Welcome to my hub for NovelEmber 2025! Last year I did not spend a lot of time on World Anvil while writing my novel, but that won't be the case this year! I've got a few random details in the sidebar, but most of this page will be a journal recording my progress (or lack thereof!) throughout the month. Follow along on the journey if you like, and comments of encouragement are always welcome, too! ^^;

NovelEmber Blog

Conclusion

Did I bite off more than I could chew this year? Maybe! I certainly struggled to fill out all three parts of the book, and there's going to be a lot to edit and expand whenever I decide to revisit it... All that said, though, I got to the end of all three story arcs and I exceeded my word goal, so I win anyway! The downside to this year was that I started feeling tired of Willowmoor by the end, which is to be expected after I've been in that series since May. I'm proud to have completed my second NovelEmber, though, and I love that this year I made a point to blog about the journey.

Onward now to my first World Ember 2025, and until next year, NovelEmber! ^*^

11-30 (日)

~NONE~

11-29 (土)

Got a shout-out on today's stream! I do appreciate having NovelEmber, so I was glad when Janet read aloud my comment saying so. :3

Week Four

Highlights

• FINISHED THE NOVEL! \^^/
• Wrote 37,740 words!
• For a stinking huge grand old total of 154,237 words!

Lowlights

• I don't know that there were any...I struggled a bit to get through the last few pages, but I got them down and that's what matters today ^^b

11-28 (金)

~NONE~

11-27 (木)

1730 words!

I FINISHED THE BOOK! The last scene was lacking all the detail it needs, but I'm fine with that for now because I was just so ready to get it done. T_T

In the end, it totals out to 154,237 words, so I well surpassed my goal. In fact, even if you add my goal and the normal challenge goal, I still surpassed that number! No wonder I'm tired and ready for a break.

I'll still be in this blog for the last three days of the month just because I'm not done with Willowmoor yet until after World Ember, so I might still have more to say.

For now, though, I have family over for the holiday and I'm going to see if Dallas can pull off the win.

Happy Thanksgiving~!

11-26 (水)

2583 words!

I struggled to sit down and write until I realized I was struggling with Adam's final scene. I chose to skip that in order to write Keilah's. I think I'll do a better job with Adam's if I tackle it after a giant read-through of the whole series from beginning to end.

At any rate, I'm now down to my very last scene, which I don't have the mental capacity for writing tonight, but which also cannot be skipped because it's the last scene of the book. This is where I simultaneously wrap up everything in the series while laying the tentative groundwork for the series that's meant to take place hundreds of years in the future. IT'S A LOT OF PRESSURE. Mainly because I've had the idea of this story's ending in my head for longer than the whole rest of it, so I'm turning into a perfectionist about getting it down exactly right. XD;; What I should be worried about instead is just getting it written, knowing I can come back and make it perfect later!

I have enjoyed this year's NovelEmber and really thrived! Yet, I am so ready to take a nice break. I'm ready for a (possibly) simpler goal of 10,000 world building words. I can do that much more for Willowmoor before I close the book on that series for a period of respite. I'm ready to have a short rest from writing novels and narrative...but only a short one. I thought I was ready for that when I finished my rewrite of the trilogy early in October and then I was missing it a week later. I want to dig my teeth into something different now - something in a proper fantasy world or else something set in the real world.

These are all things for me to decide going into 2026, though, and they have little (if anything) to do with my NovelEmber story. I'm just getting excited about being almost done, about starting World Ember, about wrapping up what was a truly productive year for this writer! T_T <--happy tears

Anyway, that's it for me. I fully expect to write the last scene and finish this massive venture tomorrow since we get a lovely holiday in the middle of the week that I don't have to cook for! ♥ For now, I'm going to do some gaming and then watch anime before bed. I've just started season 2 of Apothecary Diaries! :3

11-25 (火)

I had a feeling I wasn't going to be up for writing today, and I was right. Those last three scenes are going to be three of the most difficult in the whole book, and each in a different way. *le sigh*

Anyway, so I just watched a bunch of anime at the end of my workday instead of doing anything productive. Sometimes that's what we need, though, and it is a holiday week after all...

11-24 (月)

4047 words!

