NOVEMBER 2025 INTENTIONS

Well, October was a blur! I’m not sure why or where the time went, but I blinked and now, here we are in November already.

I’m not even sure how well I did on my intentions from October, so now’s as good a time as any to take stock.

• OUTLINE: 2nd Folk Horror Novella: a little…
• WRITE: Folk Horror Novel(la): Sorta…
• WRITE: Short Story for Collection – No.
• LEARN: Writing craft books. No.

So, uh…what DID I do last month?

Looking at my daily tracker:

• 55% = Folk Horror novella
• 13.1% = Classes
• 10.5 % = Patreon
• 9.17 = No project
• 7.76% = Marketing
• 4.58% = 2nd Folk Horror novella

I use the tracker to remind myself to take breaks, but also for times like this when I’m not even sure where all my time went. I also don’t always remember to start the timer, and the “no project” portion also means I forgot to tag what I was working on. I spent a bunch of time last week creating my self-publishing schedule for 2026, so that may be culprit.

One thing that’s clear – being a writer means a good amount of one’s time doesn’t actually go toward writing.

Either way, I still have things to do for November…

• WRITE: Folk Horror Novella
• OUTLINE: Short Stories
• LEARN: Copyediting assignments
• SUBMIT: The Bone Key sequel

I’m keeping things light this month. With this new self-publishing schedule and work due for my copyediting class, I’m tempted to do ALL THE THINGS, but I created the schedule for a reason – so I don’t get overwhelmed while trying to get all the required bits in place.

Writing the novella this month actually gives me a head-start, as I don’t have this book scheduled until the 2nd half of 2026, but I can’t pass up the opportunity to get the first draft done so I can take a break from it in December.

Since I want to get the collection out in the first half of 2026, I need to get back to that with a vengeance! I want to go over my outlines, make sure I’ve done enough prep, and finish up those last stories.

I also need to wrap up final edits and finish the synopsis for The Bone Key sequel so I can start submitting it to agents and publishers.

As always, it feels like a lot, but as I said above, if I can stick to my schedule and not try to do too much all at once, I should be able to accomplish these goals (and not drive myself crazy in the process).