It’s been some time since I just chatted away about what life is like, and I realized the other night that I really should. A lot has happened over the summer and fall, so this will probably be all over the place. Even so, there is a lot of immense good to talk about.

I’m going to start with writing, since we’re already here. Obviously that’s still happening. I did just post my project updates a couple weeks ago, so there’s that. Things are happening, but slowly due to only having so much time a day. Words are happening, but I haven’t been able to focus on short fiction or my novel outline like I want, or even get my D&D one-shots written, mostly because I’ve been very busy with D&D preparations lately.

Which brings us to the next thing I wanted to talk about. Dungeons & Dragons. But to talk about that, I need to talk about work for a moment. Back in June, while working at a local convention, I met up with an old friend from high school. Long story short, she offered me a job doing inventory at her small game/hobby shop and running D&D there. Needless to say, I jumped on the opportunity. I’d just finished the month’s work at the TN Renaissance Festival, Joann Fabrics had closed, and I had managed to land a part-time job that would only be a couple hours on weekends, on occasion. That job is working birthday parties at my local climbing gym. So I got some physical outlet and a gym membership free for being an employee, but at most I get 3 parties a week, and that’s nowhere near enough money.

This new offer was for 3-4 days a week, as needed and available, but 10-hour days. So part-time bordering on full-time. Pay’s not great, but it’s better than minimum wage, and it’s in an industry I’m actually interested in. Plus, it’s working for a small business rather than a corporate soul-sucker, which is why I quit my corporate soul-sucking job in February in the first place. This was going to be exhausting and hard for not much pay, but I couldn’t ignore the positives. A steady but casual job, the chance to run D&D for pay, being surrounded by nerd culture, the freedom to chainmail or write my own stuff if things were slow.

It was at the beginning of August that my first D&D party met for the first time. In 20-ish years of playing and GMing, I’d only ever played with friends and only ever homebrew content. I’d never run or played a module. Not to mention I’d played 3.5 edition and would be playing 5e 2024 edition. With strangers. Using a module. So it was the beginning of August that I met my players and helped them make their characters. This would be for an 8-session campaign capped with a PVP battle royale. I’m writing this on Dec 8, so as of this writing, the battle royale happens TOMORROW. I’m so stoked.

But the important thing is, I really got to know and love these players. I grew significantly as a GM and developed a lot of self-confidence about it all. I’m definitely not an encyclopedia of the rules, but as I tell my players, I’m more interested in the mechanics serving the narrative than the other way around. If something’s arguably doable and will make the shared story we’re telling better or more dramatic or exciting, yeah, let’s go for it! Of course, that means if something’s impossible, like hell I’m allowing it. You don’t get to roll death saves if your idiot self jumped in a volcano. No. You’re dead at that point.

It was at the end of October that I started offering one-shot D&D sessions. I’ve had two so far, both very successful! I also got the Daggerheart core set, so I’ll be learning that system and adding that as an offering starting next year sometime.

I’ve also been working on trying to drum up voice acting work. I’ve put out 30 auditions this year, with almost half that just being November and December. No hits yet, but half of them are still open, so I don’t expect to hear back yet. My feelers are always out.

I did, however, land an unpaid but fun writing gig with a project called “Epic the Journey.” We’re expanding on Jorge Rivera-Herrans’s Epic: The Musical. I figured a fun passion project could take up some time, and I love Epic, so it made sense. I’m helping script scenes between the songs, but I also managed to snag a tiny vocal role as one of the suitors, so I’ll take it! It’s something to work on.

On the chainmail front, things have definitely gotten interesting. And not just because the chainmail itself is exploding. It’s what’s around it. My best friend Erin and I have been selling at conventions for some time now, and it’s rough. Not going to lie. We don’t do it to make money. More than anything, it’s just an effort to fund the hobby itself, get us traveling a little, and enjoying conventions. We’d be lucky to do maybe 5 conventions a year, usually just breaking even on them, which is what we wanted.

Well, last November, at a small local con, we met Sean and Lilli. Sean is a tall biker-looking dude. Lilli is a 5-ish foot long ball python. Sean basically said, “Hey you like snakes, right?” and put Lilli around Erin’s shoulders and walked away.