Well, I didn't settle in to write until late in the day - like after 7:30. I started on one scene, but I wasn't quite feeling it so I didn't get very far.

Then I moved on to the final death scene. Yes, there is still another in Part Three. It's sudden and surprising and reveals the depths a certain side character will go to - a side character that we've watched grow from a helpless baby into...well, apparently the monster I just wrote about. He's not the one who died, of course; rather, he's the murderer!

Anyway, writing the actually death scene itself was still pretty awful, and I got emotional when I had to write the other characters' reactions, of course. Otherwise, though, there was a lot of fun to be had around the scene since I wrote it all from the killer's perspective.

I only have three scenes left until this long and winding tale is at its end, but they may be the hardest to write in the whole damn thing. First, two scenes in a row are the last times I get to write from the POV of my two MCs. One will die between the next two scenes, and the other will die after that. I have to write their end-of-life recollections, which is just a lot since they've been with me across four books spanning 6 years of my life! T_T

Then, the final scene, written through the eyes of their daughter as she wraps up the loose ends and sets the stage for what Willowmoor will see in its immediate future. Basically, the foundation of the next series that takes place hundreds of years into the future.

A project for 2026, perhaps. :3

Anywho, there are still a lot of days left in the month, so I don't feel rushed to get these last three scenes done. At the same time, I am ready to be done with this beast, so I might try to tackle one each over the next three days to finish early on Thanksgiving. In fact, whether I write all three days or not, I'd be willing to bet money that I either wrap up on or by Thanksgiving.

That's all for now, though; it's 9:30 and I want to do a wee bit of gaming before I have to call it a night!

11-23 (日)

19,111 words!

It's super early. I might not be done. HOWEVER~ In case I am, I wanted to pop in here and update my word count. I am sooooo clooooose to the end of this book, y'all. =_= And as much as I have enjoyed writing it, I'm ready to be finished! I could use a nice little break before World Ember... PLUS I still haven't settled on what I'm doing for World Ember, so...EEP. +_+

For real, though, Part Three is the shortest, so the fact that I started it yesterday and I'm already almost done is irrelevant. I have skipped a couple of scenes, too, but I'm impressed with how many scenes I'm NOT skipping, because as long as I get to "The End", I could technically bounce over as many scenes as I like. Still, I'm pressing on. My mains are close to death because the book ends shortly after they die, so it's getting intense! I mean, for me, The Writer, anyway... You try writing characters being old and near death when they were the young upstarts who brought you into this world. Ackhfushfuhfs I'm just weeping and I haven't even gotten to the end of the tale!

Anyway, I'm breaking to watch Dallas lose, then I plan to do some gaming. It's anyone's guess if I come back to write after that. I'm also thinking about calling out tomorrow because I had a rough weekend what with the physical health scare and then the ways that infringed on my mental health... We'll see how tonight goes, though. I got poor sleep last night, so will I do better tonight? I'm letting that be the deciding factor...

11-22 (土)

10,269 words!

Finished Part Two this morning, then had my day interrupted with a health scare (booooo), which turned out to be nothing more than probably a pulled chest muscle, so that was fun. Then, I resumed writing, picking up Part Three and once again feeling my excitement reignite as the story jumps ahead a couple decades to the grand finale explaining how things get to be what they are in the future. My teens and children are all capable young adults, and the world has evolved to an unrecognizable point! IT'S SO NEAT!

So, yeah, passion reignited after the last couple of grueling days where I wasn't sure how much I felt like writing. Amazing how that works in every Part. Each book of the trilogy was the same way; I get to a point where it's either a slog because I've been going at it for too long or I just hesitate because of a death, then once I get past that point and start fresh on the next leg of the journey, I'm like "NEW CHARACTERS BASICALLY! NEW SETTING, TOO! LFG!"

Anyway, today was a long day, as I alluded to in my first paragraph. I'm definitely still going to play games before bed, but I've also not yet backed out on taking my niece to the zoo tomorrow, so I better make sure I get some real sleep tonight, too.

Week Three

Highlights

• Wrote a grand total of 49,239 words!
• Which means I broke my first goal by getting the count up to 122,441 words!
• Highest word count in a day thus far with 31,033 words on 11/16!

