Why I’m not doing NaNoWriMo this year

It feels weird to say out loud that I’m not going to be taking part in NaNoWriMo this time around. Admittedly I haven’t been writing long, in the grand scheme of things, but NaNo in November, and Camp NaNo in April and July, formed part of my goals and targets and gave a bit of shape to my writing year.

But then things got a bit hectic. Once I started to write more, and got into a routine and therefore quicker at drafting, a 50,000-word month became pretty much a regular occurrence – to the point where I was producing a steady stream of drafts without allowing enough time to edit and publish them all. That in turn led to a backlog which I’m still addressing.

Plus I also began co-writing with Paula Harmon earlier this year. We wrote drafts for 3 mystery novels from January to March, and published them from June to August. Encouraged by the response, we’ve drafted book 4 and are now editing it with the aim of getting it out before Christmas.

Add a fourth Pippa Parker novel, a third Sherlock and Jack novella, and the sequel to A House of Mirrors all due to be published before the end of the year, and maybe you can see why I won’t be doing NaNo! While I would love to, and I’d enjoy the process tremendously, and I would have no trouble finding a story to write, I just have too many plates spinning. Adding another would just be adding to the problem.

So this NaNo I’ll be editing, and cover designing, and formatting, and maybe writing a short story or two, but I won’t be taking part in the conventional sense. My November goal this year will be to make more books ready for an end-of-year release.

I suppose I’ve got to the point where, as well as being something I love doing, writing and publishing is also a business. Sigh. Sometimes it’s rubbish being a grown-up.

Then again, more drafts to write in 2019! SQUEEEEEEE!!!

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The featured image is NO by born1945, and it is shared via Creative Commons license 2.0