November Doldrums

Hello,

Thank you for the likes and follows.

We are still experimenting with the format.

Media update: The first 3 episodes of the Mighty Nein on Amazon Prime have dropped. I will be binge-watching it tonight. Still working through the books from my last post—there isn’t enough time in the day. Sleep and proper hydration are essential.

Writing update: Dead Girl Tale 2 and F/M Monogatari are progressing. There are no significant breakthroughs. I am focusing on character and setting development. Honestly, I should’ve worked through these obstacles in October, but I was busy studying vampire romance instead. I am enjoying the webinars and word-counting perks from the various communities offering a writing challenge.

Speaking of November: On the right is an AI-generated topaz ring. Topaz is a birthstone for November. The meanings are abundance, good fortune, protection, and joy. The other birthstone for November is citrine. They look similar and mean the same thing. The difference is that topaz is a mineral and can vary in color. Citrine is a type of quartz; its color ranges from yellow to dark orange.

That’s it for this week. I hope this finds you doing well. Remember to be kind.

November Plans

Hello, Thanks for the likes and follows. I hope you are all doing well.

The flowers of the month are peonies and chrysanthemums. I did a little research and found that the meanings of these flowers are nice to remember – peonies are for romantic love (happy marriage), good luck, and prosperity; chrysanthemums are for joy, longevity, optimism, and undying friendship. The birthstones are citrine and topaz, and their meanings are similar to the flowers. I like to keep this type of information around; it inspires me, and I hope it inspires others as well.

A lot happens in November, besides the holiday at the end of the month. Writers all over the world are working on their most significant projects. I know I sound over the top, but it really feels like it. We are like 100,000+ marathon runners with our writing equipment. Some of us use pens and paper, others use computers, typewriters, and distraction-free devices. I signed up for two writing events. My grand ambition is leading me onto strange pathways.

I always have more than one writing project on the brain, and I’ve attempted to focus on just one for these monthly challenges, but I’ve never been able to succeed. There has been some progress, but I have yet to reach the finish line. I accept the type of writer I am and move forward.

The first is the Rough Draft Challenge by Sarra Cannon and the Heart Breathings community. The project I started there is Dead Girl Tale 2: Nox. I never gave up on this story. The fun thing about the Rough Draft Challenge is that you can set or reset your writing goals. Dead Girl Tale 2 is part of a four-story saga, which I call the Imperium/Galactic Alliance Universe or I/GAU. For most of the year, I’ve been struggling with laying out the outlines and characters for those stories. There has been a nearly two-month break. Here’s a brief summary of Dead Girl Tale 2: Nox:

The main character, Nox, was kidnapped as a teenager and sold in the Imperium to the shady side of that part of space. She was replaced by a clone, Nieve Xander, her original name. This clone dies from a clone-related illness. The Xander family grieved for their sister. Several years later, her DNA is picked up. They pull strings and bring her back to Galactic Alliance space, believing that she is a clone. Adult Nox has changed over the years and will do what she has to for her identity and autonomy.

The next challenge event, set up by ProWritingAid, is Novel November. Initially, I was going to use the same story for both events, but it didn’t feel entirely ethical. I changed the title to Fayte Maghnus Monogatari. I’ve written about this story before—or should it be called a serial? A decision for the future. This is my urban paranormal series. The goal for Novel November (NovNov) is to write 50,000 words. That breaks down to about 12,500 words per story, which is manageable. I’m rewriting the four novella-length stories I have for the monogatari. The working titles for these stories are: The Long Night, 2010/The Séance House, New Tale of a Body Thief, and Neighbors. Each story starts off with either Fayte or Maghnus as the main character. Fayte Devoe is a psychopomp with the mantle of Charon, the Ferryman. Maghnus Knight is a medium. Because of the nature of their abilities, they cross paths.

The task list this month appears to be huge. I thought I could squeeze one more developing story, but reality hits eventually. Therefore, the outline for the vampire romance is on hold until January 2026. Full disclosure, I will probably write notes on it and the characters, but the actual story is for the future as well.

The media update is going to be simple. I found myself nostalgic for the 2000s and 2010s. Maybe even the early 1990s. I have finally watched the completed live-action series of The Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness and caught up with the Mayfair Witches created by Anne Rice. Yes, I’m listening to both books – Discovery of Witches, book 1 in the All Souls series, and The Witching Hour, book 1 in the Mayfair Witches series. Why was I into all this paranormal drama? It was the end of October, and I am developing a vampire romance. I also realized I am still listening to Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead and Supernatural Academy by Jaymin Eve. These books are all under the umbrella of urban fantasy/paranormal, but they all read differently. And carry their own appeal. I try to elaborate when I complete the stories or remember.

The other thing I am looking forward to besides a really good Thanksgiving meal is Critical Role’s The Mighty Nein animation. I’m a big fan of Vox Machina and have watched the animated series multiple times. I have even watched campaigns, but they take longer.