Lowlights

• Took another day off on 11/17
• Hit a Week Three slowdown as well...

11-21 (金)

4436 words!

Well, I didn't end up writing while at work, but I did get a hefty chunk done toward the end of the day. I also didn't write the scenes I meant to, though (that means I haven't done the death scene ~_~), instead focusing in on a character that's been along from the beginning and only grown in significance to both me and the protagonists. I don't know why that's where I decided to place my focus.

Just kidding, I'm obviously avoiding the next death scene. It'll have to get written tomorrow, though. I'm determined to finish Part Two tomorrow, and while I can gloss over some stuff, not the deaths. They're too important to the plot.

Alright, I'm too tired to talk about the process anymore tonight. Sometimes the author is just pooped and must unwind with games before passing out. =.=V

11-20 (木)

1635 words!

Yep, I'm in just a wee bit of a slump again. I didn't even write the war scene, preferring instead to go backward and finish a scene I only got halfway through yesterday. >_>

Tomorrow is a Friday, though, and my job has been exceptionally slow on Fridays, particularly the afternoons. In light of the holiday next week, I'm anticipating the same from this one. Assuming I haven't just jinxed myself, I intend to trudge through both the war scene and the death scene so I can get myself within sight of the end of Part Two by the end of the day.

If that plan works out, I'll set my sights to finishing Part Two on Saturday when I get home from feeding my cousin's cats for the last time (HUZZAH) and before my dad's birthday dinner that evening.

Sunday might be a no writing day as I instead make a plan for tackling the, thankfully, much shorter Part Three. Plus, I'm taking my niece to the zoo that morning and I have the rare social plans that night. Trying to write anything of substance in between will probably prove futile. I have been writing for almost 30 years...I know myself well by now. XD

So that's my plan going into the weekend. Let's see how I do!

11-19 (水)

3814 words!

Tonight I was just going through the motions. I wrote a couple of scenes and skipped over a scene... Next I've got a big battle/war coming with another important death, so I feel myself disengaging a bit just like I did the last time I had to kill off one of my babies. =_= I suppose I could skip right over the scene this time since I'm over 100K and the goal now is to just get to the end of the story, but I also feel like I'd be doing the final act of the book an injustice without writing the second most important death scene in the story. I hate to even call it that...it's honestly equally as important as the other one, it just doesn't hit as hard since this time it's a grown adult.

Still, though, at the beginning of this series the "grown adult" was merely 16 years old. TT_TT

Alright, I don't even want to talk about it anymore. I'm feeling the Week Three burnout tonight.

11-18 (火)

3780 words!

Well, I really didn't feel like writing for a second day in a row, but I forced myself to write one scene. "Just get 1000 words on the page," I told myself. And so I did.

Then, about an hour and a half later, after I did a few other things, I sat back down and read those 1000 words. And then...I just wrote the next scene. Well, not totally accurate; I skipped a rescue scene because I didn't have the mental acuity for it tonight. That's a complicated scene to narrate whereas the scene I did end up writing involved a lot of dialogue and one character's tortured inner monologue. My brain was here for that mess. XD

So that was tonight. It's still quite early, but I don't have anymore words in me. I would have been pleased to get any down at all, but the fact that I came back to more than double my count for the day is pretty freaking awesome. That's a great way to reclaim some steam midway through Week Three. WE ARE COMING DOWN THE HILL OF THE OTHER SIDE OF THE HUMP, Y'ALL! I now have a secret third goal to finish by the end of Thanksgiving so that I can take a day of rest (the 28th) and then devote the entire last weekend of the month to my World Ember prep that I've been woefully neglecting for at least a week now.

