Welcome to my Wild West!

After NaNoWriMo, I set the goal to finish that story. 25,000 words later, I met that goal. Then I turned my attention to the story I started back in July for Camp Wrimo.
I set the deadline for the last day of the year. It seemed reasonable since I had most of the end of the year off with the way my schedule fell.
Then, I got sick. Seriously, I got my first cold in just over two years.
Stacking on top of that was the realization that my driver’s license was coming due and the pure exhaustion of that part of my brain that constructs sentences.
Why does my driver’s license factor in? I’ll elaborate in my next post.
To get to the point, I didn’t make my deadline. Almost a week later, my brain finally clicked on the story. It took almost four days, but I finally finished my second novel in six months at 103k words.
Unlike the November project, I think this one will maintain most of its word count. Somehow, the story was better developed and paced as it went onto the page.
However, it still will get some revision. Four scenes need revision. Two of those scenes might be scrapped completely and replaced.
But for me to get to that point of making those decisions, I have to take a step back and “forget” most of what I wrote in that story. That’s why I’m taking roughly a month off.
Sure, some authors write more than two novels a year. I’m not them. Simple as that. I wrote nearly 200k in the last half of 2023. Considering the most I’ve previously written was a single 70k novel in a year, that’s a lot for me, and I am proud of it!
That also explains why my brain is worn out, which is the main reason I need a joke. It’s starting to affect my ability to write reports at work.
I got a bug to write a short story based on a song Lorne Greene performed back in the day. Don’t ask me why classic country can give me a story idea, just don’t send me copies of Johnny Horton’s music.
When I get that done, I’ll probably share it here for your enjoyment.
For now, I have a dining room to paint and new bookshelves to assemble. So, stay warm and hope the new year is treating you well.