Half-way through November, woohoo! One-quarter of the way through the challenge, yikes! I ended up choosing an old story of mine for this November’s writing project. It is some type of fantasy, possibly urban fantasy, in which Earth is the only plane where the main populace do not perform magic. It has been several years since I last worked on it, and I have mostly forgotten it since.

The trend of learning a lot about the worlds and people I thought I already knew well still holds strong. For example, the bad guys in this story now have a lot more motivation; there are a few sentient and deliberately malicious opponents interspersed between all the mindlessly destructive animals and constructs.

This project has introduced a new kind of obstacle. When I began it, I wrote several scenes, and later reread them for pleasure a few times. Now, when I try to write those scenes anew, I find myself trying to recall what already happened and how I phrased it, instead of putting new, hopefully better words and events. I will try to copy them (by typing, not copy-paste functions), and see how much changes. Should I only count half the words of that, since what I’m working from was not written this November?

Last month, I assumed I would know by now if I would need my contingency plan to boost my word count. I do not. It is still ready, and I am behind, but I am not worried yet. Next November, I will likely consider myself a ‘rebel’ of this event, and declare a different goal than the traditional ‘first draft of a new novel.’ I have many more works in progress than new ideas to write.

I recently realized that I am looking forward to December. Don’t get me wrong, I am happy with now and I am enjoying this writing month; what I mean is, I want to work on my science fiction story, the one that is technically done and only needs polished. I want to see it finished.