Hello again, dreamers.

It’s been an incredible month, but while we have about two weeks left to go in November, at this point my NaNoWriMo experience is drawing to a close.  Not including the chapter I began tonight, my word count stands at 40,175 words; less than 10k shy of the 50k goal. Originally, I’d been thinking of writing on past the end of phase 3, but now I will most likely stick to my usual routine, and take a week or two off once phase 3 is complete.  The way things are lining up, most likely the final two chapters of phase 3 will put me over 50k. If not, I’ve been considering adding a repetend chapter between the final two, and that should do it.

With NaNoWriMo ending, I am faced with the increasingly difficult question of where, precisely, to go from here.  But for now, I will rest, take an easy week (once phase 3 is complete, anyway), and enjoy the holiday. With that in mind, here’s what I’ll be doing this week:

The Pioneer

And here we are: after years of planning and dreaming, I find myself nearing the harrowing climax of my beloved work-in-progress.  The next two chapters will be challenging, not only because they’re what I’ve spent months building up to, but also because I’ve grown attached to the characters of this novel.  I hate what I must now put them through, but this is how it must be.

As far as what comes next, in the immediate future the answer is nothing.  Over the rest of the week, including my time visiting my family in Pennsylvania, I plan to step away from The Pioneer, aside perhaps from a little reading and light revision.  As I’ve said before, the research phase prior to beginning phase 4 will be minimal, as most of my world-building is complete.

After that, I may indeed try to wrap things up before the end of the year.  Phase 4 will be fast-paced, and likely won’t end up being longer than five chapters.  Before I dive in, however, I may decide to take my time and perform some heavy editing on the first three phases.  We shall see. In any event, once the first draft is complete I’ll still have a lot of work to do. I’ve already flagged numerous sections of the novel that could use some serious refining.  It’s far from over.

Year End

Looking ahead, regardless of what I decide to do with The Pioneer over the coming month, I have a lot to do.

Among other things, I’d really like to put in some quality time on several outstanding projects, including novels as well as short fiction.  It’d be nice to end the year with at least a few more short fiction manuscripts to shop around. Perhaps most importantly, however, I plan to ready myself to begin the querying process for Wide Horizon.  Among other things, that will include a long-planned change in domain name.  

There are a lot of changes coming.  But for now, I plan to relax, and take a long-awaited breather to enjoy the holiday.  Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours, dreamers. And as always, dare to dream. – MK