Working Through It

Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash

I hit a gaming black hole this summer, after finishing The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, and to fill the time I started writing a novel. Not just any novel, a romance-erotica novel; well outside my wheel-well. And it was going well. In fact, it was a hell of a lot of fun.

I much prefer reading, and therefor writing, speculative forms of fiction - fantasy, science fiction, and horror, specifically. I always thought that if I ever pulled the trigger and dedicated myself to writing anything it would fit that mold. I was a surprised as anyone else that what came out of my mind and fingers and on to the screen was a steamy story about a short-lived May-December romance set on the west coast of Italy.

Anyway, I wrote like a demon, knocking out 50k+ plus words, nearly 2/3 of the whole novel's first draft, in about six weeks. Then Labor Day weekend arrived.

I'm ashamed to say that as soon as Starfield came out nearly two months ago, the motivation dried up.

I haven't given up. Seriously.

But with Baldur's Gate III, Cyberpunk 2077 2.0 & Phantom Liberty, Marvel's Spider-Man 2, Assassin's Creed: Mirage, and Super Mario Bros. Wonder all coming out within 60-ish days of each other...it's been kind of busy the last two months. Oh, and I started playing Fallout 76 again after taking half a year off.

Once I'm done with Marvel's Spider-Man 2 (I'm about 75% done), I'm taking a gaming break to write...except for Fallout 76 dailies.

Why?

Next month is NaNoWriMo - or National Novel Writing Month - and my plan is this:

• Finish the romance novel first draft. Start first revision in December.
• Start writing novel/novella around that post-industrial steampunk urban fantasy idea I've been mentally chewing on for more than a year. Try to finish it by the end of the month.

If I can get that much done than I will consider it a month well-spent.

Positive thoughts and well-wishes appreciated.