It’s that time again.

We are quickly approaching November, aka Novel Novel Writing Month, aka NaNoWriMo.

As with years past, I am participating again, working my way to write a staggering 50,000 words in just 30 days.

This year I’ll be writing the next Taking Flight book (shocker, I know) and I can already tell you that it’s not going to be an easy time.

I tried writing this book earlier in the year and just … felt … lost. And not in the nice, “Oh I’m taking the scenic route!” way. This was a, “I have no idea where I am and I’m freaking out” situation.

I had just finished writing Breaking Tackles, and wanted to throw myself into the next book to keep the momentum going.

But as I started writing, I realized I had no idea where I wanted the book to go. What the stakes were. What I even wanted to explore with these two characters.

But I kept on writing, figuring that if I just kept going all of it would come to me. Fake it ’til you make it and all that, right?

Except it didn’t. I kept writing and kept feeling frustrated and annoyed.

So I stepped back. I took a massive break. I wrote an entirely different Taking Flight book and started writing a non-TF book that’s an adult rom-com and began working on an outline for a non-TF project that is, uh, fantasy. (Things are crazy in my brain, you guys.)

But now. Now I’m ready to dive back in.

I’m doing all the pre-writing now. I’m working on a pretty heavy outline, doing my best to salvage the scenes I’ve already written so that I don’t have to scrap them completely (even though I might need to scrap them completely). And though I haven’t quite figured out the stakes, I think I’m getting there.

Like last year, I’ll write weekly posts during NaNoWriMo, updating on my progress, successes, struggles, and hopefully giving you guys some insight to this writer’s process. There will be frustration. There will be triumph (I assume. I hope.) And there will most definitely be GIFs.

So what am I working on, exactly?

Well, it would be Kate’s book. Prepare yourself for sorority dynamics, older guy drama, parental pressure, and helping a friend plan her wedding. (I’m sure there will be more than that, but, uh, that’s all I’ve figured out so far.)

NANOWRIMO, AHOY!