As I sit down to write this, it’s the very last day of November. We’re right in the middle of a busy holiday shopping season at the bookstore, and 2023 is coming to an end. As it typical for me, I’m already starting to think about next year. The little notebook I’ve been using to record my progress since February of 2020 is almost out of room. I’ll be able to finish December in this book and then it’ll be done. I’ve already purchased another notebook for next year. I’ve already started planning for what kinds of things I want to track in the new notebook. All that to say that it’s setting in my brain that we’re almost done with 2023.
So, before I enter the home stretch of this year let’s take a look at how November went.
As you already know, I started 2023 with a blank page of goals. As I progressed, I planned to fill things in. Absolutely NOTHING has changed on this page since the last time you saw it. My next goal was to draft all the stories in the anthology. I have NOT done that. Instead, I’ve been busy in the day job and spinning my wheels with this anthology story (it’s story #5 that I’ve stalled on … out of 10). Anyway, here’s that sheet.
Of course I also have smaller goals on the monthly pages. These are often things I need to keep in mind to keep myself on schedule for releases. For November that was to make a decision about the short story cover. I absolutely did not do that. At all. It feels entirely too far ahead of where I am on that collection, and that’s fine.
I managed to write a couple of blog posts (the October wrap up and a post about my TBR) and I wrote a short scene into the idea journal. But that’s it (besides book reviews). Again, it was a busy month in other ways but absolutely NOT in writing projects.
Overall, November ends with 5,786 words (most of which, as always, were book reviews) for an average of about 192 per day. I actually edited absolutely nothing this month. Oh well.
Moving on to reading! If you’ve been missing my book reviews, here’s your reminder that those have migrated to alltherightreads.com because that’s where they make the most sense! You can get all of that information over there as well as score yourself some used books at reasonable prices AND sign up for a Surprise Reads Box where we’ll send you custom recommendations in a book box!
I added another 13 books to the log this month, bringing my 2023 total to 132. This breaks down to about 149 pages per day, which is good because I like to be over 100. The oldest book I read this month was published in 1991 and the newest was an advanced reader copy of a title releasing in 2023.
The quick breakdowns of things people often ask …
- 2 Middle Grade
- 5 Young Adult
- 6 Adult
- 7 Fantasy
- 1 Science Fiction
- 1 Historical Fiction
- 1 Contemporary Fiction
- 1 Paranormal Fiction
- 2 Mystery/Thriller
- 3 Independently Published (that’s 23%)
- 4 ebooks
- 8 audiobooks
- 1 paperback
- 1 hardcover
Yes, I’m aware that doesn’t add up to 13 books. I wanted to get one of them finished as we were drawing close to the end of the month so I actually did both audiobook and paperback of that one.
No books received a 1 star. 2 books were 2-star (problematic), 6 were 3-star (more niche than wide appeal), 5 were 4-star (GREAT books if you read that genre) and no titles were 5-star (genre crossing).
So, in conclusion:
- I did a lot of thinking about what next year will need to look like for me, although I can’t say I made any concrete decisions.
- I did a lot of reading, adding to my already large count for the year.
- I did a lot of dreaming about my WIP but very little actual writing.
- 2023 is almost over!
Wish me luck on putting a solid ending on this calendar year!