Let’s talk trying to get words down while one’s country is extremely some, well, problems.

Doomscrolling is a thing. A very bad but very strong factor in procrastinating for me it seems. For those who don’t know what doomscrolling is, let me explain. Doomscrolling is when something bad happened or is about to or even, happens in a continual loop like say, a pandemic and you can not stop hitting refresh on social media or the news. Last week was a lot of doomscrolling for me. I tried to break myself of it and succeeded a few times but still, it eats up a good chunk of the day for no good reason.

Doomscrolling aside I was still able to hit all my goals, even if just barely. To refresh the readers, the average word goal per day for #onemillionwords 2021 is 2740. I’ve been writing anywhere between 2745 and 2750. I’m happy I’m on track but I do wish I had been able to bank a bit more words. I’m confident I’ll be able to do so moving forward, barring any big world events that might trigger my doomscrolling once more. It’ll probably happen, but here’s hoping. It seems like 2020 just came back to the party wearing a different hat and a fake mustache.

My total as of now is 41,658. I am in no way complaining about this number!

My goal for the end of the month, though, is 108,500. I’ve got a bit of catching up to do. The actual month goal is 84940. The reason mine is so much higher is because I’m in the middle of house hunting with my husband who works full time and goes to school part time. Basically, what the means is I’m house hunting, at least until we hit spring break.

That alone has been exhausting, especially with the many restrictions put in place because of COVID. Once we find the house, it’ll only be the beginning of it all. Moving takes a lot of time and energy which means during that time, whenever it is, I probably will be lucky to get down one or two hundred words down at most. Then there’s the whole unpacking stage. We’re going from a two-bedroom apartment to a 3-4 bedroom house so it’ll be a whole ordeal.

That said, the only reason I feel confident still is because of the great community that has formed around #onemillionwords. I was half expecting a sudden drop after the first week, which I’ve found is normal in most online communities no matter how long they have been around. Usually, a handful of people keep somewhat active but that’s about it. I have always come and gone from every single one I’ve been apart of. Sometimes I’m active all day and sometimes I’m not seen for a week.

I’m still a little hit or miss in the community but I’ve noticed I’ve been a lot more engaged overall. Not sure why. Maybe the adrenaline rush from taking on a large challenge like this is still pumping strong in my veins. Or maybe, Charlie just struck internet gold and brought together the right people to start this community. Either way, something is working right. I’ve stayed engaged. Even not meeting my personal goals, which usually takes the wind right out of my sails, hasn’t deterred me from continuing.

That being said, an update on each project.

• CHAINED HEAVENS – All the titles here are working titles. Some I’ve grown to really like and some, well, I’ll be happy when I think of something better. This is one of them. I’ll workshop better names later and deal with it for now. CHAINED HEAVENS is a high fantasy collection of short stories that I’ve been working on for the better part of two years. I have a few stories planned out and am very close to finishing my first one of 2021. It’s getting close to the 10k mark and will probably be over by the time it’s finished but that’s okay. I always have to remind myself with these short stories, like how I write during NaNoWriMo, half of that is filler and can be cut. One thing that has been helping me plan out future stories is DnDBeyond.com. The monster guides are great inspirations for figuring out what my main character’s next adventure will be. My favorite at the moment is a little demon called a Cackler. They aren’t the biggest or toughest but when they die they release a laugh that scars the minds of every creature nearby. In actual D&D, the DC to succeed is pretty low, only an 11, but it’s a great idea to play with.
• Blog posts for Vox et Liber. So far so good. I’m bad at thinking up topics so I have been sticking to a Tuesday and Friday update schedule for now. Tuesday, book review. Friday, #onemillionwords update. Easy so far and it’s been kicking me in the backside to actually read my very large TBR pile instead of just looking at it. Right now I’m reading WINTERSONG by S. Jae-Jones. After that is Jim C. Hines newest TAMORA CARTER: GOBLIN QUEEN. Thinking I might start posting polls on what to read and review next. It’ll help me decide in a timely manner as well as let my readers have a bit of say in what they read about.
• CLOAKED RITES – I’ve rewritten this one story five times, not including the rewrite I’m working on now. It’s been fully finished twice. Got changed from being a single novella to a novella trilogy to a full-length novel. Now, it’s a novel trilogy. I know where I’m going with this story considering I’ve written it five times but it hasn’t been sparking as much excitement as it has in the past. I still love the story and want to finish it but I have a feeling to get excited for it once more I need to do that dreaded thing they call outlining. I also realized about halfway through last week that after having written about 4k words in 3rd person specific that it works so much better in 1st person. That was a joy to figure out and might have also been some of the reason it’s been like trudging through mud trying to write it.
• The Stormblood Saga Series – This is also one that’s been rewritten a few times. This is the fourth time I am rewriting it. I realized quickly with the first draft that I jumped into the middle of the storyline and a storyline that’s supposed to build up over time to something big. I started with something big and big enough it would disrupt the characters’ lives forever. Not a great start for what was supposed to be a long series. So, the plot got reworked. A lot. Now, I am so much happier with it and my characters in general. I also forgot how much I miss writing them, especially the main character Merranyssa. Her interacting, against her will, with her father’s side of the family or really anything Fae is hilarious every time. This is one of the few projects I have where I’ve been able to pump in more words than just the bare minimum.
• THE DANGEROUS LIES OF A PERPETUALLY SINGLE WEREWOLF – I love this title and will fight tooth and nail to keep it for publication. This is the other project where I’ve been able to make decent sized dents in. Who doesn’t like the fake/pretend relationship trope? Especially when they’re best friends trying to keep the other safe even if it’s from their well-meaning but completely out of touch relatives. It’s been fun to write especially since I’ve never been a fan of the stoic Werewolf characters that are often written in media today. Wolves in general, are derpy as all hell. They love to play and run and fake fight each other. There’s no reason that Werewolves wouldn’t be the same way. Add in a little bit of intelligent thinking and they’d be getting into entertaining trouble 24/7.
• The Keeper Chronicle Series – This one I’ve been warring with a bit back and forth. Somedays I’ve been able to get a lot down and other days, not so much. This series stemmed from a short story I wrote for a horror anthology. After it was done and off to the editor I realized, I wanted to explore this world more. I’ve been working on the world that CLOAKED RITES and the Stormblood Saga Series are both in for thirteen years, the world of the NightOthers. Hell, even longer if one counts the time it was set in a high fantasy world that was a combination of a bunch of books I read in high school. So, the KC series is a breath of fresh air. Even still, I’ve stalled a bit on where to go next. The original short story was just that, a short story. It was complete as it was. Continuing it has been harder than I thought but the challenge is what makes it worth doing.

Overall, #onemillionwords 2021 is still going well. I’ll feel a bit better about it all once I have a month’s worth of words banked for when I enviable go crazy from house hunting. It’s easy to do in the area we’re looking in. 250k could get you an amazing 3/4 bedroom house in a beautiful rural neighborhood or a murder house. There are no in-betweens and to add salt to the wound, it’s considered a low inventory time which means good luck. Just, good luck.

The same thing goes for all those participating in #onemillionwords 2021. It’s a crazy thing to try and accomplish. There’s a good chance you’ll turn in your last sanity token before the year is out but it will be worth it. Just like getting a house of your own during a pandemic to escape your upstairs neighbors who you swear bowls every day for sixteen hours straight. It’s just like trying to write a million words in one year. Wild but worth it.