That’s the how the relationship started. So Sean and his wife Mindy run one of only two accredited reptile rescues in the state of TN: Ecto Gecko. They bring snakes and reptiles to conventions to raise money for the rescue, but also to offer education, interaction, and photo ops with the reptiles. Bearded dragons, ball pythons, a 9.5’ Colombian redtail boa, corn snakes, uromastyx, a rock iguana, a sulcata tortoise… they have a lot of animals.

It was at that same convention in June where I got the job offer that Erin really made friends with Sean, Mindy, and the reptiles. The con was slow enough for us that I could handle the chainmail booth, but so busy for Sean and Mindy that they needed the extra hands. Erin spent most of the con helping them out, and that’s how it started. We met up at multiple cons, and Erin would help them out while I ran the chainmail booth.

Sean and Mindy recognized the value in partnership, and now… they’re opening doors for us. They already have, but 2026 is going to be a massive change. Being tied to Ecto Gecko, The Chain Nerd is going to be at more and bigger conventions, right next to the huge draw that are the lizards and snakes. Oh, and Sean also does car work and has a few fandom cars he brings to cons: the Mystery Machine, the Ecto One, and an Umbrella Corp SUV. So we’re by the big draws. At big cons.

Seriously, wait til you see our convention schedule for next year. It’s already head and shoulders more than we’ve ever done, with a lot of cons we never would have imagined being at in the foreseeable future.

Needless to say, I’m busy as hell. Taking downtime has become very crucial to my well-being, since there’s always something to do and to work on. I’m afloat, but working and living hard right now. But damn, I am so much happier than I was a year ago. I regret nothing as far as quitting my old job.

And that’s not even taking into consideration how much my self-image has improved. I’ve gotten confident and happy in myself this year, and it shows. I needed this year. Badly. Thanks for going through it with me.

My first book, Empeddigo. It’s a complete and total mess, but… so was I at the time it came out. It’s been out for a good 15, maybe almost 16 years now. To be fair, I haven’t read it since it came out. So the details here are going to be with 15 years of not touching it. Frankly, I don’t really know if I can recall most of the characters’ names.

That doesn’t mean I can’t speak to mistakes I made while producing the book. As a writer, I’ve very much matured and grown since writing Empeddigo. Look at my works and tell me I’m wrong.

On the book production administration side, I’ve definitely improved, but there is still a long way to go. I still make mistakes when it comes to publishing my novels now. But for Empeddigo:

Mistake 1 - Not editing a lot more. This is really a writer portion of the problem, but the truth is I didn’t do a ton of editing after writing the first draft of Empeddigo. Sure, I did do a second draft, but it was more of a spit-polish than a critical read and edit.

Mistake 2 - Being inexperienced and/or cheap. Granted, this is largely due to inexperience at the time. While I did “hire” a friend to do the cover art for the novel, it’s not the highest quality. The book looks fine, but not great. And that absolutely is not a reflection on him. He was younger than I was and had never done a book cover before. At the same time, I had no funds to hire a proper editor or formatter, once again relying more on friend-favors and that type of thing than hiring someone. To this day, I still am not great at the formatting, but I want to be. I will say I totally screwed up the formatting of Criminal From Birth. But with the sequel likely coming in 2026, maybe I’ll do a format update and re-release for Criminal itself as well.

Mistake 3 - Rushing. To be fair, this really ties in with both the others, but it is what it is. I fell for the hype of finishing a novel during NaNoWriMo. While I wasn’t one to finish the book in November and turn around and try to publish in December or January, I simply didn’t allow myself the time to do things right. In all honesty, this is likely the biggest mistake in itself. But that’s always been a struggle for me: taking my time. I’m working on trying to be better about it, and 2025 A.F. is much better about it than 2010 A.F.

So if you’re working on your first book, the best thing I can say is… don’t be in such a hurry. Take your time. Be nitpicky. The rub is that it’s a whole other pit to fall into, seeking that perfection. Perfection is never going to come. There will always be something to tweak.
So… with my first book, the thing I did right?

I moved on from it. Sure, I did it prematurely. I really should have spent the rest of 2010 cleaning and preparing it before releasing, but… the fact of the matter is I didn’t sink into attachment. I was ready to move to a new project. That’s one huge thing. Sure, you can refine any art project indefinitely, smoothing edges, refining words, polishing for ages… but all that does come with diminishing returns. I wouldn’t have learned so much if I hadn’t moved on to my second book. And third. And more. With each one, I get new lessons, new experience.

