forget the Sun NaNo 2023 Metrics 21

22798 / 50000 words. 46% done!

METRICS Previous Word Count: 67,191
New Words: 1114
Total words for the first draft: 68,305
NaNo 2023 Cumulative Word Count: 22,798
What I Accomplished in the Narrative Today: Finished up Peg’s scene with the body parts and unnamed Collin with her seeing Erikson and David arrive on the scene. Got pretty far in the next scene where Peg interrupts a kidnapping of a prostitute and will learn about the ones going missing and ending up dead.
Fave line: “A whore into roleplaying? Should have picked a costume that shows your tits.”
What Else I Accomplished Today: I should have known not looking at my planner Sunday while planning things would screw me up. I forgot my doctor’s appointment that was on Monday, and they called me about it today. So I got a new appointment which means burning more leave. After taking Mom to her two stops in town, I finished nine items on my list of twenty-two items to do today. I finally took seven items off that have to wait until Wednesday morning before we leave and seven items have to wait until I get back.
What I'm looking forward to: Getting out of the house for a few days.
What I'm not looking forward to: All the driving to the location tomorrow with my parents.

Strix: Forget the Sun NaNo 2023 Metrics 20

21440 / 50000 words. 43% done!

METRICS Previous Word Count: 66,024
New Words: 1167
Total words for the first draft: 67,191
NaNo 2023 Cumulative Word Count: 21,440
What I Accomplished in the Narrative Today: Started a scene with Alexander and the words just would not come. I babbled on the page how the words were not coming. After ninety minutes of fighting with it, I switched to Peg stumbling upon crime and dealing with it and that scene flowed.
Fave line: “I wasn’t trying to kill you, but.” She looked into the van and saw a pile of lumpy garbage bags and smelled rotting meat. “Yeah, you totally had something to do with a murdered person here so good if I gave you brain damage!”
What Else I Accomplished Today: Laundry completely done, kitchen dishes are at need to unload the clean ones out of the dishwasher but everything else is done, sorted through the office for 45 minutes and accomplished nothing with it. I really thought I’d get more fiction writing done, but the current state of everything else I have to do means I’m pretty wiped by the end the chore block.
What I'm looking forward to: Having everything done and then I can relax. What the hell is relaxing? I have been taking my breaks during the sprints but when I’m sitting right next to what I didn’t accomplish, it’s hard to feel like I will ever finish so why did I reward myself with breaks?

Breaks equal to three hours plus however long it takes me to eat. That is five hours for everything on the list. Yes, NaNo is getting three of those hours because I committed to it this year and I am making progress on the project that has been stalled for years and I’m loathe to give it up, especially when writing is my sanity keeper. And giving it up won’t get the chores I hate done any faster. So yes, tomorrow will still have breaks.

What I’m going to do before going to bed is download the vague must do X, must do Y, must do Z, etc. onto paper where I can truly see what has to happen around making words tomorrow.
What I'm not looking forward to: The reason why this office reset is on my list is that I have buried paperwork and phone calls I need to do in my stacks and now the stacks have reached “oh hell where did I put X?” But I only have Tuesday to find them and deal with them and I’m running out of Tuesday already? Mom needs a trip to town, I also need to pack (some of that is hiding in the stacks too). So yeah, steady wincing think about this now. Also, I think I need to box books I don’t have shelf space for into banker boxes and stack those in a messy corner of the office. That will look more contained and that should help on visual stress. It also comes AFTER dealing with the desktop pile that I’m nearly convinced has the paperwork I need to deal with in it.

Strix: Forget the Sun NaNo 2023 Metrics 19

19749 / 50000 words. 39% done!

METRICS Previous Word Count: 65,384
New Words: 720
Total words for the first draft: 66,024
NaNo 2023 Cumulative Word Count: 19,749
What I Accomplished in the Narrative Today: Got Jane’s reaction to Peg’s plan of becoming Strix while Robert recovers. Also wrapped up Raven and Ferris’ scene, but I think they need something else to do overnight. Haven’t figured out what yet. Raven’s schedule was easier before an SUV rammed through the morgue.
Fave line: Jane inhaled deeply and did not scream. She was proud of herself for not screaming. “There is another set of vampires… invading for lack of a better word. They want you, and you want to go prancing into the city so they can get you!”
What Else I Accomplished Today: The kitchen is almost in a state of uncluttered. The office is not much better, since the time I had for it got spent on a cell phone activation. Then I had company over for a few hours at lunch, and was wiped from wanting to do anything else today.
What I'm looking forward to: I took the whole week of Thanksgiving off and we don’t leave until Wednesday. I’m going to keep my usual sleep schedule and block time starting at whenever I am dressed after 4 a.m. tomorrow.
What I'm not looking forward to: Mostly the house chores I haven’t made dents in yet: the office, laundry, whatever is on the list I can’t think of right now.

Strix: Forget the Sun NaNo 2023 Metrics 18

18784 / 50000 words. 38% done!

