There are a few reasons why I like participating in NaNoWriMo. Overall, It’s mostly to light a fire under my butt to get me writing. However, I have quite a bit on my plate this year to simply focus on just one thing.

I do believe I bit off a bit much. Is it more than I can chew? I don’t know, to be honest. I suppose that depends on my goals for the upcoming future.

Nonetheless, I did pack on quite a bit this time around.

Four Books At Once – ish

Currently, I have four semi-major projects I’m working on completing. Each one has a distinct purpose behind it, and a couple of them are somewhat time-sensitive.

I suppose I can just say that this year, my plan for NaNoWriMo is to just write 50,000 words in various books. I mean, technically I’m still working toward that end goal, right?

These are the projects I’m currently working on in order of importance.

Reedsy Writing Course Project

Currently, I’m enrolled in Reedsy’s new masterclass called, “How to Write a Novel.” It’s hosted by Tom Bromley and has been quite insightful thus far.

The best way for me to learn is to start something from scratch and progress through the course. So, I added yet another book to the mix to implement what I’ve learned from the course thus far.

I’m dedicating at least an hour and a half each day throughout the 106-day course. That should give me plenty of time to write an 85,000-word book as I progress.

In the grand scheme of my week, that’s not too bad. It just means I have to reel back on some of the side projects a bit.

The Reedsy book is a bit important as I am making blog posts and videos centering around the experience. Then, I plan on doing a thorough review at the end.

Fury

Fury is the second book of The Witcham series after Kingmaker. And it’s one that I wanted to complete before Christmas so that my beta readers can dive into it soon. I would love to publish it in March of 2024.

The bottom line is that I don’t want to make readers wait another two years to get the second part of the series. That’s how long it took me to get Kingmaker on Amazon.

I’ve dedicated a massive chunk of time to Fury five days per week, which should be enough time to hammer out the first draft.

VII

I started VII in 2016. I would love to have it rewritten and finished in 2023. That would mean that it took me seven years to finish VII. Perhaps it’s an omen.

In reality, I’m a good chunk of the way through VII as it is, so it shouldn’t take much more time out of my week to wrap it up before December 31st.

However, it doesn’t sit high on the totem pole of things I want to get done. I’ll do my best to organize my time, but I just can’t guarantee it’s going to happen.

Skeletal

Skeletal was meant to be a story to use on Inkitt so I could get a feel for the platform. I don’t like writing reviews about services or apps unless I thoroughly use them.

Not only would Skeletal give me another completed book I could link to on the bookshelf, but it would also provide several blog posts and videos about the Inkitt system and how it works.

In any case, I’ll try to squeeze in what time I have available to wrap it up. The problem is that I’m only just under 2,000 words into the story. It’s got a long way to go before I can call it complete.

Need to Start Wrapping Up the Loose Ends

The reason I’m putting some time into these unfinished projects is that I want to wrap them up and be done. It looks good from the perspective of an author to have actual completed works people can read.

No one wants to dive into a partially written story as they don’t know when it’ll be finished. As such, it’s hard to promote yourself as an author without having anything to show.

So, why don’t I work on one at a time until each one is done? Mostly because I think I’m a glutton for punishment. However, Fury, the new book, and VII are things I want to finish in the very near future.

If I can stick to my daily schedule, I should have enough time to finish each one in a timely manner. But we know how often chaos invades my life. Lately, I’ve had to play chauffeur, which cuts pretty deep into my day.

In any case, I truly want to wrap up all of these loose ends and then try not to work on so many projects at once.

Not to Mention Working on the Blogs

On top of trying to finish the books, I’m also working on fixing up my blogs. I would love it if the sites could pay enough so I could hire a video editor. Or perhaps dump a few bucks into marketing the books better.

There are many reasons why I would like to get the blogs rollin’ like they should, though. From donating to charities to helping others learn, there is always a solid purpose behind the blogs.

Unfortunately, Google’s “helpful” update was anything but. It feels like the sites were reverted to 2019 stats. Just as I was gaining some forward momentum with traffic, Google shifted the goalposts yet again.

Anyway, I plan on doing what I can to fix the sites. I know what needs to be done, for the most part. I just need to squeeze a bit of time here and there to work on them.

Yet, the books are going to come first until they are done. So, who knows when the blogs will start gaining traffic back?

Making 2023 the Year to Beat for Word Count

Theoretically, I should write more than 60,000 words in November just in books alone. If things work out like they should, I might even break my record for monthly totals. But I’m not holding my breath simply because I know how things work at my house.

Perhaps next year I’ll be able to do something for NaNoWriMo. At this moment, I simply have too many things going on that need to be done first.

On a side note, I did add the new book to my NaNoWriMo profile. So, at least there is that.