I would be beyond shocked if there was an author who didn’t look back at their first book and cringe at something or other. Mistakes are learning experiences. I’m glad I finished Empeddigo and had the nerve to put it out there. If I took the idea now and tried again, would the result be better? Yes, absolutely. In all ways.
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But it wouldn’t be a reflection of who I was 15 years ago. It was the book I needed to write and produce then. I’m proud to have done it. That’s enough.

I’ll come out upfront and say this is not a first impression of this book. I’ve listened to it MANY times and consider it one of my favorite series.
Ah, Dungeon Crawler Carl. This is an irreverent, humorous-but-heartfelt LitRPG novel that very perfectly fits in with the gamer mentality.
At least in my personal opinion.
It’s cliche to say this, but it really feels like this is a book that was written for me. I’m definitely right smack in the target demographic (nerdy lifelong gamer/reader), but it’s not as niche as that might seem. Seriously. The fan base is vast and varied, but all as passionate about the themes, characters, and memes that make up this fantastic series.
Anyway, this particular book. To sum up, our main character is Carl, a mid-20s man who just broke up with his girlfriend and still has her pampered show cat in his apartment. Everything’s fine until the world ends.
You heard right. Aliens have claim to all the resources on Earth, and the time has come to harvest. However, intergalactic policy states that if a resident of the planet successfully navigates all 18 floors of a dungeon, they can lay claim to the planet and save it.
Enter the Dungeon.
This book covers floors 1 and 2 of the dungeon, bringing readers along with Carl as he learns how the game works and sees how people adjust to literally living in a televised game where magic is real, goblins are addicted to meth, and when you die, you die. I’d love to go into the plot, but to be totally serious, it’s best taken with no expectations to allow the insanity and joy of it all to just wash over you and take you by surprise.
Just know there’s no gratuitous sex, but there is a lot of really strong language, gore, more gore, and MORE GORE. There is sexual innuendo and suggestive stuff, but nothing explicit there. Not for the faint of heart.
Dinniman is a master of the unexpected but logical. Some of the unexpected twists and events seem to hit out of left field, but in retrospect (or a second or millionth read/listen), they are telegraphed well and subtly. Even better, he very deftly introduces the reader to the intricacies of the game along with Carl.
So, I mentioned relistening/rereading. This book is well worth multiple intakes. I probably listen to the series 2-3 times a year since I first discovered it, and I’m always finding something new about it: some new hint, detail, or just straight up something that I missed previously due to a momentary lapse in attention or memory.
I want to discuss the audiobooks primarily, mostly because they are so wonderfully done. The majority of that is at the hands of the narrator, the incredible Jeff Hayes. This man, guys… This man is so spectacular at voices and deliver that it surprises a lot of people to realize he does ALL THE VOICES. With a couple exceptions, Hayes does them all. If he isn’t doing a character, it’s because there was a guest voice actor brought in for someone particular— sometimes to great effect, sometimes not so much coughCriticalDrinkercough
I have not read the paper or ebook versions of this book, though I do own an autographed copy of this one. I’ve only listened to the audio, and it’s a hoot in and of itself. It truly brings the story alive, and that’s not even counting the fact that there are AUDIO IMMERSION TUNNELS happening, where the books are full audio dramas. I’ve heard snippets of those, and they’re one step further into really making the books real.
I plan to do reviews of each book as I work my way through the series again. Naturally, as we progress, the number of times I’ve consumed the later books will be less than the first few. When I first got introduced to the series, I believe book 5 had just been released. So I’ve been around for the releases of books 6 and 7, and am eagerly awaiting book 8. But book 6 I’ve only listened to 3 or 4 times, and book 7 twice. So I’ll be reviewing that after my third listen. Keep your eyes out for my impressions of the books, and seriously, grab a copy. You won’t regret it!

Uh… where did November go? I got some stuff done, but this month really took a toll on me. In-person D&D has picked up, so a lot of my focus has been there.

D&D Single Adventure - Holy cow, ideas have abounded. I currently, as of now, have scenes outlined for two. Just need to write out the details, do test runs, tweak anything that doesn’t work right, and format before I can release them!

Criminal From Birth sequel - Still with editor.

LitRPG book (working title Subscription Life) - Chugging along and still enjoying! Not a lot to say other than the outlining is progressing.

