Hello, dreamers. We’re at the halfway-point of NaNoWriMo 2025. At this point in the month, things are getting tense. Most of my critique partners have settled into a rhythm at this point, and we’re all chugging away in hopes of meeting our monthly goals.

For my part, this week actually begins with a brief step back, because last week was pretty intense. And with that said, here’s what I’ll be up to this week:

NaNoWriMo

Absorbed as I was this weekend, I completely forgot my NaNo weekly update, so I’ll start there: I have now made it through seven chapters of OctoWIP. Those chapters account for roughly 33k words, which places me at least slightly ahead of schedule to meet the month’s 60k goal.

As anticipated, so far this novel has been extremely dense. It’s highly technical at times, very voicey, and I’m already digging deep into interiority. From the start, I’d know 60k wasn’t going to do it, but now I’m wondering if I’ll even make it halfway through phase two before hitting the goal.

For the uninitiated, it’s important to note how NaNoWriMo works: namely, while the event may be called “National Novel Writing Month”, you don’t actually need to write a complete novel to win. The current iteration places the word goal at 60k (the original NaNo org made it 50). In today’s literary market, almost no one would be willing to publish a novel that short. And if you approach an agent with a genre fic novel that’s only 60k, they’re going to have a few questions.

In short, it’s well within the realm of possibility to “win” NaNoWriMo and still not have a finished novel at the end. When I won NaNoWriMo 2018 with Seven Days on Samarkand, I began the month with roughly 30k already written. And even then, I didn’t complete the first draft until mid-December. So at this point, I look to be well on track to making my word goal for the month, and also not finishing this novel by December 1.

That said, however, I’m making great progress, and have passed a major milestone. Having completed seven grueling chapters of this story, I’m now taking a step back. When I resume work in the coming days (starting with a full editing pass), I’ll be making a time jump of roughly a month. By that point, the characters will have settled into their new lives aboard the Challenger. The vehicle will be preparing for braking maneuvers, launching robotic probes to Thamiyn. Karen will have her hands full with research, while Anita will be leaving the ship briefly. I’ll once again have a lot of stuff going on in different places, and I’m looking forward to it.

If all goes well, I may be able to complete phase one this week. That will set me up to take another brief break, though given the timing I may elect to simply write on. We’ll see how the week, and the rest of this month, goes.

Short Fiction

So first, an update on my upcoming anthology appearance: this weekend, I completed copy editing with the E.I.C. at Galaxy Press. As of this writing, it appears I am set for my official debut as a published author. There is, of course, a decent change I’ll appear in Analog before the Writers of the Future vol. 42 is released. But the fact is, these people said “yes” first. They accepted me before anybody else did. And that matters.

Upcoming Content

Here’s what you can expect on this site through the week ahead:

Wednesday: “NaNoWriMo Midweek Update”

On Wednesday I’ll be updating readers on my progress with OctoWIP. This week I’ll be looking at the approaching end to phase one of the book, and where the story will go from there.

Friday: “The Cutting Room: It Takes a Village”

In this month’s post on editing, I discuss critique groups, and why they’re crucial to the success of aspiring and emerging writers.

Sunday: “NaNoWriMo: Week 2”

I’ll end the week with a wrap-up on the first full week of NaNoWriMo, apprising readers of my progress and my goals for the coming week.

It’s going to be another big week. So read on, and dare to dream. – MK