Reflective Ripples: The End of NaNoWriMo 2021

Welcome to Reflective Ripples, where we glance into debatable topics about the creative world. Today, I'm more reflecting than debating, to be sure.

NaNoWriMo ends in less than 48 hours. I have a lot of personal beef against myself for not meeting the goals. I wanted to write all of the first draft to VITALANGICA (Book 1): The Crusaders of Lukzander Shoals. Nope. Twenty thousand words in two days is not possible with my carpal tunnel and teaching schedule. At the same time, I edited out a lot of words from this draft before finishing it. Had I not done that? Yeah, I might have hit my word count goal.

The book would still not be finished, though. The plot holes and overarching world building sent me for a battle… and another… and another… and I got my behind handed to myself in the war, lol. I’m glad I have December in a few days. It means I can switch off to Frey, Lee, and the rest of the Alliance. Andi and Mitch from VITAELANGICA’s Crusaders need to percolate on how we’re polishing things. The first of two book trailers for them, from Andi’s POV this time, is ready to go. Mitch is up to bat over at Best Book Editors (@bestbookeditors \ www.bestbookeditors.com). Final word count totals for The Crusaders’ first month on the spike will be released along with that first book trailer sometime later this week.

Speaking of the Alliance: I missed Frey and Lee so much! I’m working on rounding up the beta reading team for them, and we have a huge party in the works for the first book’s anniversary in February. Look out for more information about that in coming weeks over on Instagram and Facebook. We’re talking book tours, baby! I’m excited to meet with Auntie Katherine, aka our favorite Saint Editor, later this week for getting this third installment completely drafted.

As Peter Merrigan observed a few weeks ago, am I writer or a videographer? With doing videos again for my YouTube (#authortube) channel, I find myself going down the rabbit hole of filming and editing more and more. A kind of routine is taking shape, too. For the next LISTENING TO THE VOICES IN OUR HEADS (#LTTVIOH), I’m recording with fellow authortuber, Barrett Laurie. I consider him my Grand Faerie of Fierce, and he is a fountain of knowledge and inspiration. I’ll also be visiting over on his channel a time or two this month. Ash Johnson and I have a video in mind to film, and I want to catch up on Fiction in Five in big ways. Keep an eye on that channel for at least two videos a week during December. No, I cannot do vlogmas. Not this year. Not in this house, lol. Let us move, and maybe?

This week, I wanted to talk up a non-author friend’s creative path. If you’re into tabletop RPGS, give a listen to the TAMPA BAY ROLEPLAYERS over on Twitch. If you’ve listened to LTTVIOH’s first episode, you’ll recognize one of the voices to the players! Thanks, Yu.Baka, for your continued support, bro!

As always, lovelies… take care of you. You’re worth it!

Love,

Soul Writer