The month of October has gone by in a flash, and as 2022 begins to wrap itself up, I have been reflecting on all the writing, publishing, and promoting that has gone into this year. I’ve been thinking about all the mad sprints that I’ve been undertaking in the name of writing this novel (currently titled ‘Conclave’ at time of writing), as well as studying for my Master’s in Creative Writing in the evenings.
November is also one of the months synonymous with writers for Nanowrimo, and although I have been using that site to track my novel’s gradual word increase over the last few months, I will be keeping this going through November 2022, though I don’t know if I intend to do the full sprint and try to wrap it up. Compared to others, I might seem like a slow writer; some writers don’t seem to have kids, or if they do they manage their time better than I! To be honest, even without kids, I doubt I would get far through Nanowrimo starting at 0 words. As such, I am entering the month with over 21k. My goal is 50k, and I have just finished Chapter 3. There’s no way this book is getting finished in a month.
I also recently received news that one of my poems has been included in the anthology Confessions of a Clockwalker by The Anansi Archive (link to the Amazon page included). My poem, There’s Still Time to be Creative?, was about me getting off my chest the general feeling of malaise and irritation that comes with working in the modern age. You keep your CV updated, you apply for jobs, repeat information that’s on your CV to write said application, then you get the job, work it until the psychosis kicks in, and then look for another job. It was during 2020 that I realised I had been wasting a lot of my time typing up go-nowhere applications rather than stories. Not that I would ever discourage folk aiming for jobs, but there has to be a better way to work during our lives. I’d like to think it will be revealed one day, who knows.
If you’re taking part in Nanowrimo, all the best. And if not, take care anyways. Thanks for reading.