November Goals Recap

Where did this month go?

My sense of time has been really off lately, probably because this month was one of a lot of changes in my routine. I finished my internship about halfway through the month and moved home, where I had exams for a week before going on a week of vacation with my family. (we did outdoors and socially distanced stuff, like swimming at the beach in 40 degree F weather haha). In any case, making goals was a little odd because I had to account for my normal schedule changing so often. I operate religiously on to-do list and calendars, so big shifts or a lack of routine has a tendency to really mess with my head, and I tried to do a combination of hard goals I’d inevitable have to complete, and easier optional things.

For all of that, I’m glad I got this much done! I won the month by four goals, making 17/26 of them! I’ve got a post on my studyblr detailing the rest of them, but I’m going to discuss my writing/creative progress for the month here in some more detail. I completed 5/8 creative goals which makes that a win as well!

Draw 15 things – I did more, but that meets the goal. You can see the story-relevant ones in the ‘my art’ highlight on my IG (@ettagraceauthor)

Do positivity event with Hannah (@hannahs-creations on tumblr)- I finished my part for the event in time, and the main post will be coming soon. I really enjoyed working with her on this, and I’d enjoy doing more collabs in the future both with her and anyone else who might be interested. If you have an idea, feel free to message me about it!

Get Way of Kings in a different format so I can read it  – I was listening to this from the library but because it’s such a long book, my hold kept expiring. I caved and got audible to finish it, but now I’ve binged through halfway of Words of Radiance now. I love The Stormlight Archive and can’t recommend it enough! I also did finish Dracula from last month.

Do one log for AI-Lia Antares – This is my epistolary sci-fi story, and while I really enjoy working on it, I just couldn’t prioritize it with everything else I was working on this month.

Write/publish one chapter of CxC – This is my Newsies fanfiction, another story that I love that unfortunately slipped through the prioritization cracks. It’s currently on a semi-hiatus until I can come up with a backlog over winter break, which starts in a couple of weeks.

Create one thing for Laoche (worldbuilding, chapter outline, or character bio) – I did a few things actually! I can’t double count this though. If you want to check out my progress you can find it in these posts on my tumblr:

• Worldbuilding about hair, as well as a drawing done by Katie Koontz of Stephan and Seth
• Made a “Which Laoche Chronicles Character Are You?” quiz
• I didn’t make an actual post of this, but I’ve fleshed out the characters a little more though making playlists. I use music to help set the tone for an OC’s personality and arc, so this is useful for moving forward with the outlining process.
• Another thing I didn’t post, but I’ve spent a lot of time working on the mechanics of the world and magic – coming up with the local flora and fauna and associated physics. At some point I have to put this all on paper.

Edit 10k words of Storge – This story is very complex, and I’ve decided to rework the middle so that instead of following roughly a three act structure with occasional scenes of the villains in the background, I’m going to follow the different characters on a chapter by chapter rotation. This will hopefully mean that the reader won’t lose track of any of any one player at once, and can see how the actions of one influence the others independently. It’ll also keep the narrative pacing consistent, with a nice ebb and flow of tension between scenes so it’s not just exhausting crisis after crisis. The change made to Lyss’s backstory will also help raise the stakes in some key scenes and I’m really happy with how the story is coming together. I think it has a lot of potential and I can’t wait to share it in a more complete form one day. The only downside is that I’ll have to rewrite the middle, and y’all are going to hate me for these cliffhangers.

The 10k words I edited bring me through the first chapter (which might be chopped up because that is a long first chapter. Some of the changes I made include:

• Scrapping a really awkward and OOC filler conversation between Luca, Chara, Grace, and Acheran when they first meet
• Adding a new scene introducing the readers to the rest of the Laine family, the kids’ abilities, and the followers of the Artist in a moment of relative peace before the inciting incident throws things on their heads
• Adding scenery descriptions because I’m starting to learn I have Never Once Described a Thing In My Life.
• The realization that I’m actually pretty good at descriptions when I bother to do them, but keeping calm scenes moving is a struggle. I’m much better at action/emotion description than just calm slice-of-life which is a problem for my pacing that I’m working on now.
• Smoothing over general awkwardness. Line edits to contend with grammar and delivering snappy sentences will come later but for now it’s slightly less elementary. 

Post 1 thing to website each week – As you may know from my lack of an update, I took a break last week for thanksgiving. I’m currently trying to figure out how I’m going to manage the Christmas/New Years situation in December now, since both holidays fall on a Friday, and scheduling those out in advance.

Now I have a few questions for you! Would you all prefer for me to post on a different day and still make 4 posts for the month or would you prefer a different type of post on those days? What goals have you been working on and what are you proud of doing this month? Is there anything I’ve been working on that you’re curious about? Let me know in the comments!

If you feel so generously inclined, you can support my writing by leaving me a tip on my Kofi or donating using the secure box below. Until next time, thanks for reading and happy writing! 🙂