Phew! Is it seriously December already? Well that’s just insanity, that’s what I think. November really got away from me there, but it’s all good because I’m not going back to work now until the New Year. Go me! ^_^
And on that cheery note, let’s take a quick look at how November treated me, shall we?
Goal #1: Take care of myself more.
Ha ha ha ha ha…oh man…wait, that wasn’t a joke? Oh, gee, sorry.
November seemed to happen so fast that it’s not surprising that I didn’t really find the time to “take care of myself”, exactly. That’s not to say that I was overly hard on myself, but there were definitely a few too many fast food meals, too few relaxing moments, and more than a little “Oh crap, Christmas is coming fast” stress.
All in all though, I can’t really say a whole lot about this topic simply because November disappeared on me so quickly that I hardly even noticed that I wasn’t really taking care of myself. So I guess we’ll just call it a wash? Ha ha…hopefully I’ll find some time for a few hot baths and maybe a massage during December.
Goal #2. Continue to build my readership/viewership.
Okay, I was going to laugh again, but I’ll restrain myself this time.
The truth is that I did do a few things toward this goal this month, although most of it was a bit unintentional. I, for instance, filmed a couple of videos that people really seemed to like, and therefore I had a nice little spike in YouTube followers. My rants about Hot Topic and the GameStop Black Friday Funko box also brought a number of new people to the blog, so that was pretty nice. I was also contacted by a few different companies wanting me to try out their product in return for a fair review on YouTube, which was very nice, although one of those companies has yet to actually send me the product, so I’m not sure if that one is actually going to happen.
On the book sales side of things, there is literally nothing to report because there haven’t been any sales. Not one book or e-book since October. That’s a little bit of a kick in the gut, but it’s softened by the fact that I got two new really nice reviews on the book, and one of those reviews was posted on three different sites. So that’s pretty nice, and definitely brightened my day when I saw them.
Goal #3: Write. Write a lot.
And so we come to the writing and the real question of the month…how did NaNoWriMo go? Well, it’s a bit of a mixed bag, just like last year. I did not, in fact, complete NaNo, which makes me more than a little bit sad, but I’m also okay with it because I gave up the chance in order to get important things done (like working on my daughter’s birthday plans and Christmas shopping and the like). I really, really hoped that I would be able to squeeze the words in this year, and I was actually doing good, but it all came to a grinding halt around the 23rd. I was flying home from my shift, and since I’m off for the entire month of December I ended up having a few drinks with my coworkers at the airport, since I won’t see them for two months. Then I flew all night and all day, trying my best to get some sleep in on the way, and almost immediately after getting home I dove into the big pre-decorating clean, Black Friday shopping, tree-trimming, and so on, and I just didn’t really find any time at all to sit down and write.
That said, I’m not too disappointed in myself because I wound up with over 40,000 words throughout the month. I don’t have the exact number on me right now because I kept forgetting to update my spreadsheet as well as the NaNo page, but I know for a fact that it’s over 40,000 and that’s double what I wrote on my most productive months previously in the year. Not too shabby at all, and I’ve got lots of interesting scenes laid out for when I get the chance to sit down and really think about what I want to do with this Fairy Tales idea. So, all in all, I can’t say that it wasn’t an excellent month.
How was your November? If you participated in NaNoWriMo did you manage to cross the finish line? Did you get anything else accomplished? Are you excited for the holidays? Please share! ^_^
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Does osund like a really productive month. I’d be terrified of making a video!
And over 40k is practically 50K. That’s what I told myself when I didn’t complete NANO.
Good luck in December.
Making videos isn’t so bad. 😀 I’m TERRIBLE at public speaking, myself, but somehow there’s a disconnect between the camera and the actual people watching that makes it not a big deal. It’s rather fun, actually. ^_^
And I agree…40k is PRACTICALLY 50k anyway. XD
I gained almost 40 followers, had 40 posts (and was a guest once) and stopped running. Win/win/lose. 40,000 words is a hell of a lot of words for one month!
I agree!
40 followers is a nice jump for one month! ^_^ Don’t you love watching those numbers go up?
It’s great! I’ve found a nice little circle of blogging friends, too 🙂 I didn’t even know those existed. Makes me wonder what will happen in the next year now that I have solid base of readers.
Forty thousand words is nothing to scoff at! Way more than I did. Congratulations and enjoy your month off!
40,000 words is a lot! Congratulations! And to get so much else done in the process? Wow! Hopefully that company sends you their product to try… I always hate it when you agree to try something and then it falls through. 😦 Best of luck for December in all of your goals! At least you have some time off and can focus on what you want to focus on rather than work. That should be nice. 🙂
I would have been flying out to work today, so I’m in a really good mood right now. lol Honestly, December is just too busy a time for me to be on the other side of the country for half of it. I got through the kid’s birthday this weekend but I didn’t get a single present wrapped, so if I were heading out to work today I’d have to do it all in less than four days. @_@
Anyway, that’s me ranting. lol
Thanks for the congrats! It may not be a win, but I’m pretty proud of what I managed. ^_^
Congrats on those 40,000 words! Way more than my paltry ## (can’t remember, but I stopped about Nov 15). Still love NaNo because it jumpstarts my writing in a totally different way, but my main focus right now is editing, editing, editing. So, to the gritty, re your comment about no sales since October, I would have checked out your books instantly IF there had been a clickable link somewhere on your blog. You can put a cover on the sidebar that links right to your primary sales. Otherwise, I have to go to Amazon and look you up and then decide if I want to read . . . make it easier for your blog readers to find your stuff, OK? I love those three goals you post, all three of them. This cuts down the innumerable list to three key goals because if you can’t do #1, then #2 and #3 become that much more difficult. So, were they listed in priority (should #3 come before #2) <– that's my big problem. I'd rather write than market. All the best for a good December.
I’m totally with you on having something right on the blog (in fact, someone else had already suggested that recently…or was that you too?) but for the life of me I can’t figure out how to do it. I’m functionally useless when it comes to HTML and there are no WordPress widgets that I can see that would do the job. I tried linking to my book via Goodreads, but for some reason the widget for that won’t accept my Goodreads account number. >.<
Hey! I figured it out! Yay! lol ^_^