NaNoWriMo Week 4: The Wrap-Up!

November is officially OVER and that means NaNoWriMo has come to a close. It also means I just completed my last “foundations” class for aerial fabrics. Gotta say, I’m more happy about one of those things ending than the other, ahhhhhhh.

For those of you who have been following along, you know that “Space Circus” was the project I was working on for NaNoWriMo this year, and if you know that much, you also probably saw this coming: I didn’t get it written. Like, at all. I busted out about ten thousand words in the first few days of November and then got frustrated because they’re not just not good, they’re not usable. As I talked about in my last post, I spent Thanksgiving weekend figuring out an entirely new direction for the story and outlining that. The problem is, is that direction is so different than my original plan, I’m going through a little bit of a mourning process. Some of the key elements — the “darlings,” if you will — need to get cut in order for me to reach the story’s full potential. And, well, I just need a little time.

I did, however, get an entire other piece of short fiction drafted, revised, polished, and submitted during the month of November. So…producing one story while procrastinating on another looks like a technique that works pretty well for me.

As for the aerial foundations classes I started taking in order to research for Space Circus…they’re done! And it turns out I love aerial silks so much, I’m planning on continuing on to the next level up in January! On our last day we reviewed all of the things we’d previously learned, plus a new climb called “The Russian.” You can see both climbs in the videos below. The first is my Basic Climb, much improved, and the second is my Russian Climb, which we learned on the last day, and requires me to wrap my foot “like a burrito” each time I move up, and then rewrap into a Basic Climb in order to slide down. Whew!

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bq5dwkqnw5R/

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bq5go16H7u8/

The header image for this post is of me and the aerial class. Far left is our instructor, Mandi, who was so much fun to work with, and on the right are my new aerial-practice buddies, Gayatri and Jennifer. If you’re in the Boulder area, you can check out the studio at FrequentFlyers.org.

Next week I’ll be able to catch you up on the MANY rejections I’ve received lately, including my worst one yet. Ahahaha. It’ll be great.

Thanks for coming on this journey with me.
~Christine