Life After November (NaNoWriMo Postscript)

December 1st, even though the novel is not finished yet, is time to come up for air. To write as often, though perhaps not as long each time.

To return from Indigo, and look around, and notice that real life has begun to pile up in the corners.

So the first December project will be a targeted house-cleaning project wrapped around less-extended bouts of writing. 

Once the first draft of Indigo Redemption is complete, it will go "in the drawer", as Stephen King suggests, to wait for a summer edit.

Writing in December, post-NaNovel, will focus on the book Staying Thirsty, begun in the October Project. This collaboration between my spouse and me will doubtless take me into January, if not longer.

The second December project is to get qualified to teach a driver safety class (as a volunteer). Actual teaching will begin in January, so that is a short-lived project, perhaps three days total.

The third December project is to finish the 3D Printing demonstration for middle-school STEM students. We connected with an accelerated charter middle school here, and will present for them as a Beta test. These advanced students will not only have the presentation, but the chance to provide feedback and suggest modifications before it is offered generally. This is the only open project goal from the September Project. It will feel good to complete it before the year ends.

With no new over-arching project in December, I can get back to the original raison d'être of this blog. There are far too many un-reviewed books in the READ collection on my Kindle, or piled on my desk. 

You'll be hearing from me!

Image is h/t to Irishman's Messy Desk at Skyrim Forums, a great RPG and fanfic forum. Not that DrPat has time for RPGs, no... The original (commercial) cartoon was pulled, but you can still view it at Cartoon Stock.

The October Project, Part I

East Rand Mines in South Africa, Current Day

For the 45 years we've been married and the 20-some years before we met, my spouse has been collecting life-stories and experiences, polishing and retelling them until they are gem-hard and shining. Until now, family and chance-met acquaintances have been the only ones to hear these travelers' tales.

So in October, we are collaborating on a compilation of these anecdotes. The finished project, tentatively titled Staying Thirsty (a nod to The Most Interesting Man), may not be finished before NaNoWriMo begins on November 1st, but we hope to have a rough draft complete by Halloween. Once the November writing blitz (which will probably focus on my third Indigo novel) is finished, we'll complete the book and publish it. The plan is to publish Staying Thirsty in both eBook and print.

I'll be using the compilation techniques I developed for My Social Calendar 2014-2015, which is now available from Amazon for Kindle. 

That compilation was essentially organized for me; the calendar months and days made a preset structure to compile into. For The October Project, the structure needs to be generated. We have several choices:

• Chronological (childhood experiences, years at Colorado School of Mines, South African years, etc.)
• Topical (mining tales; mineral collection; outdoors—skiing, cycling, hiking, etc.)
• Some combination of the two.

October's Non-Writing Project

Also in October, we will continue The September Project with tasks left from the previous month, as well as production of three new designs from the 3D printer. These may have commercial potential, but for now, are simply part of the plan to "play" with the portable Bukito 3D printer.