That about sizes up what it feels like when you finally realize that there is no way you are going to be able to finish your National Novel Writing Month project in the time allotted. It’s a conclusion that I came to about a week to two weeks ago now as I’m sure (if I still have the little calendar posted there) can see by all the red on the progress calendar. This will be the second year in a row that I’ve failed at churning out a novel in a month.

Time seems to be the biggest issue. It takes me a good three to four hours to churn out that sixteen hundred words or so which burns the entire evening for me. If that were the only thing I had to do, it would be relatively easy to accomplish. Unfortunately, I have a day job that keeps me occupied and other elements of a reasonably diverse life that burn up the rest of the time. So, I’ve dropped the NaNo deadline and will be working through the project as time permits.

My current plan is to let my brain recuperate from Thanks Giving and the surge of writing the start of the month and pick it up again. The story was going to be set in the Zachary Artemas universe and I’m still planning to work in the plot there. It may wind up being background story for some of the characters that show latter in that story line.

My project this year is a actually taking place in the same universe as the The Erasable Man and will probably turn into a sort of origin story for Zachary Artemas. That is assuming that I can get the characters to agree to play along. I am discovering that the more I write, the less my characters like to do what I want them to. It can get really annoying at times to say the least. Still, you have to be true to who the character is or the story is going to go badly very quickly.

As a side note, I’m going to start some of the character and world notes that go along with The Erasable Man. Early next year I expect to have at least part of The Erasable Man ready for beta reading, if you’re interested, drop me a line here and I’ll get back with you.

Back to the day job and NaNo!

UPDATE: I’m right at six thousand behind right now, but that will probably disappear tomorrow over game night.