Current chapters in Draft Point Five: 28 (up 8 from last month)
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I haven’t gotten any flash or short fiction going this month, mostly because a lot of my working time has gone to D&D prep and chainmail.

This is a huge question, but I like to try and keep these posts short, a little heart-to-heart that won’t take up too much of your time. Time’s precious, limited, blah blah blah.

So, the short version:
With my writings, I’m not here to impart any grand wisdom. Whether or not I actually have any to impart is a whole other story. I’ve been around, been through Hell and back a few times, and I’m sure I’ve got some great nuggets to share.

I’m also not really trying to impress anyone with my prose itself. I’ve got plenty to criticize, and I’ll be the first person to say that. Like many, I suffer from a lot of impostor syndrome, insecurity issues, and the constant fear that I’m not good enough. But I still put myself out there, and you can too. (There, your encouragement for the day.)

What I want to do with my writing, with almost everything I do, is to entertain. Like I said, time is short. LIFE is short, and why the Hell should we be suffering through it or just “getting by?” The world and humanity are full of so much life, beauty, wonder, and curiosity that you cannot tell me that we’re meant to let it all exist outside us. I don’t care your belief system, no one should be relegated to a drab life without smiles.

I live to make people smile. No, I don’t write exclusively comedies. I get deep. I go for the gut punch. I aim for tears.

But those are all part of life too.

My words are meant to grant escape. Whatever escape you might need, I hope I can provide it. I don’t need much. A moment of your time for a joke, an afternoon for a story, or days or weeks for a book. I pour myself into my words in hopes that a little piece of me might brighten your life, just for a moment.
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I can honestly not think of a nobler purpose for myself.

Oooh, this one sounds like fun. I have a fair few published works, so let’s just go through the list, shall we?
Empeddigo - This was inspired by two ideas:
The idea of a highly communicable disease used to exert power and control over the mass population.
A genre blend of science fiction and fantasy

The Trials of Hallac - Oh, my epic poem. This was largely inspired by the challenge itself of writing a 5000-line epic poem in 31 days, but my plot and story inspirations were The Odyssey, the thoughts of something similar to the Trials of Hercules, and… Final Fantasy Tactics.

Mere Acquaintances - This was originally referred to as “The Blogject,” because I wanted to write a story that was intended to be released in unedited, first draft form as a serial, sort of an homage to serial published authors like Dickens. I honestly don’t recall exactly how it was inspired, but I always described it as “A bunch of people in a mental institution have multiple personalities. And those personalities are delusional together.”

Starsigns - This novel is one that probably went through the most permutations. It was inspired in large part by Robin Hobb’s Soldier Son Trilogy of novels: Shaman’s Crossing, Forest Mage, and Renegade’s Magic. I loved her premise on birth order being formative for your role in life and wanted my own take on fighting the fate decreed for you. It was originally intended to be much more adult than it was, but I’m quite proud of the final product.

Criminal From Birth - There is no denying that this had a single source of inspiration: the movie Basic, starring John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson. It’s a story told and retold a few times with new details revealed by different tellers, so it keeps changing just how events are reacted to, uncovering the mystery one layer at a time.
I’ll admit I did not pull it off as well as I liked in Criminal, but I’m still pleased with it. Obviously. I mean, I wrote a sequel and will be planning to wrap it up with a third book.
That’s right. I’m not making any promises on timelines, but that’s the long term hope. Book 2 is with my editor, so we’ll see when that gets finished and book 3 happens.

The Deadly Studies - I didn’t have a whole lot of say on inspiration for my novella series, since it’s a spinoff of John G. Walker’s Statford Chronicle series. It’s obviously inspired by a need to fit into the established world of its parent series. By dint of having me write it rather than John himself, it is already set in a Grappin-style flavor, making it a totally different experience than reading any of the Statford books. John says I more than did Luc justice, so I’ll take that with pleasure.
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Subscription: Life (work in progress, working title) - This is my current main project I’m outlining right now, a LitRPG novel that I hope will either be a standalone novel, or at most, a two-book series. A lot depends on how long the outline itself is and how the prose ends up. But this is inspired by the fact I’m a lifelong gamer and have been reading a lot of LitRPG stuff lately. Notably, Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman has been an obsession and huge influence.
S:L is not at all going to be any sort of DCC clone, though. I’m more original than that, at least. And like a lot of other projects that have been started and discarded, no promises that this one will come to fruition. I hope, though.

