November is dead. Long live Advent.

Well, thus ends my first shot at National Novel writer’s month, having hit around 33,000 words overall between both my abandoned and redesigned project! Rather pathetically, I have only shared so far around 4,000 words, despite promises for a second chapter of Noumenal that’s eluded me – I am also 17,000 or so short of the actual target. Why? Well, let’s go through a step-by-step guide of my writing experience!

Week 1 (1/11/23 – 5/11/23)
I began, in spite of sickness, writing 1500 words on my first day – still short of the average 1666 target. As promised by the vote, I chose to write about a miscellaneous character, who I have pre-planned to be an alien called Brri.

My project at the time was “Nebulon Lineage” – an unusual story that explored reincarnation and death very vividly within the opening text, as well as growth. However, as my illness advanced and I began to fumble about with planning, I rapidly lost interest in the project concept, despite succeeding in writing another 7200 or so words. Nothing was shared with you as of yet. The weekend was spent revising the mess I’d made.

Week 2 (6/11/23 – 12/11/23)

I started the week sharing a teaser of the Nebulon Lineage and expressed disatisfaction about the plotline on this blog – I felt like by doing another alien story, I wasn’t really trying myself and thus not generating anything arresting.

Then, as if by cliched magic, I have a eureka moment on a walk and rush home to get writing again on a new project – Noumenal, a story based on crossover fanfictions taken to the logical extreme. Within 24 hours, I advance 2000 words – over the next few days, another 2000 (most of which revised down later), and then over the weekend a whopping 10,000! Most of this progress, admittedly, is planning. Having reviewed some very early drafts with some friends, I decided to revise my first chapter before I make it public.
This is also the week where assignment work begins, though it does not impede my creative writing yet.

Week 3 (13/11/23 – 19/11/23)

I miss the monday deadline for the chapter and reschedule to revise a draft for wednesday – the actual chapter comes out on Thursday. I make another inane promise about having chapter 2 ready for the weekend; right on cue, assignment work gets in the way. Still, I plan my way through about 6,000 words more and earnestly work away at the ill fated second chapter.

Week 4 (20/11/23 – 26/11/23)

Inevitably, juggling assignments and this creative project silmutaneosly, I hopelessly burn out by wednesday and advance no more than 3,000 odd words. My priority becomes the assignment, since I’m getting nowhere with redrafting my second chapter – over the weekend, though, I partake in nearly three hours of freewriting in order to generate some new ideas and inspiration for my project. I regain my vigour by sunday night, although assignments are still a major focus.

The final week (27/11/23 – 30/11/23)

After starting the week with a confession of my pathetic burnout and rejuvenation, I successfully advance another 3000 words – only as much as last week, but much more impassioned. Most importantly, I finish my first draft for the plot outline of my project – the scope is shorter than I initially expected, ending just as the protagonists reach the act 2 setup, but feels substantially better paced. I review this with friends, but get too carried away with work to write anything more before the end date.

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And so, here we are. 33,000 words and only a piddling 4,000 worth of clutter that you were actually able to read. No, not good at all, even with the circumstances. A first time is guaranteed to be a mess, remember – while next november is set to be even busier as I tackle my final year of university, I’ll be sure to do even better during my first year of work afterwards! What’s to say this hasn’t been a positive, inspiring experience, eh? I’ve come up with an exciting new project idea with a wholly unique cast of characters and set pieces as a result of this blunder!

As promised, I’ll be getting back into the swing of the usual routine next week, though I’ll probably skip monday’s short story to work on that bloody second chapter (three weeks late!) for you. Anyhoo, I’ll actually have time to read your own submissions this december, which I’ve been savouring for a while now. Sorry for the silent treatment!

Hope y’lot have a good week!