It’s December 1st, meaning NaNoWriMo wrapped yesterday – and I’m pleased to say that I hit my 50,000 word goal!  This is the first time I have since the pandemic and having a toddler, so it feels especially significant to have got back to that level of writing.

I did a lot of planning throughout the month, trying to build up word cushions before days that I knew would give me less opportunity to write, and that worked really well. I wound up with an easy final day, only needing 835 words, or half of a typical NaNo day.  I finished the month out with 50,076 words, so I’m very pleased with that!

I’m also pleased that I’m most of the way through the novel draft.  I think the total will end up only around 55K words, which is shorter than many of my first drafts in the past.  It seems to be how this series works though – the very first “complete” draft of Thorns 1 was a 27K word novella, Thorns 2 was 67K words at first draft, and Thorns 4 is 62K words.  So 55K is a little short, but not by a lot, and I already have ideas of about four chapters I want to insert, just as a start!  This may also be a slightly shorter novel than some of the others, which I’d be fine with too.

I plan to continue working on the draft for now, and hopefully will have it finished in the next few days.  I only have about two chapters left, so that shouldn’t be too  much!  After that I plan to pivot back to Thorns 1, to get that finally (finally) finished.  With any luck, I’ll be sharing that by early next year!

For now, here’s an excerpt from near the end of the book.  Enjoy!

“Oh – one more thing,” Terrence said, turning back around.  “I almost forgot.  I was thinking about it, while you were gone, and I just wanted to say – you’ve stopped telling me not to be an idiot.”

Elena blinked.  Whatever she had thought he’d want to talk about, that wasn’t it.  “No, I haven’t,” she lied.

“Yes, you have, and I don’t think I’ve suddenly become that much cleverer in the last couple months,” he said with a lopsided smile.

“Well…”  She shrugged.  “I mean, you’re a king now.”

“And that’s where kings get into trouble.  When everyone stops treating them like people.”  A shadow of a frown crossed his face.  “When they stop thinking of themselves as people.”