For the past five years, I’ve participated in National Novel Writing Month and provided an update afterward. The first two years I worked on the same novel. That one has kind of died. I realized that I don’t have time currently to conduct the research necessary to do that manuscript justice. At the moment, it’s novella length. I may plug a few holes and leave it there. I actually pulled out the first chapter of that work as a standalone short story and submitted it to an anthology with a very specific theme that fit. The editor rejected it but said he liked it. He had simply decided to take the anthology in a even more specific direction that my story didn’t fit as well in.

Each of the next three years I wrote a manuscript in what turned out to be a middle grade near future sci fi trilogy. The critique group I joined this year just finished reviewing the first in that trilogy and provided a lot of valuable feedback. I’m hoping the group will get through the second and third manuscripts in 2024. That will put me in a good position to revise all three and get them edited and published in 2025.

For NaNoWriMo this year I intended to start a new, possibly YA sci fi trilogy. I already have the general idea for each of the three books. The plan was, beforehand, to map out the plot of the first one using one of the generally accepted story structures. That didn’t happen. Also, NaNoWriMo didn’t happen. I wrote a total of zero words in November.

I like NaNoWriMo. I like the structure and motivation it provides. It has been a useful and fruitful experience. It just wasn’t happening this year.

But all was not lost! I instead focused on publishing my first short story collection, We’re Here to Help… Ourselves: Short Tales of Time, Space, Aliens, and Paperwork. I enjoyed that experience too. I had the help of several great people to guide me along and the support of the Northern Virginia Writers Club. I’m thinking about releasing another collection in 2024. I certainly have the stories, and releasing another collection will keep my publishing momentum going while the critique group works on my middle grade trilogy.

That was my 2023 NaNoWriMo.  How’d yours go?