That is all for now. This post is way longer than expected. If you’ve read it all, thanks again. I hope the rest of the week goes well for you all. For the writers, writing in challenges or not, you’ve got this. I want us all to succeed and remember to be kind.

End

October Wrap-up

Hello,

Thanks for the likes and follows—I hope we’re all doing well!

October is almost over, and many writers are gearing up for November writing challenges. Unfortunately, National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) has fallen from grace, and other writing communities are stepping up to fill the void.

Sarra Cannon and the HeartBreathings community are hosting the Rough Draft Challenge, while ProWritingAid has created Novel November. I used to be a member of ProWritingAid and really enjoyed using the service, though I couldn’t afford to renew this year. I’m confident Novel November will be run well by them.

I’ve participated in the Rough Draft Challenge before and haven’t won yet, but I’m staying positive and looking forward to trying again.

A brief format switch-up: first, the media recap. I’ve completed season 1 of Vampire Academy, streaming on Peacock. Unfortunately, it wasn’t renewed. My interest was piqued again, so I started listening to the series on Audible.

Richelle Mead is a great storyteller, and I can easily get back into the series, even though I’m well past the target demographic—I was 30 years old when I first read Vampire Academy. Interestingly, Richelle Mead and I are about the same age, so she was also writing it in her 30s. The TV show updated some of the more problematic elements from the books for modern audiences, which I appreciated.

I also watched the animated series Supernatural Academy on Peacock, which is another book adaptation that only got one season. Interestingly, the show features main characters (Jessa and Mischa) who aren’t even from the Supernatural Academy books by Jaymin Eve—they’re from her Supernatural Prison series. The animation also aged the characters down, which I think affected its audience. In the West, animation is often seen as content for younger viewers, even though Jaymin Eve writes primarily for New Adult audiences. I did hunt down the audiobooks—Supernatural Academy Year One, Dragon Marked (book 1), and Broken Compass (book 4) from the Supernatural Prison series—to compare.

With both Vampire Academy and Supernatural Academy being one-hit wonders, I got curious: why did Shadowhunters manage to get three seasons? That question led me to watch the first four episodes on Hulu and listen to City of Bones to see what made the difference. The best answer from the evaluation is timing and platform. Shadowhunters came out on Freeform, the former ABC Family channel, which offered a lot of YA content—much of which was based on popular books. Peacock was a new streaming service that had to attract an audience and build ratings. They weren’t able to do either. That’s an intriguing topic for another blog. Shadowhunters was released years before the other two shows, and by then, audiences had likely grown up and become fatigued. I believe I was one of them. It has taken me years to look back at them without bias.

Moving on to the writing updates: One of my goals was to write 500 new words daily, but I haven’t found an effective way to track the numbers. I’ve decided to use the gamified writing app/service 4TheWords, where progress is counted by defeating creatures with your word count. I also let my nearly two-year streak go, and my fire wings are gone as well.

Dead Girl Tale 2 will be on hold until November. Next week, I’ll be going through all the DGT2 notes I’ve accumulated since the beginning of the year. In the meantime, I’ve been writing Fayte/Maghnus Monogatari, a collection of connected short stories. Maghnus is a medium, and Fayte is a psychopomp with the mantle of Charon, the ferryman. Together, they navigate a bunch of paranormal hijinks.

My third writing project is an outline for a vampire romance. In this story, a Vampire Prince candidate finds his ex-human wife and demands she give him an heir—little does he know she already had the heir about five years ago. It’s a simple cookie-cutter trope: fated mates and a hidden baby legacy. At first, I wasn’t going to explore it because it didn’t feel like a challenge. Then I realized I’m not a literary gladiator. I like predictable romances, and there’s nothing wrong with writing them when you’re planning for a happily-ever-after (or happy-for-now) ending.

So that’s my October wrap-up—a mix of abandoned streaks, rediscovered stories, and embracing the tropes I actually enjoy. November is right around the corner, and I’m looking forward to diving back into Dead Girl Tale 2 with fresh eyes and seeing where these other projects take me. Here’s to staying flexible with our goals, being kind to ourselves, and others. Stay open to new opportunities—all while finding joy in the process, even when things don’t go according to plan. Thanks for following along, and happy writing (or reading, or watching) to you all!

End

October Goals

Hello,

Thanks for the likes and follows. For October, the flowers are marigolds and cosmos. The birthstones are opal and tourmaline.

September ended, and we are all still dealing with the unexpected. An author more successful than I has a 90-day method, and she suggests a reset 4 times a year. Evaluate what works and what does not. Establish new strategies and sustain progress.

Writing update: Dead Girl Tale 2: Nox (DGT2) has been on pause for at least 2 weeks now. The change perspective method did not work as well as I hoped; instead of forcing words, I have moved back into a thinking phase for the scene. It was a little disappointing. I don’t want to tolerate setbacks, especially since DGT2 is part of a series.