It's a secret third goal, though, so I don't fail the challenge if I don't meet it. I only fail the challenge now if I can't get to the end of Book IV. Which I'm gonna do by the end of Thanksgiving. :3

Okay, now I'm just getting repetitive. Goodnight from this sleepy panda. =_=

11-17 (月)

It's early enough that I could still come back and write, but after my marathon yesterday, I've found I'm in no mood to write today. XD; I'm still thinking of the story, and I think it's fine to let everything marinate another night before I sit down to resume writing. The closer I get to Part Three and the end, the more I want to write Willowmoor fanfiction about all the years I'm skipping over. I call it fanfiction because those years are never meant to be "officially" written about, but I still love the idea of visiting them. I've been with Willowmoor for 6 years this month and there are so many stories happening in the background of the Main Tale and I just want to dive in and write them all! o_O

Maybe since Willowmoor is my comfort place I should go ahead and set it gingerly aside at the end of the month knowing I can always return to write one of those little stories if I'm having a bad day or simply feel so inspired. I could publish them under a title like The Lost Stories of Willowmoor or something compelling like that. There could even be multiple volumes and they could group stories together based on the time frame or who they center on...

Ah~ this place is for talking about NovelEmber, not ruminating on what I shall focus on for World Ember (which won't be short stories anyway since it's about WORLD building!). I have a whole as-yet-unpublished article for that. >_>

That said, I guess I'm out of here for the night. Maybe my American football team will win tonight, but I think I'm shutting off the game to...you guessed it: play video games! \^^/

11-16 (日)

21,995 words!

31,033 words!

WOW IT WAS A MONSTER WORD DAY. I did almost nothing else - just some laundry and cleaning and running across town twice to feed my cousin's cats. It's amazing, but we had a 10-year-time jump into Part Two, and it made me utterly MAD with inspiration. Suddenly my toddler is a sharp teenage girl and the world has grown and evolved since the end of Part One with all the characters and Adam is now my delicious antihero - nay, the man is presently becoming the story's villain! Anyway, it's a lot of fun to write and I may not even be done for the night (thought I should be, let's be real) because I'm SO INTO IT, but I've decided to take a break at a great spot that I'll be excited to dig into tomorrow.

No more from me tonight (Daiyo knows I wrote enough today, bwahaha). I do want to say that I'm less than 1000 words from my first goal of 100,000 words, so considering we're just starting Week Three and I'm only halfway through Part Two, we still have a long way to go despite that! Should I have said 150,000 words this year? Only time will tell. >_>

And I came back to add almost 10K before midnight! O_O;

11-15 (土)

4541 words!

I was ready to finish Part One of the book, so I hit the ground running this morning. I thought that would be all, but then I ended up getting newly inspired as I plotted out the rest of Part Two and Three since I had only plotted up to about halfway through Part Two before. I ended up writing the first scene of that one.

Since my total word count is already knocking on 80K and my goals are 100K and "finish Book IV" I'm going to focus on writing the scenes I find most compelling, skipping clean over the others as I bounce my way over 100K and to the last scene of the story. The other scenes will be waiting for me when I decide to sit down and edit it someday in the future.

I teeter back and forth between thinking I'm tired of Willowmoor and ready to move onto a different project for a while, and being like "NO WILLOWMOOR IS EVERYTHING!" I can't make up my mind, but I better figure it out by the time World Ember arrives so that I can participate without being unprepared and confused.

Anywho, I'm tired and ready to do a wee bit of gaming before calling it an early weekend night. I know, lame, but so it goes. =_=

Week Two

Highlights

• Officially crossed 50K words on 11/9!
• Added an additional 37,788 words!
• That brings the total count up to 73,202 words!

Lowlights

• First day of no writing on 11/12
• In fact, this was where I hit my Week Two slump as I struggled to write a death scene
• Loss of some motivation...

11-14 (金)

3722 words!

Today's scene was difficult, too, and I am shocked and proud that I got as many as almost 4000 words down. +_+ It was the aftermath of the Death Scene, so I had to describe people wailing and all the grief being felt by our MC and others, and I did it all to the depressing tunes of my Grief playlist, so I even cried by the time I was done.

It also happened to be the two-year anniversary since a friend's death, and I think I drew from the natural heaviness and trauma I'm feeling as that's been weighing on me all day.

Regardless, I am done for today. The blog entries have been short this week, but we're also in the Dreaded Week Two. Yes, I've had years without a Week Two slump, but they're the minority.