I was very fortunate to have gotten bitten by the writing bug at a fairly early age. I’ve talked about this a bit before. It was early middle school when it happened, so around age 11. By age 12, I was definitely mired in the written word. It was pure fortune that even though my writings were TERRIBLE, I got a lot of good support from the people whose opinions I cared about.
To be fair, at the time, I didn’t really know how bad they were. I read, yes, but I was not introspective, subjective, or anything like that. I was just having fun. And to be completely honest, that’s what writing should be.
It should be fun.
More than anything, that’s what I would (and do) tell children who want to be writers. Both of my goddaughters are artistic in some sense, and both do dabble in some writing. One of the first things I was proudly presented by one of them (a few years ago now, so the author was roughly age 8 or so) was— and I say this affectionately— the most derivative, poorly-written fanfiction I could imagine. The first half or so was pretty much just a written Cliff’s Notes version of the film they were “based off.”
I speak that openly about it because at this point, I know my own early writings were no different. I’ve already posted on this blog about some of the first works I recall: The Kung-Fu Cockroaches being one I particularly have in mind. It was derivative and more poorly-written than I care to claim these days. The support I got for it was encouragement, excitement over having written a thing, though… looking back, of course I never got any good actual feedback. But what do you tell a preteen who has the guts to put themselves out there like that?
The same thing you should tell anyone trying something new: that you know how hard what they’re doing is. You praise the effort, the passion, and the courage to do it. You acknowledge the hard work they’ve put into it, because effort is what’s going to help them improve.
With any skill, you get out what you put into it. You have to invest. For a child, it’s much simpler than trying to actually guide the improvement. Don’t criticize their word choices, plot, characters, any of that. You don’t have to lie about things being good. Praise the effort they put into it. Tell them to keep writing. ASK WHAT THEY PLAN TO WRITE NEXT.
Frankly, this goes for adults, too, and not just in writing. Any skill someone is trying for the first time, just encourage it. It doesn’t have to be super deep encouragement that analyzes what they do. If someone’s playing tennis for the first time, focus on the fun and immediate benefits. Be happy because they’re trying something new, not that they’re not already Pete Sampras or not making money off it. If your mother decides to take an airplane pilot simulation course, don’t shake your head and make it clear you doubt she’ll ever fly a plane.
You have nothing to lose and everything to gain by being positive and supportive. Even if that preteen spends the rest of their life writing and NEVER PUBLISHES ANYTHING, don’t stop encouraging. The sum of our skills is not based on how much money we make off something. It can and should be valued in the joy we get creating or doing a thing.
And if they never want to share them with the greater world, never publish their art, never play a game competitively, that’s not a “waste” or a “pointless practice.”
In short, there really is no reason to not encourage others’ hobbies. And it’s not that hard to be genuine about it. If something makes a person happy, focus on how happy they seem to be doing the thing. You don’t have to like or even approve of what they do, but… don’t be the reason someone stops doing something they enjoy.
Especially if it’s a child.

