Frosty fall felicitations, dear Followers!

As you may (or may not…) have noticed, I have been silent (some of you think of it as a blessed silence) for the duration of November.  I know it must have distressed you all when you checked your inbox once more only to find it lacking an email from Not All By My Lonesome.

Never fear.

I have returned at last.

I was on the thirty day journey of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) for those of you who forgot, and had no time whatsoever for frivolities such as blogging (for those of you who only read this blog because you’re friends or family and if you don’t read all my posts then I pester you about it FOREVER because I take this blog too seriously, blogging is frippery only in comparison to the noble pursuit of novelling).

I have returned at last, and I have returned victorious!…. More or less.

For those of you who need reminding (meaning: you had a pile-up of my blog emails and deleted them all without reading them), NaNoWriMo is thirty days of literary abandon.  People all over the country participate in it, and this was my first year.  The goal is to write 50,000 in one month.  Specifically, one is supposed to write the entire first draft of one’s novel in the month of November.

Well, I wrote 50,044 words with little problems; in fact, I hit 50k three days before the deadline.  Yaaayyyyyy, right?  More or less.  The problem is that I’m only halfway through my novel.  Seeing as the earth insists on continuing to turn despite my desires, I was unable to complete my novel because apparently it’s not sustainable for one such as I to do nothing but write all day.

So, it’s only a partial win because now I’ll have to wrangle up some sort of deadline for myself which I most likely will blow off and end up spending the next twelve months “finishing” my novel when I’ll really be surfing Pinterest for pictures that make me think of my novel, despondently rereading the first half of my novel, and whining to you all about how I’m still working on my novel (yeah, you can’t wait for those wailing posts).

BUT, my NaNoWriMo experience.

It was fantastic.  I did most of my writing after everyone in the family had gone to sleep (because chores, school, and family time are important for some reason).

The first 15 days, I staunchly refused to reward myself for reaching word goals.  Chocolate was incredibly tempting, but I held fast because popping in a Dove every 100 words would not  be good for my already luxurious waistline. However, on November 15, I caved.  Those Doves were just too tempting.  And, I told myself, I needed the caffeine, sugar, blah, blah, blah to fuel my words.

And then things escalated snack-wise.

Four bottles of frappucino from WalMart, one bag of dark chocolate Doves, one bag of milk chocolate Doves, a package of beef jerky, an entire Thanksgiving weekend, and two bottles of sparkling grape juice later, November ended.

And then there were my numerous books and such that I had to have on hand: my two baby names books, my “R” notebook (it’s called the “R” notebook for Romance, Ryll, and Retellings), my sketchbook (for my reference maps of Ryll), my purse notebook, and my “Word Lover’s Delight” from the library.

And then there were my beeswax candles and matches. :)  Yes, matches and candles.  Those blessed gifts from above.  It’s mental thing for me; “Candles feed my muse, blah, blah, blah,” and other nonsense that I tell myself so that I have a chance to play with fire and be a pryo child be warmed by a flame.

As for writing buddies, I had one.  There were several people in the NaNo 2014 Facebook group that I was a part of, but I don’t really know any of them.  So my buddy was (and still is) my good friend Miranda.  She put up with all my crazed texts about how I was distraught, borderline hysterical, or just down right depressed.  She must have endless springs of patience because I pestered her about word wars and her word count (I seriously wonder if I knew how to text anything besides: “What’s your word count?”). To put it simply, she’s a saint, and I wouldn’t have made it through without her.

So, dear Followers, I continue on my journey of writing Truly‘s sequel (come now, you knew I was going to bring Truly up at some point).  Little bursts about NaNo 2014 will most likely come out over the next few months as I remember things (word count envy, word count debt, word count depression, writer’s block, more word count envy, the endless 30,000s, etc.), but for now, you can rest assured that this post is over.

Tally ho!

~ Rosalie