This past Monday, my on-line critique group went back to submitting & critiquing 5K for the week. We’d taken the month of November off for NaNoWriMo. I was up to sub first. It was difficult for me to switch from historical fiction to fantasy, but I don’t need to be doing revision from their comments any time very soon. I used to be able to easily work on more than one project at a time, but lately I’ve felt the need to focus on just one project at a time. No multi-tasking for Sandy any more.

Writer Friend Sue — from about 45 minutes away from me, and not in my critique group — gave a challenge for us to continue working on our stories and report simply the word count to each other each Friday. Although I’d made several entries in my journal this week, and dealt with more moving-father issues, and started the many Christmas season activities, I reported to her my meager 300 count for the week (for words on story, not journaling). I felt embarrassingly miserable about that, even though I’d done better than Sue!

Tonight I typed in another 1150 words on my NaNo story. Still, it’s a pitiful count compared to what I was putting out in November. This morning I went through my NaNo writings and transferred only those scenes/chapters I was going to keep for sure over into a new file.  I did more reorganizing and rearranging and filling out a few things. I have more story to work on before I even start in on the revisions or rewrites. Yet, I have about 27,000 words. My goal for this historical fiction MG novel is 32,000 words. I’m sure I’ll easily surpass that, if needed. But now (Post NaNoWriMo) I’m no longer as worried about word count as I am story. It felt refreshingly wonderful for me to type words today and then go back and self-edit before proceeding. Very satisfactory.

I’m hoping this month, even with all the extra Christmas activities going on and family concerns, that I’ll be able to work on this historical fiction to somewhat completion. Then, in the new year, I’ll get back to my fantasy series and let this story sit and ripen for a while.

I challenge anyone reading this to try for 2K words each week, even in the very busiest of  times.