This is where I tell an odd anecdote. I have multiple stories in various stages of development. I decided to be practical and look up ways to produce short stories. An excellent site for generating short story prompts is Reedsy. There are even weekly writing contests with rules and an application fee, but it’s worth it if you win or get an honorary mention. I’ve been a member since 2022, I think. So I saw a prompt and decided to write with it. I had no intention of entering a contest; my writing has not been consistent enough for that. I took the prompt and started to write, and the story fit easily into the FM Monogatari (FMM) writing project. This is a series of paranormal/urban fantasy short stories and novelettes featuring the same characters: Fayte (Fate) Devoe and Maghnus Knight. Monogatari is a Japanese word for a story. I am not an expert, and this is just a working title that I borrowed from a book I liked. I may have written about this project before. The idea has been in my mind since 2016. It’s paranormal and feels appropriate for October, and I have at least 2 complete stories for the anthology. They do need some edits, tweaks, and clean-ups, but they are in the almost-done phase of the writing process. Which was a happy surprise for me. All this time, I thought I was a mouse on a wheel, going nowhere, when in fact, progress was hiding in plain sight, or in a file folder.

This does not mean I have given up on DGT2. I will review my notes and adjust the outline to move the story where it needs to be.

Media update: The C-dramas I’ve been watching have reached the arc where the male lead and female lead have become a couple, and the real antagonist is revealing themselves. I’ve taken a break from them.

Instead, I updated my account to the streaming service Peacock and found myself rewatching the sci-fi drama Defiance and the urban fantasy Sanctuary. During the early 2000s, these were my go-to shows. In later seasons, the narratives got muddled, and I’m wondering if I was wrong. I found more problematic tropes and potential story waste. I was not aware of this before, but Peacock has produced a significant amount of original content. Some of the Peacock shows are fascinating and appropriate for October. The shows I’m going to mention for now are Girl in the Woods. It is a horror series based on the short film “Door in the Woods.” I am not a horror fan, but this felt more YA than just horror. I was intrigued to see how it would end. The other Peacock original is Vampire Academy, based on the book series by Richelle Mead. The series was considered a contemporary of the Twilight series. There was a movie that did not do well. Someone thought they could make it a TV show. Similar to what was done to The Mortal Instruments, a book series by Cassandra Clare, which became the TV show Shadowhunters. I would like to write more, but that is a post all on its own.

Goals for the month are to write 500 new words a day on the project of choice. This could mean DGT2 or FM Monogatari. I will also continue to look into writing prompts and see if I can apply them to the other story ideas and characters. I know I mentioned this before, but in the future for this website, I plan to launch a story page. The logistics of it all have yet to be finalized. The other goal is to complete the scenes in FMM and finalize the outlines of DGT2.

That is all for now. I wrote more than I planned to. This is what accountability looks like, I guess. I hope this post finds you all doing well. Don’t miss any positive opportunities and remember to be kind.

The End

September Wrap-Up

Hello,

Thanks for the likes and follows. I may have mentioned this before, but I’m not sure, the flowers for September are asters and morning glories. The sapphire is the birthstone. These are some of the useless facts. I like to keep in circulation. It has been a rough month for many, and I hope we are all doing better.

Quick writing update: I was having issues with chapters, so I broke everything down into scenes. Now I’m unsatisfied with word counts. I’m aware of how messed up this is. In Dead Girl Tale 2: Nox. I created pages of notes, character profiles, and world-building materials, among other things. It almost felt like it was spiralling out of control. When these feelings arise, they may lead to a loss of motivation to work on the story. My current solution is to examine the same story from a different perspective. Nox is the main character of this story. However, there is another character, Wade, who is vital to the story. His backstory is complicated and tragic, equal to Nox’s. It seems to be working. I was able to identify the direction in the scene that I hadn’t noticed before. I am also considering setting word count goals for myself. Cross your fingers.

Media update: I was able to watch The Superman movie from the comfort of my own home. I like it. I don’t know what the haters are talking about. But I understand they don’t want to be happy with anything. The C-dramas that I’m watching are called Blossom 2024 and The Blossoming Love 2025. I’m adding the years because C-drama creators really like the concept of blossoming. There is also a show called Blossoming in Adversity 2023. It looks like a year thing. Blossom and Blossoming Love both possess a supernatural aspect. However, their series are 30-40 episodes long. It is a lot to binge. I have to take them in 2-3 ep pieces. After writing about what I’m reading, I also paused on that. Real life interfered, and there are only so many hours in the day.

That is all for now. The last week of the month will be busy preparing for October and real life. Most of the plans will be revealed next week. Part of the reason for these posts and blog/website is accountability. I am hoping that for the rest of the week, you all do well. Be aware of the best opportunities and remember to be kind.

End.