It’s been a while since I’ve given Nanowrimo a real effort. Most years I say I’ll do it, and then trip at the starting line because I can’t choose between what projects I want to work on, or I don’t have something I can do a traditional nano goal of 50,000 words. My friends always suggest non-traditional nano goals, such as editing a book or setting my own word count goal, but I struggle to create concrete goals for those scenarios.

This year I kept insisting to myself to actually sit down and work on my occasionally alluded to “Divorced Werewolf” book, but I could not do it. I think that project has needed a bit of time to sit and marinate and for me to forget all the things I started worrying might be wrong with it.

Instead, I find myself working on a project that I had mentally put a pin in until next year. After the Lich book, I gave myself a couple months’ break from that world before I moved onto Orc, and the same happened for Gargoyle. I had initially figured I would do the same for the next book, no title yet. The document I have for it is literally just saved as “Kathy’s Book”.

It’s only a few days into nano this year, and already I am surprised that I’ve managed to keep up with it this far. Fingers crossed that will continue. For as short as these books are, I tend to drag my feet on them, and then end up taking at least six months to write each. I would be astounded if I could get so far on Kathy’s book in so little time, and maybe actually free up the rest of the year to work on my other projects. Though Claws & Cubicles is my only series out right now, I have vague plans to put out books unrelated to it.

For a self-professed math hater, I do love collecting stats and keeping track of word count. I’ve found that knowing a ballpark estimate of where I want the ending to land helps give me an idea of where I am in each story’s “rollercoaster”, and how much tension/drama I should be adding in.

If you’re a fan of the series, here are the word counts (estimates) and how they’ve grown:

Lich: 17,000 words

Orc: 36,000 words

Gargoyle: 47,000 words

I would be pleased if this book ended up being somewhere a little under 50k! We’ll see what wins out, my need to complete nano or my wish to keep these books bite-sized.