Tonight I thought I’d throw out a quick update on where I’m at with my two current WIP (Works In Progress). I’ll say that it is NOT IDEAL to have two going at the same time, and I’m finding it impossible to toggle between the two. First, I don’t have the creative energy to invest in both at once. Second, I don’t have the time. And third, bouncing between 1911 and 1974 is really, really difficult! Here’s an update on each one.

NaNoWriMo. 50,000 words in a month? No problem! Granted, 50,000 words is typically not a full novel. For historical fiction, I’m probably shooting more for a minimum of 75-80,000, but a story will always be how long it needs to be. How’s my current NaNo project going? Eh, it’s a little bit of a hot mess. I’m writing lots of scenes, and then I’ll figure out how to put them in the right order. I never planned to tell this story in a strictly linear fashion, so I guess this disorganization is to be expected…maybe? In any case, it’s a fun experiment, and it really lends itself to the 1667-words-a-day pace. And I plan to just keep going with it after November 30 and get the full rough draft done ASAP.

The Other Novel. You thought it was finished, didn’t you? Well, so did I. Turns out, it’s not. I’ve gotten some feedback from agents (including one who read the full manuscript), but most of my rejections have been form letters. So I’m going to make some (big) changes, both to the story and the pitch, before I start querying agents again. Unfortunately, this likely won’t start happening until January, once I’m done drafting the NaNo project and the holidays have passed. But I still have faith that it’s a good novel!

So that’s where those are at right now. There are never enough hours in the day, or days in the week, to spend the time I really want to spend on writing, but I’m just doing the best I can. When I fall asleep at the computer screen (which I do often!), I finally decide it’s time to go to bed and start counting down the hours until my next chance to write.

If you’d like to stay informed of my day-to-day struggles and triumphs of being a novelist, follow me on Twitter, @algauthor!