What nexxt?

It is December 2nd. #NaNoWriMo2019 is finished. My total word count, in the end, was just over eighty-thousand-words. Yes, that is impressive. But I am disappointed that in the final days, my numbers fell off and my average daily word count fell below 2,740. That number is magical to me. You see it ties directly into what is next for me.

In 2020, I want to write one million words.

Or #1Mwordsn2020.

When the idea first came to me, I thought, ‘That’s impossible. Nobody can write a million words in a year.’ So, I did the math. One million divided by three-hundred-sixty-five equals two-thousand-seven-hundred-forty approximately. Of course, since 2020 is a leap year, it is actually two-thousand-seven-hundred-thirty-three.

Yes, that is still a helluva a lot of words. Every day.

Of course, back in the day, before I met Alan, before I got burned out on marketing, promoting, and trying to sell books, I used to write between two and three thousand words a day easy. But then I had a three-year dry spell. Writer’s block. Or maybe it was just important that I take that time to live and love in order to grow as a person and a writer? In any case, it certainly knocked my confidence for a loop.

But back in April, I committed to Camp NaNo. Now, the difference with Camps and the big NaNo in November is that you set your own goals…and that edits can count as well as new words. I edited over a million words that month and wrote about twenty thousand new ones. Then I fell off again.

I committed to the July Camp NaNo too. This time I edited close to a quarter of a million words and wrote over twenty-five-thousand. Yes, those are seriously impressive numbers. Many writers don’t have a quarter of million words to edit. I have well over a million of them.

But what was important is that this time, I did not slack off. Between August and the end of October, I edited almost three-hundred-thousand more words and I wrote over eighty-four-thousand new ones. Equally important though was the fact that over those months my proportions changed. I began to write more and edit less. My creative mojo was returning.

Then #NaNoWriMo2019 rolled around. And I was determined to see if it was possible for me to do it…to write 2,740 words per day. I came close: 2,684. And it was only that final week, Thanksgiving, that broke me.

More importantly for many of you, I finally managed to crack the nut that was Chapter Ten in Ægir’s Wife. It is written. As is Chapter Eleven. In fact, I started editing it this morning and hope to finish and post it to Literotica by Friday. My goal is to finish that final book of the trilogy in 2019. I have only one more chapter to write and that one is clear in my mind. It has been for some time. My problem was that bridging chapter between nine and eleven/twelve. How to resolve the Sven issue. But I think I managed that with NaNo.

The bad news was that with writing eighty-thousand new words for NaNo I edited none. Zero. Zilch. Nada. In fact, I am sure that some readers think I have writing constipation again. Nothing could be further from the truth. I just did not have time to edit and post.

I am also not completely certain where I want to post things to. Either my fiction or non-fiction. I am not happy with either of their homes at Literotica, Amazon, or Medium. I am blessed now not to be a position where I am relying upon my art to ‘save us.’ Alan and I talked about it and he does not mind even if my writing does not pay. It still has value to him, me, and I hope readers.

His work with Linux, a ‘free’ platform, has proven that giving stuff away can make money in the end. He is a huge supporter of the Free Software Conservancy and believes in the ideals of the Creative Commons. As do I.

For me, making art and money do not mix well. I am not judging those who do. But as an autistic person, I do not have the energy to pursue both goals at the same time. Watching views and sales distracts me. (Comments, on the other hand, are MUCH appreciated.)

So, moving forward, I want to make certain that readers have access to my works free. Of course, Literotica provides that. Medium does in a much more limited way. But I want everything I write from behind a paywall…and in one place.

At the same time, I know that things like Literotica, Medium, WordPress, and Amazon have an audience of their own. That is where most readers discover me. So, how do I incorporate those into this new model too?

Those are the questions that I am dealing with at the moment. The big what nexxt in my life. I am incredibly blessed to have a partner who understands the bigger issues as well as the techie side of my dilemma. What is more, with his retirement in 2020, I will have access to his brilliant brain even more.

There is just so much going on in my own head. So many story ideas, old and new. So many articles/magazines that I want to write. So many ideas I want to share.

I don’t think we appreciate how incredibly lucky we are to live in time that allows for the free exchange of ideas. The Internet is a beautiful if sometimes confusing place. I am glad that we have found one another is this organized chaos. I hope that you will find at least some of what you seek here.

And since I am not being paid in money, could you please take the time to occasionally share a comment. That is my new currency – encouragement from you.

Goddess bless you…I hope that your 2020 is shaping up to be as exciting as mine is.