This being the first of the book reviews I’ve done in quite a while, I suppose I should clarify what my intentions are with them. In the past, I have written book reviews mostly with the intent of supporting author friends. I see no reason why I shouldn’t continue to support authorly friends, so if you have a book you’d like me to read and review for you, please contact me. I will warn that physical reading take a lot longer for me these days. Audio is better, mostly because of time and attention constraints. I have drive time that I can dedicate to listening where I can’t read a physical book while doing that. That’s a good 5 hours a week just listening to books. I also listen while cleaning, eating, cooking, that sort of thing. I can try physical reading again too, so please don’t let that deter you if you want my thoughts on your work.
I digress, as I so often do. What I intend with these book reviews: my own thoughts, such as they may be. Sometimes, it may be a lot of focus on plot and character. It could be on craft, voice, even setting. Knowing me, a lot will just be general thoughts. Anyway, in short, just know that I read widely and enjoy talking about books in general. So expect that from these reviews.
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This is not a first impression of The Handmaid’s Tale. No, I first listened to this audiobook probably 10-ish years ago. But I just finished a re-listen and it was better than I remember. And I remember liking it a lot then. That said, here are my thoughts on it as it sits fresh on my mind.
Atwood writes beautifully. Simply put, it’s wonderful prose that, at least in my opinion, perfectly encapsulates the protagonist’s mindset. It isn’t until the epilogue that we discover this story was “discovered” as a series of audio cassettes, but that one revelation makes the whole thing make so much more sense to me, from a technical standpoint. The fact that I have absorbed it through audiobook only drives that further home. The delivery of the version I have, read by Claire Danes, truly feels like half of a conversation, like the oral passing down of stories from elder to child a generation or two removed.
That’s what so much of this feels like to me: like a story told, not one written. Obviously I don’t know if Atwood intended that to be its format from the beginning, or if it came along during the process somewhere, but I like to believe it is intended to be heard more than read, in general.
I’m writing this on October 13, 2025 in the United States, and it goes without saying that this book very much hits hard right now. It’s well-documented that Atwood took a lot of inspiration from Orwell’s 1984, another dystopian fascist novel. It’s far too clear to see the parallels in Atwood’s prose and the current living situation of every human demographic other than rich, white, male Evangelical. What’s even more terrifying is that the things Atwood describes not only could happen, they are happening in the U.S. even as I type this. Speaking as someone who falls into a number of minority categories (being trans for one), it really struck my nerves and fears in a way it didn’t ten years ago.
What Atwood really nailed, at least to my listening this time through, is all the small ways so many people break the rules. The intense strictures of everyday life in the Republic of Gilead are no way for people to live. Even those who benefit from the rules know that. Even they: the Commander, Serena Joy, the aunts, they all have their own small breaks that give them more reason to go on. The Commander with something as simple as playing Scrabble, one of the Marthas (I forget which one, Rita maybe) cutting radishes into rosettes and other shapes, all the people with cigarettes, mentions of the black market, all these things build up. They are proof of humanity’s survival and constant desire to be more than a basic nothingness.
Yet somehow, Atwood always managed to capture the sense of hope. Hope buried, lost, found again, shared, kept, coveted, reveled in. Even at its darkest moments, those where the writings and rules of the government of Gilead are at their worst, Offred and other characters demonstrate that they are still people. At their basest, most primal state, they are still people with wants and needs and the drive to find ways to survive and achieve those wants. Something as small as a single match hidden in a bed frame is a symbol of something strong waiting to break free.
I can’t help but compare it to another media tale of “the beforetimes” transitioning to the current horrific situation, told in a horrid way from one sufferer to the next: Valerie’s autobiography in V for Vendetta. The single match being hope, Valerie’s “one inch” being the last thing that cannot be taken from us.
Seeing the country I grew up in turning into a world where threat of my being disappeared is very real makes those small hopes mean a lot more. That one inch of self is critical. That one shred of being unapologetically who you are, in whatever small ways you can, is a valuable way to fight back. It might not be a lot, but then, it might be everything.

October was very stressful in a lot of ways. I knew it would be, but it took its punches and didn’t pull any. So very lean month as far as writing is concerned.

Dungeons & Dragons: Bard Campaign - Just because it’s more personal and low-priority than other projects, and it involves the involvement of others, this will be the last regular update on this campaign.

D&D Single Adventure - I have two concepts I’m mulling over and trying to pick which one I want to be my first focus. I think I know which, I just need to do it.
Criminal from Birth sequel - Still with editor.

LitRPG book (working title Subscription Life) - Chugging along and still enjoying! Not a lot to say other than the outlining is progressing.
Current chapters in Draft Point Five: 20 (up 2 from last month)
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I’ve also gotten blog posts and writing exercises done, and I’ve got something new coming for all subscribers you’ll see starting later this month!

For those of you who aren’t familiar with it, NaNoWriMo is short for National Novel Writing Month. It was intended as a challenge to writers to write a 50,000-word first draft of a novel in 30 days, specifically in the month of November. That’s 1,667 words a day, if you average it out between the 30 days.

I am not here to discuss the goods or bads of NaNoWriMo, nor to discuss any scandals around its organizers or anything like that. It’s over now, and it was what it was at the time.

This blog post is simply for me to put out my experiences with it, what I took from it, and so on. Any opinions and experiences are my own. I will say upfront that I don’t participate any longer and haven’t for years, but I think you’ll understand why by the end of the post.

I first learned about it in the summer of 2009 and decided I was going to go for it. Knowing my writing habits and tendencies at the time, I knew right away that the word count wouldn’t be the challenge; finishing a story would be. At the time, my finished/unfinished ratio of projects was awful. I did (and still often do) struggle with around the 2/3 - 3/5 sections of writing. I’m great at buildup and setup, and I’m not bad at climaxes, either. But the last push to story crux and the denouement are some of my weaker parts of stories. At the time, I was pretty purely a pantser. That is, I just wrote by the seat of my pants. It wasn’t so much that I wrote myself into corners as I lost interest trying to solve problems rather than cause more.