METRICS Previous Word Count: 64,550
New Words: 754
Total words for the first draft: 65,384
NaNo 2023 Cumulative Word Count: 18,784
What I Accomplished in the Narrative Today: Ferris talked to a cop that is not David and I have no idea what they are going to be doing for the rest of the night. Maybe they’ll go buy more stakes.
Fave line: “Don’t you have some kind of radar to pick up dhampirs?”
What Else I Accomplished Today: All of my out of the house errands, but it wiped me from doing just about anything else. Plus family drama hit both times I set the timers to write and I don’t see how I can compensate for unplanned events like that.
What I'm looking forward to: Starting over tomorrow and getting more things done.
What I'm not looking forward to: The chores I have to do plus more words.

Strix: Forget the Sun NaNo 2023 Metrics 17

17906 / 50000 words. 36% done!

METRICS Previous Word Count: 62,919
New Words: 1632
Total words for the first draft: 64,550
NaNo 2023 Cumulative Word Count: 17,906
What I Accomplished in the Narrative Today: LOOK AT THOSE NUMBERS! LOOK AT THEM!

Snoopy Happy Dance GIFfrom Snoopy GIFs

So how I planned my day that has so many things that have to get done today? I decided to chunk it. Since the Laziness Does Not Exist notes I have been rereading reminded me that humans really can’t concentrate for longer than three to four hours at one task, I decided to put three hours on writing on then three hours on chores, divided into 45/15s and taking a 15 minute break after every 45 minutes. With this metrics post and some background notes I added to those sections, today is the first day I have made over the 1667 daily goal since Nov. 4th. And I’m not exhausted or defeated by the results. I may end up writing again after four hours on the chores.
Fave line: Do you really think my brown ass will get the time of day at some white mansion? I’m supposed to be Whoopi from Ghost? ‘You’re in danger, girl.’ That didn’t work in that movie either!
What Else I Accomplished Today: I still have to put my chores time in, but I am feeling pumped to go do that!
What I'm looking forward to: The rest of the day!
What I'm not looking forward to: Talking to Mom about medical stuff. That I’m hoping is her medical stuff and that she didn’t decide to suddenly helicopter my medical stuff, but I honestly don’t know what to expect.

Strix: Forget the Sun NaNo 2023 Metrics 16

15886 / 50000 words. 32% done!

METRICS Previous Word Count: 62,355
New Words: 563
Total words for the first draft: 62,919
NaNo 2023 Cumulative Word Count: 15,886
What I Accomplished in the Narrative Today: Getting a chunk of the good guys all on the same page. Ferris gives the backstory of him and Sophia. This might work better as a flashback scene; I’m undecided about that right now.
Fave line: His loyalty gives him some extreme ideas, like I was and continue to be unworthy of the gift of Sagara’s powers, so he decided back then to suck it out of me. Has been around since before Persia went Islamic and didn’t remember that draining a drujs is how you trigger the transformation.
What Else I Accomplished Today: My massage and chiropractor appointment, shopping at Sprouts, shopping at PetSmart, picking up curbside from WalMart, getting the litter shipped to me since they never have it inside the store, and shopping at Family Dollar.
What I'm looking forward to: Bedtime.
What I'm not looking forward to: The rest of the list of errands and housework to complete before leaving for Thanksgiving.

Strix: Forget the Sun NaNo 2023 Metrics 15

15139 / 50000 words. 30% done!

METRICS Previous Word Count: 61,734
New Words: 621
Total words for the first draft: 62,355
NaNo 2023 Cumulative Word Count: 15,139
What I Accomplished in the Narrative Today: Skipped a scene with Peg that would be nothing but active introspection on her part since I’m kind of introspected out of by today and started David, Raven, and Ferris conference scene instead.
Fave line: “We only have an hour before he has to go and we need to know what the hell happened last night, so get your bony ass out of my bed already!”
What Else I Accomplished Today: Started off with a bit of introspection this morning in the lastEUfans Slack. I had made an observation last night that has been lingering in my mind that I was doing good reaching my daily word count goal of 600, but less well hitting the 1667 NaNo daily word goal and went to bed. Which got me honest push back that the NaNo’s word goal “is intense by design. I’m not sure how people do it while still doing life at all.” (I honestly think they dump the life aspects on partners or other family members or roommates or they are much better at the word vomit than I am.) That push back triggered some unpacking for me, which is going here so I will do math in December to smack my expectations with evidence.

I’ve had 600 words as a daily goal for years because I’m equally confident that I can write that in an hour and if I don’t, it’s not because of other things getting in the way, the only reason that I can fail at such an easy attainable goal that only takes an hour is because I am lazy and undisciplined, and will never be a published author because I am lazy and undisciplined.

This is not new territory. The writing blog I started back in 2004 is titled Discipline Under Fire, because OBVIOUSLY my willpower and dedication and discipline to stick to my desires was sorely lacking and needed a bit of public accountability.

