ALYSSA LOST IN SPACE

Not sure yet if I’m going to keep up with the monthly goals/recap posts, but it feels particularly relevant with Preptober coming to a close, and the start of NaNoWriMo.

Not sure if you’ll remember, but I had a particularly long list of things I wanted to get done in October.

Unfortunately, I didn’t do as well as I hoped.

What I did in October

A little recap, this is what I wanted to get done in October:

• Draft the first novella in my near-future sf detective series (due October 6th) – STARTED
• Draft the second novella in that series (due October 25th) – NOT DONE
• Outline the third novella in that series – NOT DONE
• Write three short stories – two in my sf detective series, and one fantasy (due October 20th) – NOT DONE
• Stay on top of my blog post schedule for this month – DONE
• Prep for a new NaNoWriMo project – DONE
• Create a 10 episode outline for a podcast idea – STARTED

I think I did okay considering I had a lot on my plate this month. I do wish I’d got more done, but in the middle of the month I was plagued with doubts about my sf detective novella, and that made writing it incredibly hard. I did manage to finish my outline, and I’m currently working on the draft.

I know I’d told myself that I couldn’t work on the new NaNo project without first finishing the novella, but I’ve come up with another solution:

Before I can work towards my daily word count in my NaNo project, I need to write at least 1000 words towards my novella. It also means I have an abnormally large daily word count, but I figure I’m going to have to get used to juggling multiple projects at some point. Why not start that process now?

October’s Posts

• The Digital Notebook Experiment
• 7 Amazing Reads for Autumn
• What I’m Playing (& Video Game Backlog)
• Rise of Skywalker Final Trailer Deep Dive
• NaNoWriMo and How to Survive It

Books Read

• The Sun and Her Flowers by Rupi Kaur
• Little Black Book: A Toolkit for Working Women by Otegha Uwagba

Games Played

• Finished Silver Snow Route in Fire Emblem (2/4 Endings)
• Pokemon Y
• Pokemon Let’s Go Pikachu

Plans for November

Despite the chaos that is NaNoWriMo, I do have plans that aren’t just writing new stories. I especially want to work on my social media presence and growing more of a following – if I hope to publish my first book next year, I’m going to need people to read it!

Some of my goals for next month are:

• Post on this blog every day from now until November 30th
• Post on Instagram at least every other day
• Finish my outline for my podcast idea

Goals for NaNoWriMo

This is going to be my eighth year doing this event, and while I’m a little nervous, I’m also really, really excited. I really want to work on my routine for NaNo – I discovered back in 2017 a method that I think really works for me and helps me get to 50k, and I’m going to continue to fine-tune that. Other than that, here are my goals:

• Finish my new project – it’s going to be a rather short novel, about 18 chapters. Not even sure if it’ll get me to 50k, but I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it
• Finish the sci-fi novella I’ve started – as I already mentioned, on the condition that I do some work towards my novella, I’m allowed to work on my new project. The sooner I get that done the less of a headache it will be

Are these pretty extreme goals? Yes. Trying to finish both projects means I’m going to be writing well over 50k this month, which is a lot of words. And again, I’m not going to beat myself up if I don’t. I know I can at least write 50k in the next month. If I finish one and get halfway on another, I’ll consider that a win, too. What matters is that I give it my best and work on how I’m prioritizing my workload.

Let’s Chat!

What were your goals for October? Did you meet them? What do you hope to achieve in November? Is NaNoWriMo one of your goals? Let me know in the comments below!