It’s NaNo season, and the draw is strong even when I’m mired. I did NaNo last year (though I didn’t finish the 50k), but surprising myself, I didn’t blog about it once. In fact, I’m here because I came to figure out what I worked on last year and if I want to continue anything this year. Guess I’ll have to do some more digging.

What’s on for 2022?

Well, I know I’m not there yet, and I promised myself I wouldn’t push forward and end up with another editing nightmare. (Yes, Apprentice is still coming, and I think you’ll enjoy the book when it does, but super apologies for the wait.) Instead, I’m taking this year to get closer to ready for the next writing project, whatever that may be. The flexibility required to balance where my head is may mean veering off in another direction for my next writing project. (I’ve already written rough drafts for each of my series, in some cases more than one, so don’t worry.) What I’m doing with NaNo is creating multiple organic outlines (or what some might call a raw draft) so as soon as I feel the writing urge come on, I’ll have a raw draft to work from. This should make the editing stage go much faster.

Okay, that was a lot of parenthetical phrases/sentences. I don’t mean to be vague or discouraging. In fact, I’ve had some improvement in my health recently thanks to new medications, but I’ve come to accept a level of uncertainty that would have been intolerable once. I’ve been exploring my creativity through digital art and writing down more ideas for projects than I could do in a lifetime, as if I hadn’t already exceeded that number. To bring everything round to NaNo again, one of those ideas took first place when I chose what to start with for NaNo 2022.

I’m now 10+ scenes into the organic outline, have a good sense of where the book is leading, and no idea when I’ll write it. There are some 20 or more stories I might work on, including several in the Seeds world and one in the Steamship Chronicles. My goal is to have at least one outline complete and ready to go at a moment’s notice. Ideally, that outline will be the next in the Seeds universe or the next (after the two or three waiting on edits) in the Steamship Chronicles.

So, clear as mud, eh? I mentioned certainty wasn’t where I am right now, didn’t I? But progress is progress of a sort, and that’s enough for me. I’ll try to post an update here once in a while.

I’ve given prints (and/or digital copies) of most of my digital art that I’m satisfied with as gifts, but I have permission to share all but one (keep forgetting to ask). The plan there is to put those up somewhere and link to them here, so you can enjoy the artwork as well. Meanwhile, there’s a backlog of book reviews to write, polish, and/or post here as well. In other words, I have content. I just need the focus to prepare it.

I have not abandoned Tales to Tide You Over, and I’m glad to see you’re still sticking around/checking back, too. I don’t know what I’ll be posting, but I’m going to try to post something at least every other week. I should be able to manage that schedule (fingers crossed).

To good reading, writing, art, and even arithmetic for those so inclined.

See you soon,

Margaret McGaffey Fisk

P.S. Are you doing NaNo this year? Straight writing or as a rebel like me? Or are you undertaking some other creative enterprise…including putting together a fabulous Thanksgiving meal for those of us in the U.S. Drop a note in the comments so I can cheer you on!