Anyway, tomorrow is the blessed weekend and my goal is to wrap up Part One of the book. Then, onward to Book Two! In the finished product I'm expecting parts 1 and 2 to be roughly the same size, but since we're heading into Week Three tomorrow and I have two more parts to write and I'm already over 70K words, I'm going to focus more on getting to The End, so Part Two is going to be shorter for now. Ideally, I'll wrap Part Two in 10 days or less, giving myself the five days over Thanksgiving weekend to sprint through Part Three.

*whew*

I'm tired planning all that. Let's see if I get it done! x_X

11-13 (木)

796 words!

I finally did it. I finally wrote the death scene. T_T

And as I predicted, that was the only one I felt up to writing. I technically wrote a few more words than that because I got the first two sentences of the next scene down, but then I sighed with sorrow and closed the writing software for the day.

That's all I have to say here as well. I'm off to wash my hair and play some video games before bed. ♥

11-12 (水)

First day of the month that I didn't do any writing. I won't hold myself to it being the only day because, as they say, Shit Happens. Today wasn't one of those days, though. Yes, I could blame it on the busy and mentally draining work day or the endless parade of news that I had to keep gobbling up because WTF. I live in America. >_> It wasn't really those things, but I could argue they contributed. No, the real reason lies in my last post... I'm not ready to kill off the character whose death my narrative has come to. TT_TT

I can't put it off another day, but due to the other things I mentioned, I think today ended up being a good day to skip. I did some extra Japanese study with the time, too, so it's not like I was mindlessly absorbing the news and working with nothing else in between. XD;;

Now I'm off to play some video games to wind down my night before bed. One day off is just fine! ^^b Just not two in a row, so watch this space. o_o

11-11 (火)

5717 words!

I had the day off, and I think it shows in my word count. The fact that I spent time not writing today also shows, otherwise it would have been double what it is. XD;;

No, I had some errands to run and Japanese to study and I'm helping my brother cat sit for our cousins and there was laundry piling up and I started a new game of TOTK because I've been itching to play it again and it's been months since the last time I attempted a restart. Was I putting off the story after a certain point? Were there delays throughout my day because I was hesitant?

Yes is the answer I'm pussyfooting around like a weirdo, but it's not because I lack motivation to write or I didn't feel like sitting down to write. It's because I've finally reached the big turning point in the novel where everything goes to shit. The very next scene is a short one, but it's a poignant one because it features a death of someone close to one of the main protagonists - a death that will really hit close to home for him. Like, a terrible death that I have been dreading writing even though I know it's necessary for the whole-ass story going forward, but UGH my poor baby (re: character who shall not be named). In fact, all my poor babies. They've been mostly having a good and peaceful time of things throughout the whole tale so far, but they don't get any of those happy days again. I mean, they'll get imitation ones, but nothing will ever go back to how it was for them before and it's very heartbreaking. I'm heartbroken for my characters in the dreaded Week Two. TT_TT

So that's where we're at. I had plenty of time at the end of my day to write the Death Scene, but I simply can't bring myself to do it right now. I don't think I should put it off again tomorrow, though, because then I'm letting too much time pass between the raw events leading up to it. That said...it's possible that one short scene is all I write tomorrow before I have to pause in order to grieve. How's that for an excuse to get out of writing my words? XD;

But seriously, I am so bummed about this character's death. As of this point in the narrative they could still be alive, so it's almost like I'm not ready to push it along since it would mean that's no longer the case.

*le sigh*

Writer problems, amirite? ;_;

That's all for now. Expect something weepy and short tomorrow.

11-10 (月)

2127 words!

Lean night after the last couple of days! Now, since I have the day off tomorrow, it is early-ish at 8PM as I write this, so there's always a slim possibility that I return to add more words, but I doubt it. It was a long day and my next scene is this big, high-powered, exciting, action heavy scene, and I just don't have the mental bandwidth to write that kind of scene tonight. =_= So, unless I skip it out of a sudden inspiration to write a totally different scene, I think that's where my word count stands tonight.

Besides, I have tomorrow off. There will be time to add a dash of extra middle-of-the-week words tomorrow. 8D

11-9 (日)

15,264 words!

