Year End Summary

Year Total: 1,140,082 words
Increase Over Year Prior: 143,007
Novel Total: 11
Increase Over Year Prior: -2
Longest Novel: Exile's End (210,007 words, 400+ pages)
Shortest Novel: Glimpsed (60,003 words, 100+ pages)
Summary of the Year: Well, it seems like five years have gone by in the last eleven months, to think that I wrote Exile's End — much less wrote books with chapters — a mere eleven months ago is crazy, it feels like years have passed in between, but that doesn't mean it hasn't been fun.
First off, I began the year with a serious bang writing what is my longest novel ever — by some 90,000 words over the runner up — and a novel which I do not intend to surpass by word count by any other books than its sequels, and probably its revision. And then I made a decision, probably influenced by the fact that I wrote a 60,000 word novel right off of that 210,000 word epic, and that is that I'm not going to write any more 60,000 word novels, there's not enough words.
I do still feel Glimpsed was a good story, but I felt that I had to skip over some parts that would've really helped build the story more, thus it was my only 60,000 word novel of the year, and when I come around to revising it it'll gain some 30,000 words. I admittedly felt the same way with Challenging too — although that may've stemmed from the fact that I was trying to follow two distinct story lines; so I'm thinking either the book will double in length or I'll axe Nicholas and Jennifer, but that'll be decided when I revisit that project.
I wrote a lot of fun stories this year, and it was a whole lot of fun, however, I am excited for next year too — so excited I have about eight of my eleven books for next year already planned out — and I'm really looking forward to the first book of the year, although I won't mind the month off either.
I'm sure you all have noticed that I actually wrote two books less this year than I did last year, and I do think that eleven books a year will be pretty much the usual for me, and the word count will not continue to grow either, if I surpass this next year would be impressive, and not necessarily impossible, but I personally doubt that it's going to happen unless writing 120,000 word novels becomes the norm for me.
Now, before I sign off for another year, I do have one more piece of news to share — which I have a feeling might be expected: once again I am a . . .

It isn't a surprise, being as my novel was 40,000 words longer than most NaNo participants work to achieve in November, but it's still fun to hang out, participate, and watch my word count advance along the chart (I'm a stats fan, I must admit).
So, I hope you all enjoyed keeping up with me this year, and I hope you'll be back again next year for another fresh new roster of books, including a second draft of my first ever official NaNoWriMo November project, which was massively overhauled, and what I believe is a fourth or fifth draft — I've lost count — of the first-ever book I attempted to write (it was terrible, far too many untied plot threads) back some seven years ago which topped out at a mere 16,000 words.
Merry Christmas to everyone — even those who celebrate in January, being as I won't get around to it then — and Happy Thanksgiving to all my American readers, look for the next post on January 1.

R.A. Millet