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My List of Demands for NaNoWriMo

 Dear NaNoWriMo.org-- I'd already planned to skip National Novel Writing Month this year, in part so I can devote my time to getting a novel (a novel rooted in my first NaNo win, in fact) formatted for EPUB and prepped for public release, but mostly because I don't have any ideas particularly burning to get out. My brain is focused on the Christophina saga, and I have no new volumes that I want to work on just yet. When you chucked several marginalized groups under a bus to keep people from criticizing you about your stance on generative AI, I decided that even if I did  do National Novel Writing Month, I would not do it on the official site--I would use TrackBear to graph my wordcount and find a Discord server where people were doing it unofficially. However, I did not delete my account, as many have, because I still hold out hope that the event can be recovered. What does recovery look like to me? Three things: 1. Get rid of Kilby Blades . This is non-negotiable. She has do
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Further Thoughts on the Enshittification of NaNoWriMo

 Well, well, the word got out, didn't it? The folks at NaNoWriMo HQ have edited the page where they called objections to AI ableist and classist, and posted a statement that comes down to "sorry if it came across that we were accusing AI critics of being ableist and classist, we didn't really mean it quite like that , and, no, we're not going to apologize to the people we used as human shields to justify our argument." Is this really the hill you want to die on, NaNoPeople? Because I think you're going to die on it. That said, there are some things I've been seeing that starting to nark at me and if I can rant about Oxford commas, I can rant about these things, too. 1. They're going to sell your novels to the AI people!  Nobody who declares this actually has evidence, of course, it's just "the sort of thing they would do." I see this a lot from people who don't seem to understand how NaNoWriMo works in the first place. For a while, y
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Dear NaNoWriMo...

 Boy howdy, did you shit the bed. I know you lost a lot of people with the grooming scandal on the forums. I stood by you, NaNoWriMo, even then, because your board stepped in and promised real action. Which...hasn't really been done? Moderator X has been sacked, but the forums are still in limbo and we're closing in on a year since they were shut down. But that's not really what my problem is. You're under no legal obligation to even have  forums and I can just write it off as This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things. I only just now learned about the controversy over you plugging known vanity presses, so that's not really what my problem is, either. I'll just say...really? I don't even have a problem with your refusal to condemn the use of AI in novel-making. I work in AI; it pays my bills. If somebody wants a fast-food novel instead of writing one from scratch, I guess that's what works for them. I even understand why  you're refusing to take a s
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Oh, yeah...

 I finished drafting Christophina's Moon  last week. Grabbed the epilogue from the zero draft, updated it to match the reboot, grafted it on (because it was Camp NaNoWriMo and I set my own rules), and hit the finish line. Yeah. Next step is to add a scene to Christophina's Garden  so I can submit it to my writers group and set things in motion to get that book gone over, whilst also doing a final grind and polish on Christophina's Wings . I'll be consulting my niece for some insights into ice skating. Things like that. I still don't seem to have a sense of completion, since I've gone from finishing one thing to revising another. I probably won't feel complete about this trilogy until I've shipped out that last one for publication,
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Excuse Note 6/29/2024

 Please excuse Sheila from working on her novel today, as she spent all her writerly energy drafting a short story to submit to an anthology of interest to her.
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Project Juneiverse - Finishing Christophina's Moon

 Now that I've brought Christophina's Garden  to a proper ending, it's time to complete the trilogy and get Christophina's Moon  finished. I looked over the outline, made some calculations, and set up a Camp NaNoWriMo goal for July. I'm shooting for 30,000 words. I think I can pull it off. Heck, I've got one more day to work with than in November. The rest of the month will be spent drafting a short story for a Tanith Lee tribute anthology. My hope is to get it done in time to run it past my writers group before the submission window opens. I've banged out an outline and I'll start writing it tomorrow. I have no idea how long it's going to be. Long enough to get all the ideas in. That's all I can be certain about.
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Project Juneiverse: The Garden Has Blossomed

The longest day is over The longest day David Sylvian, "Alphabet Angel" Two hours after sunset on the summer solstice, I finished drafting the reboot of Christophian's Garden . It is now narratively complete. I have an ending. I have 109,034 words. I have a lot of work to do. The next steps are to reread the whole thing and divvy it up into segments for use with Scrivener. July is reserved for finishing Christophina's Moon , taking advantage of Camp NaNoWriMo for motivation. August will be devoted to a final grind and polish on Christophina's Wings  and maybe even putting it out for public consumption. It's still June, so one thing at a time. But it's done. It's done. It's done. It's done!
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