WOOHOO, look at that word count! That puts me officially over the 50K word mark already! *throws confetti* I have honestly done it sooner than that before when it was NaNo (as I said in today's Update Log), but let's celebrate all our wins equally. \^^/

Of course, that also means I got 0 World Ember prep done. There will come a day when this story isn't relentlessly pulling me forward full steam ahead, and that's when I'll want to sit down and "waste time" (as I'll be thinking while I ignore my novel haha) by finally plugging into World Ember. Part of my putting it off is that I'm actually not committed to my original idea of focusing on the new world that appears 100's of years after the events of this book. I might want to focus on tightening up this world a bit more first. It's also hard to know when I'm so in the weeds with the NovelEmber project. I'm only just getting to the part of the story that turns dark, so it's totally possible that by the time I get through the rest of the month of traumatizing myself that I'm ready to put Willowmoor and its future world away for a month to piddle around with another project. >_>

All that to say that I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing that I haven't been able to sit down and commit to working on and publishing my World Ember Prep page yet. I have until the end of the month, after all.

Okay, I'm hungry for a nice bedtime snack while I wind down with some ACNH. The other reason I decided to throw schedules and responsibilities to the wind for a full day of mostly writing today is because I go work a deeply unmotivated day tomorrow before getting Tuesday off. This means I'll play catch-up with some things tomorrow and give myself permission to either not write at all or call it a night after one scene. Then, on Tuesday, I'll do the other things I should have gotten done today: laundry, a more thorough cleaning of my space, perhaps even some Proper Adulting like cleaning up my personal email inbox. =_= Sounds like a blast.

Bye for now~!

11-8 (土)

10,162 words!

Great day for writing! Of course, I did little else except hung out with some family that came over for a bit, played some ACNH when I needed a break from writing, and took a wee afternoon nap. I also wanted to have at least one heavier writing day over the weekend so that I can use the other to perhaps slack off and write less? I'm still too motivated to have a lot of confidence that's what'll happen tomorrow, but since I have Tuesday off next week, I'm open to the possibility. Sometimes a nice break feeds the creativity!

On the other hand, I do have to work Monday in spite of being off on Tuesday, so that's a better day to go light with my word count, if we're being totally honest...

I guess we'll see what happens. If nothing else, I'm planning to write all of chapter seven tomorrow. The thing is, if I finish that in a timely fashion, I'm likely to move on to chapter eight because it's one of the shortest in Part I, so it won't take me long to knock out. :3

Anyway, I'm tired and ready to move from hunching over my keyboard to flopping around in my bed.

Week One

Highlights

• Stayed up until midnight on Halloween to start the novel as soon as it was officially November 1st, marking what is as of this year a 20-year tradition for me! *throws confetti*
• Already knocked out 35,414 words!
• That's 12,076 more words than I'm supposed to be at as of one week!
• Motivation is high! I haven't hit my word goal every day, but I've been excited enough about the story to write at least 1000 words every day, and I'm ahead of where I should be, which is always great! You never know how things will go as the weeks drag on, so having a head start going into the dreaded Week Two is always a boon!
• I'M JUST SO EXCITED and I've maintained more or less the same level of excitement since DAY ONE! 8D

Lowlights

• Recording a whopping 30K+ words on Day Two, then taking about two more days to really go, "You know what? There's no way I've written this many words already..." and having to delete some 12K words out of my overall count... It was itching at the back of my mind, I was just too damn EXCITED. XD;;;

11-7 (金)

4330 words!

Woooo! I stopped after 1700-something and wondered if that was it for me because "at least I got some words down and, hey, it's the weekend so I got all kinds of writing time", but then after my break I planned out a couple of future scenes and read a previous scene to put myself back into charming Willowmoor and BOOM out pour 2500 additional words. Amazing. And I'm once again leaving off mid-scene without doing any read-thru of what I've just written, so I'll get to go back and read those last 2500 words that leave off in the middle of a scene I'll be eager to write. I have two more scenes in this chapter (five), and then things really start escalating plot-wise. Chapter Thirteen is the Big Bad, but there's plenty to be getting on with before then...

Anyway, I'm tired and it is the weekend, so I'll get plenty of writing done over the next couple of days if I can stay focused and motivated (and hydrated!). For now, it's off to check in on my friends on my Animal Crossing island before bed. You might start sensing a clear bedtime pattern for me if I keep writing these at the end of my day right before playing ACNH an hour before bed. XD;;

11-6 (木)

3856 words!