I like to think I have mellowed out on myself in the nearly twenty years since that. Reading Laziness Does Not Exist by Devon Price Ph.D. helped but I think I may have to have it handy for a reread in December when I confront myself with math evidence with all the word count tracking spreadsheets I keep. Because I honestly typed: “Most days I can move through (meaning writing and being happy with the words I achieved) without waking up that brain weasel (having my jerkbrain scream abuse at myself because I’m a failure that so clearly deserve abuse);” the utter honesty at 4:30 a.m. when I should be getting dressed. The brain weasel is sleeping. It is not dead, it hasn’t moved out, it’s just having a nap to get ready to tear into me again.

Back on why I need math evidence topic. The weasel is sleeping but my unrealistic expectation that I can obviously write 600 words in an hour is getting the equivalent of a finger flick to the forehead because I am putting in a rough average of at least two hours a day to just Strix: Forget the Sun and its metrics for NaNo but not getting much higher than 600 words a day. What I can actually write in an hour and plans to strengthen that muscle has to wait until December when I have time to pull out spreadsheets and crunch.

But I honestly have more unpacking to do on this whole thing because I have buried that it was a thing. At this point of my day, it’s becoming a procrastination tactic to avoid the fiction writing. Don’t worry, these words get counted toward my NaNo goals too. I should’ve made a category for that but forgot to back on November 1st, but they go on the spreadsheet and get counted under the Cumulative NaNo total.

Where I am leaving this whole messy thing right now: this is Day 15 and I haven’t tossed Strix: Forget the Sun aside as unwritable for another year has made this NaNo a success. I have already made more words this year than I made in NaNo 2019 (3780 words) or in Camp NaNo 2021 (13,317 words).
What I'm looking forward to: I have a massage tomorrow. And then my weekend plus a vacation with Thanksgiving.
What I'm not looking forward to: Travel with my parents to see my sister for Thanksgiving. Very, very unsure how it’s going to go.

Strix: Forget the Sun NaNo 2023 Metrics 14

13733 / 50000 words. 27% done!

METRICS Previous Word Count: 61,042
New Words: 692
Total words for the first draft: 61,734
NaNo 2023 Cumulative Word Count: 13,733
What I Accomplished in the Narrative Today: Have just about wrapped up Sally seeing her mother’s reaction to Deats’ reported death.
Fave line: She had expected the newspapers to have a story on it yesterday, but hadn’t had a chance to look for it, what with getting yelled at and grounded from almost everything fun. Her parents really didn’t need to know about the witnessing a crime, just like they didn’t need to know about getting kidnapped either.
What Else I Accomplished Today: I successfully avoided the accidents on the interstate and got to work only 7 minutes late.
What I'm looking forward to: Supposed to go to a Peg scene next. Don’t remember what Peg is supposed to be doing next.
What I'm not looking forward to: Tomorrow is the worst day to have no money, just the worst. Because I get paid on Thursday but have to get through Wednesday with no money.

Strix: Forget the Sun NaNo 2023 Metrics 13

12783 / 50000 words. 26% done!

METRICS Previous Word Count: 60,413
New Words: 629
Total words for the first draft: 61,042
NaNo 2023 Cumulative Word Count: 12,783
What I Accomplished in the Narrative Today: Finished up Alexander and Ywla’s conversation and broke the white page on Sally’s morning after all the shit that has gone down. Also a note to future writing self, I am in favor of sprinkling in foreign language as appropriate. How about in future projects we make them ALL modern languages? No more ancients still using the language they grew up with that is Old Norse and older for me in the now.
Fave line: “You fool of a sonr af einn blóðdrekkr. You murdered your dhǵhemon parent with your first breath. And you just killed my bródir.”
What Else I Accomplished Today: Drank all my water! Made it safely to and from the paying job on very slick roads (and it was so dark and the lights so glare-y; I missed my anti-glare driving glasses).
What I'm looking forward to: A new scene with hopefully lots of words.
What I'm not looking forward to: More driving in the rain. I’m happy we are getting slow, steady drizzle level of rain because my state is under extreme drought and has been for months, so this type of rain will soak in. But slick streets driving ugh!

Strix: Forget the Sun NaNo 2023 Metrics 12

12012 / 50000 words. 24% done!

METRICS Previous Word Count: 59,788
New Words: 625
Total words for the first draft: 60,413
NaNo 2023 Cumulative Word Count: 12,012
What I Accomplished in the Narrative Today: Alexander killed Jirair and is confronting Ywla. I really expected to have more words for the time I have put in this weekend, but focus wasn’t happening today.
Fave line: “Shit.” The non-existent skirt didn’t hinder the woman from scrambling up to standing on her platform heels. “She’s with that freaky biter.”
What Else I Accomplished Today: I poked at the dishes (meaning that yes, I washed, but still have them left to wash. Though I have finally gotten to pans and pots.) The towels got folded and put away. I seem to have a problem with finishing tasks no matter if they are chores or words.
What I'm looking forward to: Figuring out how to make my focus on the store. Maybe I need to add meditation time.
What I'm not looking forward to: Going to work tomorrow.