I ended my NaNoWriMo at just over 88k words last night. Since I started Halloween (oops), that makes roughly 3259 words a day for 27 days. I fully immersed myself in the story and let me tell, you, I am EXHAUSTED right about now.

However, I have no intention to take breaks. I AM changing my update schedule, however, quite drastically, to accommodate my current goals.

As many of you know, prior to November, I ran on a chapter-a-day-esque schedule where I would never quite make the goals but provide a more or less constant stream of output with occasional breaks if anything got tough. The problem with this is that it frees me from any kind of liability if I miss a day because I can't turn back time. If a chapter doesn't get posted, tough, I'm not going to make up on it. It's also kept me away from pursuing contests/poetry/short stories which has been a goal of mine for a long time.

So the new plan is to have a monthly word goal that I pursue, sort of like a NaNoWriMo every month, but I can allocate the words wherever I see fit. I'm aiming for 60k but I'll probably toggle that up and down depending on the month, with 50k as a minimum and 75k as an ideal but unlikely stretch goal. 

Other plans: 

-I'm going to be making a new art book come Christmas break, which makes this book a year old. ;) We've come so far, haven't we? I'd prefer to keep the number of art books on my profile to a minimum because... writing site... and author... but one a year seems like a good enough compromise to me. 

I was planning on naming them after different TCHF characters but I might change that to Princesses because reasons. Heilin, Aislyn, Ampere, or Asha? Or do you have some other Princessses you'd like to see more of?
(if so why but ok)

-I'm going to be starting no more than one project monthly to ensure I don't inundate myself in books and then never update them again. 

Current projects drifting around the line up include (See Going Forwards for more detail)...

-Broken Souls (top priority, may be the only book I write during December)

-The Space Between Stars (thinking of starting this back up in January, but I'll be spending the entire month outlining it. Expect lots of worldbuilding tidbits in the meantime).

-Where The River Bends (February? I should have WELL past 1.25k by then, and again with the outlining. I know a lot of people want a Warriors book out of me because all my old stuff is... uh, disappointing? Let's go with disappointing.) 

-restarting/continuing Extraordinary (I got a lot of good reviews when I did start it but I really had no ideas for the plot! I think I can bring it back but it's gonna take time.) 

-Deja Vu (see, I promised it would come up again eventually. Right now it's looking like this might not start until some ridiculous time like April but it will be worth it when it comes out, I swear >w<)

OTHER PROJECTS COMING SOMETIME IN THE FUTURE

-TCHF rewrite (new canon!TCHF) and TGD rewrite (new canon!TGD)

-my next NaNoWriMo, obviously. Shout out numbers below, I still don't know what Princess I'm going to use but I have a vague idea of what I want to *write*.

-Potential nuzlockes for Omega Ruby (renegadelocke), Black (soullocke), and a typical Moon nuzlocke with some crossovers. 

I mean, I don't really want to write another nuzlocke all that much, but it's always kind of out there as an option.

As for everything else, I'll keep you posted.

I know you've seen most of this before, and yeah, this chapter is probably going to replace the LAST planning chapter since I have more of a solid plan now. 

ANYHOW, if you haven't checked out Roses and Thorns, I highly recommend you do so. I know a lot of people don't like to read books until they're finished and hey, it's finished now! I put a lot of effort into it and I think it turned out well in the end. I'll be posting more art for it in the future, sort of as a promo of sorts, but hey... feedback so far has been great. 

I in no way expected to have 1k by the time I finished. It took TGD half the year to make it to 1k.

What can I say? You guys are the best.

In the meantime, I've made an 8tracks and have a playlist up with all the songs I used while writing the book and ones I heavily associate with the characters. It's spoiler heavy, so I'd only listen if you've finished, but it's just a fun thing I thought I'd put out there ;3

You can PM me for it and I'll put it below, in the comments.

I'll be back with art sometime this week.

See you all soon.