So I knew going into fall and eventually November that I needed a plan. I needed to try something I hadn’t done before: outlining a project. I would need a map so I didn’t write like 37,000 words and then peter out because I was bored and didn’t know where to go. No, I needed to know where I was going up front.

Long story short, now I’m a huge supporter of outlining. I still allow myself a fair amount of pantsing while doing the writing, but that’s details. I’ve already done a 3-post discourse on my outlining process as it is now, 16 years later, if you’re interested.

Outlining Post 1
Outlining Post 2
Outlining Post 3

Suffice it to say, I’m currently using that method right now, working on the outline for my LitRPG novel, working title Subscription Life.
I digress.

Over the course of the late summer and early fall, I outlined a novel. Come November 1, I started writing it.

I hit the 50,000 word mark on November 9th.

I’m not kidding. I remember it quite vividly, even now. I also recall that there were 3 days I didn’t write at all. I legitimately wrote 50,000 words in 6 actual days. There was still wrapping up to do, some outline left, and I did end up finishing the novel in whole.

That novel was my first published one, Empeddigo. And oh, how I do cringe thinking about it now, but that’s the way with early works. I revised and published it the following year and was poised to NaNo again in 2010.

Over the course of the next couple years, I was a NaNo fiend. I even did NEpMo, which was a random challenge I found in the same vein. That one was to write a 5,000-line epic poem in the month of May. Pretty sure I did that in 2010 as well. That was my second book, The Trials of Hallac. Also pretty cringe, but what are you going to do?

So through 2010, 2011, and 2012 for sure, a lot of my writing life revolved around NaNoWriMo. I went to local write-ins and loved them. The atmosphere was always great, writing sprints were a fun mini-challenge, and it was great to be surrounded by other writers. We’d talk about our projects, hover over our keyboards side by side, and got to know each other a little.
But foremost, it was about the word count.

And that was where it became a problem for me.

I’m VERY driven by numbers, in a lot of ways like I am driven by words. Math is a game. Numbers and words are both toys I use in different ways, but damn do I obsess about them. My drive became in getting higher word counts faster. I made the first week of November a regular staycation so I could just write. I made a big pot of chili the last day or two of October and lived off that while I secluded myself to knock out thousands of words. I strained to break 20,000 words on NOVEMBER FIRST. Never quite made it, but I got close a few times. 10k word days were no stranger to me.

I believe one year, I actually finished NaNo on like day 5. But it got worse. At least twice, I DOUBLE NaNo’d, as they say. Meaning I wrote 100,000 words in 30 days. I even went for a triple NaNo but ended up running out of material. I finished the book draft.

In general, I wouldn’t think such a thing was a problem. I was eating and taking care of hygiene. I went to work on time, did my job, and took care of life outside the word processor.

But I eventually came to the realization that while yes, I was cranking out words like I was running out of time, they weren’t good words. Sure, that’s what editing is for. But damn, was I paring down a LOT. Tons of fluff, unneeded description, rehashing of the same thought or idea, repeated description, meandering conversation. Yes, I know I just did exactly that in the list of things. That’s the point.

I made all those things in search of that ridiculous word count.

I was focused purely on quantity, not on quality.

I could do better, I decided. And that’s when I realized I’d gotten everything I could out of NaNoWriMo. It was great reason to write, but there were also a lot of people who wouldn’t write anything UNLESS it was November, and that wasn’t the best practice. All the wrong lessons there.

I recognized fatigue in myself after that frantic writing, too. Often, I didn’t write another word until the January after, or maybe even February. That was no way to practice a craft.

So I absolutely think there is value in writing challenges like NaNoWriMo. I learned a lot about writing, my own writing tendencies and habits, and how I can function under stress and deadlines. And I did make some amazing words in all that fluff. There was just a lot of the fluff that had to be pulled away. It was the quality I wanted, and if I focused on that, there was no way to hit NaNo for me without being even more stressed. I learned a lot from NaNo, took what I learned, and let it go.
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I used to be a guy who did NaNoWriMo. I outgrew it, and that’s fine.