Nicole J Simms/ October 30, 2019/ Blog/ 0 comments

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An Update and My Plans for November

Wow, I can’t believe October is nearly over. And that means it’s nearly time for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month. Well, it’s National Novella Writing Month for me).

So, with October nearly over, and November has new challenges, I thought it would be a good idea to have a little update on what I have done so far, and what my plans are for November.

I would love to say I am completely prepared and ready to start NaNoWriMo, but I’m not. It has been difficult to find the energy to plan my novella. I would spend a couple of hours on the computer, and then I would move to my tablet to draft blog posts or write stories. Then when it came to planning my novella, I had no energy left—my brain refused to cooperate with me.

Thankfully, while on holiday, I managed to spend some time making notes, and since coming home, I have forced myself to focus solely on the novella. So, I have plot and character notes, enough to get me started. So instead of beating myself up for not being fully prepared, I will continue planning as I write. This challenge is meant to be fun, so I’m not going to stress myself out about it before I’ve even begun—this is what I keep telling myself.

I have also written two posts for the Horror Tree. One was a post that should have been sent before I became ill, and the second was in preparation for NaNoWriMo. As I have previously mentioned, I plan to do NaNo differently this year (see ‘My NaNoWriMo 2019 Goal’ post), and I realised that I may not be the only one who wants to do that. So I wrote a post for the Horror Tree (see ‘Do NaNoWriMo Differently This Year’ post) to let my fellow self-doubters know that it’s okay for them to do NaNo differently if they want to. And, I have also created a Facebook group called NaNoWriMo for Self-Doubters. This group is for anyone who wants to do NaNo differently or for those who suffer from self-doubt. So if this applies to you, please feel free to join my group.

Novella and NaNo aside, what else have I done since I started back on my writing journey? Well, I have managed to update my website weekly, and I have been editing and updating my previous posts—this is a slow process, but one that’s moving forward.

I have also written, edited and submitted a short story and a monologue. And the short story I wrote, which was for a Halloween competition, was given an honourable mention and published on the website—when I found out this news, I felt like I had won the competition. Writing and submitting the pieces on time was already an achievement for me, so getting an honourable mention and published was amazing—I wonder what I would have done if I had won, lol.

My Business Card Holder

[My Business Card Holder]

Right, what else have I done? I published my e-book The Book of Drabbles, which you can download for free. I created my writer business cards and bought a snazzy business card holder to store the cards. I have found many writers on YouTube who share tips, advice and their journeys—I’ve learnt so much from these writers already, and there is one who is my clear favourite—I shall tell you more about these writers in a future post. Finally, I have continued reading books off my reading list—I’m currently reading the last book of my cozy mystery reading list.

Wow, I have done a lot. I didn’t realise how much work I had done until I wrote this post. Okay, I’m going to take a moment to pat myself on the back.

Okay, I’m done. Let’s get back to my plans for November. With me taking part in NaNoWrimo, I decided not to do too much. So, I will be writing my epistolary novella, editing my flash fiction collection, planning my second standalone novel (only if I finish planning the novella) and continuing to update my website. That’s it. Well, I say that’s it, but that’s still quite a lot to do—I don’t think I know how to take it easy, lol.

So, what are your plans for November? Will you be taking part in NaNoWriMo? If yes to any, please feel free to comment in the box below.

And before I forget, you can find my latest ‘Setting Self-Doubt on Fire’ post at the link below:

Setting Self Doubt on Fire — Do NaNoWriMo Differently This Year

Keep writing, folks!

Don’t forget, if you want email alerts of my latest posts, then please subscribe. And you can follow me on Twitter, Goodreads or like my Facebook page. I’ve also created a Nicole J Simms YouTube channel. On my channel, I will be sharing videos of my performances, trips, writing group adventures and my stories. You can also download my e-book The Book of Drabbles for FREE, so check it out.

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