Ah~ I stopped mid-scene again. It comes naturally when I'm tired, and I maintain it works to my benefit the next day when I get to start up mid-scene - especially if I don't reread the exposition leading up to the moment until right before I resume writing!

Look, the fact of the matter is I might have bit off more than I can chew. XD This story spans decades and I'm trying to make it fit neatly into 3 parts. It's also a sweeping, dark tome with shadows of Game of Thrones, so imagine how thrilled I am to write some of the lengthy miserable parts later. Hard transitions, battles and bloodshed, character deaths - including one child death in particular that I'm just already sobbing over. I'm essentially in the honeymoon period both figuratively and literally; I get to have this eager motivation because IT'S NOVELEMBER but also I'm quite literally writing some of the happiest and brightest scenes that I'll write in the whole entire book because once it turns...it turns.

So, yeah, it's going to turn into an agonizing slog in some fashion once everything shifts from this lighthearted tale to the Real Story. That's what the national novel writing month is all about, though, eh? We get through the slog to the glorious words The End, pleased we completed a story even if it's clunky and uncomfortable in places. I do love it. ❤

I'm done for the night, though. The longer I sit here, the more likely I am to believe (falsely) that I've got a second writing wind. The novel is a mouse click away, but I'm moving on to my Animal Crossing island and dreamland.

To be continued tomorrow....

11-5 (水)

3534 words!

I'm late posting, but look at that word count! I'm especially proud of it because I sat down after work and initially just wrote about 1400. After a study break to practice Japanese, I ended up returning to the story and doubling my count! I was in it, too; I could have gone on to finish the scene I was working on, but it was getting late for me (10PM OMG) and I was starting to lose focus a bit, so I called it a night. As I've said before, though, I'll face an easier time of getting some words down tomorrow since I stopped mid-scene. XD

Anyway, that's all for now!

11-4 (火)

1393 words!

Less words tonight. For starters, I felt rundown after work and I'm tired and my creative muscle might even be a bit sore from the mega sprint on Sunday. XD It's also Election Night here in America and I'm invested in results around the country, so I'm doing my nerd thing and watching the coverage on The Majority Report.

That's all for tonight. ^^

11-3 (月)

2761 words!

Whew, I struggled to find inspiration tonight, so I'm glad for my word count. ^_^ Could have probably finished up chapter 3 if my eyes weren't screaming at me to call it a night. You know what, though? I'll be more likely to get some words down tomorrow by leaving off mid-scene like this, haha.

I don't really have anything else to say about my writing journey today. I'm sleepy. >_>

11-2 (日)

13,732 words!

Between the time change and my overall enthusiasm for the story, today ended up being a monster word day. Unfortunately, I crashed hard at the end of the day before adding my new word count, so my overview is going to be wrong all month as it declares I did no writing on 11/2 and a TON of writing on 11/3. I made similar errors with NaNoWriMo's word counter back in the day, so I suppose this is tradition as well. As long as I complete my goals, it won't amount to anything more than a minor annoyance tomorrow. >_>

Anyway, I finished chapters one and two and got mostly through chapter three. I probably could have finished it, in fact, but by then I was tired and my wrists hurt, so I've no doubts that it'll have a stronger close if I finish it up tomorrow instead.

11-1 (土)

5508 words!

I completed the old stay-up-until-midnight tradition last night even if I just penned about 50 words to start with. I'm not as young as I used to be, though, so I was ready for bed. >_>

The bulk of today's writing was done on the prologue in the early afternoon; that technically pushed me over today's word count goal of 3,334. As it's the weekend (and one with a time change to boot!), I couldn't just leave it there, though, so I hopped back at it after taking some time off to play video games. I'm probably about a third of the way through chapter one, which I expect to finish tomorrow. I should also be able to get chapter two knocked out since it features the Call to Action, so plenty of excitement! Besides, I'm familiar with how this goes... The first week is typically a rager where I have nothing but mountains of motivation, but I'll hit a wall in the second or maybe third week (or both if I'm unlucky), so best to seize the early momentum while I have it.

Anyway, that's all for now.