With November over, I feel a little bit accomplished because this has been my first year participating in National Writing Month! November was also when I started this writing blog, but I didn’t count anything I wrote here for my project, for it didn’t relate to A Bloody Spring, the novel I’d been working on. It’s book four in my Kingdoms of Blood series, but also works as book 2 in the standalone Cobratongue University series. The first book of that ‘magical college’ series is here.
Typically I write roughly 2,000 words per chapter in my novels, which meant a chapter a day kept the writing monsters at bay, right? Wrong! This month was a little bit tough, I will admit, due to stress. In real life, I’ve been adjusting to a big cross-country move, trying to also get a job right after college. Let me tell you, that made things a bit rough.
Some days I didn’t feel like writing at all. I certainly didn’t get the streak badges, but that’s how it goes. Some days I can write up to 10,000 words if and only if my muse is very strong. Other days, well, nothing comes to me at all. I might have a very fast typing speed, but such a thing does not help if my muse is abandoning me. Here’s a look at my stats:
As you can see, they are very bouncy. On the big spike days, my muse was very strong. Typically that happened when I was either in a good mood, or when there was an action/world building part to my book. Things were difficult in this project, because I had many plot ends I wanted to expand upon and then tie up.
For example, a villain named Astral played a major part in book 1 of the Cobratongue series, and two more major villains were established in that book as well, just not emphasized. In A Bloody Spring, I want to emphasize just how evil they are after that proper build-up. It took a while, but I finally accomplished what I wanted to do, and couldn’t be any happier.
After I finished hitting my goal on November 27, I decided to take a break. I’ve been editing The Vampire War: Conclusion in preparation for self-publishing. Both that sequel and the first book, Red Viper and the Vampire War will be self-published and buyable on my birthday, December 7. I’m both super excited and nervous, to be honest.
Sadly, I haven’t had an agent pick up my book. Either the subject matter is too dark, they don’t like my characters, there’s too much heavy action in the start, or they think vampires are overdone. But I’m not going to let that bring me down, for self-publishing can be valuable. I’ve learned quite a bit from my experience on Twitter and its #writingcommunity. People are very supportive on there, and I’m confident my book can get pretty far.
I’m hoping to someday have a show or anime series for my Kingdoms of Blood series, but that might be reaching a bit far. Still, the idea is a fun one to harbor. Heck, if it ever happens, I can look back on this post and smile.
Des M. Astor 