Nellie Bly made it around the world in 72 days in 1889-1890. What can you do in 72 days in 2014-15? (Wikimedia Commons)

So, the good NaNoers of the world who finished their word counts and their stories are resting their manuscripts and working on something new, or something old this month, but what are the rest of us doing?

I am feeling a little goal-less this month. The nice thing about doing NaNo in November is that there is always a goal. Even if I’m only making 50 percent or 10 percent of the goal, I still know it’s there, and that can be incentive to open up the file and start typing some more.

In December, I have to be a self-starter. I have to make my own goals. I took a look at my progress last month, and realized that I want to do more research, and I also want to capture some of that research in writing. However, 50,000 words a month is simply not reasonable. Fortunately, one of the many ah-ha moments I had last month was that even if I only write 10,000 words a month, if I do that for 10 months, I’ll have a lot of words.

Only 2,500 words a week seems like too much of a low bar (although, lord knows there have been many weeks when I haven’t cleared it), so I decided I want to do 5,000 words or two scenes, whichever feels more satisfying. Also, each week I want to read one book related to the fin de siecle world I’m creating.

This week, I have the books covered! Continue reading →