Sometimes in my writing, I feel like I am in a sort of limbo stage. I ask myself, now what?
And as usual, it comes about this time of the year, when I should be excited about the holiday season.
After all, NaNoWriMo has been completed for another year by yours truly. I did win, coming in at over 52000 words and getting all of the badges I had planned to get:
And while I am elated about that, December becomes a “now what” moment in my writing. Now what do I need to do? Where do I need to start? Where am I in my writing?
Like The Year of the Winding Road, the general fiction pseudo-memoir I wrote for last year’s NaNoWriMo, I am putting The Magician on the back burner for now. It’s written. I will play with it from time to time, editing passages and probably adding to it as my imagination dreams up scenes. However, I am still invested in a few voices from my Portals Series. I have a number of works in the series I am trying to finish up and have a few readers waiting for them.
I’ve picked up where I had left off with edits on Luna, the next shorter novel in my series that tells the story of the female wolf-shifter Lyka. I am trying to finish them to do another read through before sending it off. I have a second novel, Heirs of the Realm, completed and ready for edits after Luna is done, this one telling the stories of Esperance (and Ariadne), Serena, and Kohlberht in three intertwined tales.
On top of that, I have been trying to write two more novellas – one told from the view point of a common-born named Earvin who finds that heroes aren’t made like they used to be, and a second one about a fire and air creature named Nor, who discovers her own story isn’t what she thought it was. Lastly, I am STILL toying with a prelude story written from the point of view of Erynnion, my Necromancer antagonist from The Keeper of the Key, but can’t seem to get into his voice, even though I discovered a wonderful artist who seemed to make a very good depiction of him, which I posted to Instagram:
Even with all of this going on, however, I am still feeling meh these days and in a sort of limbo. The waning daylight coupled with the full time job have left me exhausted on all levels. My sales, while triple the amount I did last year, are still low when I compare them to other writers (but then again, comparison IS the thief of joy). More people of course read what I offer for free – the Instagram posts that filter into my personal Facebook page that seem to speak to souls (or so I have been told as recently as yesterday), or the posts I do on here. While these earn me no money, I do them for the sheer joy of it and in the hopes that one day, someone might take notice and read one of my stories despite any preconceived ideas they may have about the fantasy genre. But waiting sometimes is difficult.
Ultimately, I must keep creating content to get people to read it and comment, and sometimes I just need a break. That is why I sometimes only post once a week here and go sometimes a few days without an Instagram posts. Some days, I maybe write a paragraph or two in a story or only get a chapter edited on one of my works in progress. But I strive to continue onward, writing these wonderful tales of life and love and magic and bravery just as much as I write my Instagram posts and these blog musings.
I ask you, dear readers, to keep giving me feedback. If you enjoy any of my writings, let me know somehow, whether it is by commenting on a post, sending me a message, sharing what I write with others, or whatever you think will help. Quote me if you want to. It does help to keep me going and to keep writing. I may write to communicate, but my writings are also my mental outlet, a way to get the thoughts and images in my head aligned in a way that makes sense to others. After all, I write my own story as well. It’s part of the magic I try to create everyday.
Stay magical, friends. After all, we all have our own stories to write. Keep writing yours too.
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And as always, #writeyourownstory
K. S. Wood Writes 
Congrats on the NaNoWriMo win! Have you found the sweet spot between blog/social media posts and writing projects?
I never feel like I’m doing enough, yet I don’t want to get to the point where I dread doing it because it’s just another job. I’ve committed to doing 1 blog post/week, and I will throw in extras if a prompt really calls to me…but I don’t want any of my other WIP to suffer. My social media is easy to keep updated more often, because it’s much less of my creative writing and more shares, book reviews, or pictures of the furkids lol.
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Oh, everything seemed to suffer during November because of the crazy of trying to get my NaNoWriMo work done as well as work at the full time job and have some semblance of a “life.” I try to blog twice a week, but sometimes that is only once a week. I have several ideas in the “blog bank” as I call it that I kick around when I need to so that helps. But trying to do all of my writings sometimes is exhausting.
It’s a bit calmer now…. but I hate doing edits! lol
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