I Wrote 1 Word in 2 Months: Adara VS Summer to Autumn 23
In this video I break a two month writing hiatus against my kittens wishes.
Visual Description:
Shows Adara sat on a chaise longue by a window, talking to camera, and holding up a green notebook and pack of gold stars. This footage is interrupted repeatedly by footage of two black cats, walking sitting and exploring empty shelves on book cases, and laying in her lap as she attempts to type one handed on a blue tooth keyboard. The ending image shows a dark starry sky above a forest canopy with the words ‘writing my story one word at a time’ in the stars.
Transcript
Hello and welcome to The Canopy! In today's video: Adara versus Summer into Autumn transition?
Hi, I'm Adara. If you're new here, I'm a chronically ill writer and I did fantastically in July's Camp NaNoWriMo. So much to the point that I burnt myself out, at least by my standards, when living with chronic fatigue, and I took August off. I didn't write the thing. The heat got to me. I'm heat intolerant. I tried very hard just to manage my energy, day to day.
And then September rolled around. I turned 32.
My first novel was longlisted for the Page Turner Prize in genre fiction, for writers - the subcategory - 2023. I was very pleased with that. I know I haven't progressed further than the long list, but for someone potentially looking at indie publishing, I'll take that! That's industry recognition. That is good enough for me.
In terms of writing, I'm working on my second novel, which is a sequel to the first. Paranormal romance slash Sci-Fi with a bunch of disability rep in the middle, because people need to know how the body responds to gravity when you get back on Earth after a prolonged period of time.
I did not sell my books for this.
Do do do do do do do... Do do do...
Life happened in September is the long and short of it. Just about anything that could be thrown at me, was thrown at me. There was an awful lot of meetings, a lot of things going on when in terms of family members, illnesses, a lot of appointments, a lot of meetings, and my energy was just taken up majorly by all of that.
So normally I would fill in this thing but... this would track my work. I didn't write anything. It's now the last day of September. Where I would normally do my monthly Roundup, August is blank... September I did do some minor changes to novel 2 instead of waiting for revisions. Something just didn't sit right with me with the relationship between a couple of the two characters... kind of the way their banter was going back and forth, and I think I found my way around that, which I'm happy with. That was after setting aside some time using text to speech software, because my energy levels like I said were limited, to reread everything that I have written for a first draft; breaking every cardinal rule of drafting in the process. But it needed to be done so... August is blank. Zero stars for that. I normally give myself a tariff for how well I've done. September similarly so far is zero. Zero words. Although this last week in September has basically flipped my family's Dynamic on its head with a bunch of life related curve balls, paperwork, health issues,
I am determined to write one word.
I have work to do, you know. Are you going to let me reach the mouse? No, okay.
Okay, you're settled in my lap. Scrivener's ready to go. Should we write one word for September? Yes? What do you think? Should we write one word for September?
Let's do it.
There.
I've never been so thankful for a Bluetooth keyboard with this guy around.
And that's it from me. I don't necessarily have a plan going into October - Preptober as people call it. I know there'll be a lot of people piling on to prep for NaNoWriMo in November. I will not be one of them. I'm going to go at my own turtle writers pace, and I will get there when I get there. I'll flow with the currents, I'll take my time, I'll go backwards and forwards with my energy levels. Novel two will be finished. My original plan was New Year. That's not going to happen, so my new target is to finish this draft by the end of April in 2024, and that's it for me. I'm going to go now, as I have words to write, as I continue to write my story one day at a time. Oh! And before I go, please say what you've been up to in the past two months in the comments if you have the time. I have not been caught up with Authortube whatsoever. If you're not on Authortube and you're still coming across this, let me know what you've been up to too, if you feel so inclined.
Bye.
Credits:
Thumbnail and ending image created free using canva.com
Music credit 1: ending theme – Adara Spence Music
Credit 2: Beloved - Sakura Girl https://soundcloud.com/sakuragirl_off...
Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0
Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/3ji1zZc
Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/omTgn4GQcKAMusic
Credit 3: Soon We'll Fly by Ghostrifter Official https://bit.ly/ghostrifter-sc
Creative Commons — Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported — CC BY-SA
3.0 Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/35reep7
Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/q2vomZqSJuE
