November has arrived and it is time for NaNoWriMo, which means if you have an idea for a novel (or an adventure) this is your opportunity to connect with other writers and resources to help you plumb the depths of your creativity. There are writing forums, coaches, and events both virtually and in real life – meeting up with other writers and writing. That sounds counter-intuitive, but sometimes sitting in the same space with other people writing can be the motivation you need to also buckle down and write. By updating your work on the website you’ll track your word count which promotes accountability, and if you’re like me, you need help with accountability. There are several promotional options for writing software, in case you wanted to try out that word processing suite but didn’t want to pay out a lot of money to find out if it’s really what you want to use. By successfully participating in NaNoWriMo, you end up with a novel (or adventure)!

My NaNoWriMo handle is “mamaursula”, just as it is on the Paizo forums. I don’t know that I’ll make it to 50k words, but I know that have a story inside of me and it needs to get out. I have set up this year’s “novel”, so if you’re thinking about it, now’s the time to stop thinking and start writing.

Update

I would like to remind everyone that making unfounded or speculative comments about victims is not okay, that asserting your opinions do not make those opinions fact. We have come to a place in the US where people believe that their 1st Amendment Rights afford them equal time and consideration for all of their baseless and nonsensical beliefs as verifiable facts and evidence based assertions. You are free to have an opinion, but do not mistakenly believe that it makes you correct – such as the disbelief in global warming, that vaccinations cause autism, that the world is flat, that the moon landing was faked, that victims do something that causes them to be targeted thus deserving to be victimized. None of those are true. To quote a friend –

If you have an opinion that harms other people,

best to whisper it in a pillow and work on yourself and fix it. ~Tim Yang

I do want to note that there was some pretty significant backlash in the world – Weinstein was fired, Kevin Spacey’s show was cancelled, Frank Metzner’s Kickstarter closed up, Frog God Games issued an apology, Paizo is working on a code of conduct policy. These are the things that we’ve needed to happen from the beginning. As Robert Brookes says “this is just the bare minimum” and he’s right. We need to hold one another accountable. If your friends can’t handle their alcohol, then you need to find a way to help them, because they are a danger to themselves and others. If you can’t handle your substances, then you need to be responsible and not use them. Being drunk is never an acceptable excuse.

I blocked several people on social media these past 2 weeks, I’ve about reached the end of my rope. Myself and others need everyone to pick up the slack, we can’t keep fighting this fight alone. Thank you to those who checked on me to make sure I was doing okay, it’s been beyond rough and I confess, I’ve about lost my faith in the industry. I have considered walking away and I will probably continue to consider it. I do have a blog in the hopper for you all in 2 weeks, we’ll see what happens after that. Until then, I wish you the very best.