Here we are at the end of another November. For some, this month was full of success as they achieved their writing goals. For others, it may have been a reminder of how to balance creativity with reality. Although the primary goal of National Novel Writing Month is to write 50k—the smallest word count a novel can be—many writers will continue developing, polishing, and revising the works they started this month.

            For me, I finished what I set out to do. Since I participated “rebel-style” I had a lot more freedom to make things work for me. I could take days off. I could put save ideas till later. Regardless, I hit my goals of finishing the revision on a novella (TMR) and writing 20k toward a new novel (V).

            The end of November is always a busy time for me, but I did my best to make it work. Since I last updated, I took five days off from writing V. I worked on bits and pieces of TMR: first editing the paper copy, revising the digital copy, and writing a synopsis. (That was definitely the hardest part of the week). Some people say to write at least 500 words a day or work at least an hour morning or night, but I’ve found I need to have time away from the keyboard. I’m still working through it mentally, but physically I’m not capable of working on two projects at the same time with lots of words.

            I finished the revision of TMR on Sunday. On Tuesday, I sent it off to my wonderful agent. This is the first longer project since Hymns I’ve finished, and I’m proud of it. There’s a paragraph near the end that has made me cry every time, and it tells me this was worth it. So, from writing the rough draft in June, revising in July, and revising again in November—I’ve spent almost half a year with this story and its development. Of course, the work isn’t over and there will be more revisions before it may ever appear somewhere.

            V, on the other hand, had a bit of a stall. I didn’t quite make the progress I expected last week, but still reached my overall goal. The fifth chapter is finished, another source is created, and the sixth chapter is going in a good direction. New supporting characters have caught my attention and a few key moments are close by. I wrote approximately 4,800 words over four days and exceeded the 20k goal by a few hundred words. My guess is I’ve got at least 60k left before I have a full draft of this thing.

            As promised, we’ll end with a tidbit from what I’ve been working on. In this case, here are five things I’ve Googled in the past week (for my writing):

1. What do you call the top of scissors?
2. How did people avoid the draft?
3. Publishers of the 1960s
4. Varieties of sagebrush
5. How long does it take to write a dissertation?

            Thanks for following along this month. If you enjoyed this segment and would like to further support my writing, please consider donating to Reading Malone’s Ko-fi.