"PerNoWriMo" 2: The Winter Belongs To The Night · 2:11pm Dec 3rd, 2023
As the winter solstice is less than three weeks away, I ponder the significance of Nightmare Moon ushering in a new Ice Age.
Anyway, so how did I do last month? See for yourself:
81,149 words
Blog Number 240: "Your Solstice is Mine!" Edition
Much as I've seen "The Cutie Re-Mark" and its depiction of Nightmare's reign as a largely cosmetic tyranny, I'm still inclined to think that was, like, early days, and the true disaster's pretty much bound to befall ponydom sooner or later. And befall HARD.
Even if unicorns and earth ponies devised a way to grow food in the moonlight, what about other issues? Temperature, nocturnal predators, getting those new crops to scale before a famine kicks in, the wholesale loss of natural habitat, and the sunglasses industry? Who's paying for all the extra electricity they'll need to generate? Won't it play havoc with Circadian rhythms: this is like jet lag on a national scale? And the town's sundial will be useless!
In other news, Mr Burns okays Nightmare Moon's induction to the Republican Party.
For fulfilling Man's desire to destroy the sun.
Combine that with the incidental fact that the second solstice - the longest night of the year - occurs in winter, and I'm inclined to believe Nightmare Moon would forget the moral logistics of the economy and just straight-up coat the land in ice to reflect the beauty of the stars in the sky. What self-respecting tyrant would miss the chance for a little national redecorating?
Also, because winter's got the best holiday. Hearth's Warming Eve will now be renamed "Give Luna Presents Nightmare Moon Her Tribute Or She'll Prank You with Tibbles Cast Your Family into the Unforgiving Darkness" Day.
Sorry, Night. My bad. All hail the Night!
By leaps and bounds the best part of "A Hearth's Warming Tail".
Anyway, as to the goal I set myself last month.
One month. 60,000 words. Something published before it ends.
Check and check. ✅✅
Look, I even did my own cover art! 
Made from drool and crayons to perfectly capture the earth pony mouth-drawing aesthetic!
...don't, don't judge... 
Anyway...
While I'm disappointed the second half of the month proved slower than the first (I'm not kidding when I said Till Death Do Us Party was a mad rush to meet the deadline), and that the record set in November 2020 still remains unmatched, I'm at least confident I can go ahead at a good pace now. Three fics in a month is great, and I'm at least mostly convinced I can get one a month from this point on, barring later issues*.
* Sadly, I still am not confident enough to shake off all the pessimism. Until I get evidence to the contrary over the next few months, I suspect something's still likely to throw me off my game again.
In short, despite a few apprehensions, morale is definitely up! And I intend to make the most of it.
Tired, but determined.
Speaking of which...
"Thou shalt have no peace."
As for this month's plans, I've got a leftover project from last month I want to tackle first. More to the seasonal point, I'm also aiming to get a Christmas/Hearth's Warming fic out and about, though as of yet I've no firm plans what it'll be. Not a Jinglemas fic: I find the format too limiting*.
* Partly because I don't work as well under very tight restrictions, and partly because my complicated pick-and-mix attitude towards post-S4 canon is likely to drive too many people crazy.
That said, I love the spirit of the collaboration. Consider it support from the sidelines.
Everyone knows princesses are good at everything, including cheerleading.
In the meantime, work keeps me busy and the domestic shakeup I mentioned continues slowly yet with a lot less stress than I'd expected. On the negative side, none of this is going to help me much this month, and I doubt I can hit the highs of November. That's a tall order.
Still, we'll see what we can do. Otherwise, just waiting to see how the Imposing Sovereigns results go.
On that note, I want to correct something I said in my first 2023 PerNoWriMo blog entry:
Also, got my eye on FanOfMostEverything's Imposing Sovereigns contest, so fingers crossed I'll get something ready for that. I missed out last year. I don't want to miss another year.
Correction is: I mucked up remembering. There was no contest in 2022 (i.e. last year) to miss out on, and I definitely took part in the 2021 contest because I got three fics out of it. What actually happened was that I missed the second Imposing Sovereigns contest, back in 2019 (which was a terrible year for me generally). Somehow, I garbled all this into "I missed out in 2022" and, yeah, you couldn't use my memory for anything better than a whale net, the holes are that big.
So, back to the present...
Likely to be a while before we get any verdicts, and in any case I'm trying not to let it distract me, especially in the event I don't do as well as I'd hoped. Thing is to keep moving forward.
I can easily imagine Photo Finish saying something like this.
So yeah, I think that just about covers it. Nice thing was finding I could get a decent amount of blog chatter going last month even alongside everything else. Maybe I'll try something similar this month too. A lot of ideas in my head at the mo.
Till next time, then! Impossible Numbers, out.
It's a scientific fact that you can never have enough Luna.
PREVIOUS PERNOWRIMO POSTS
2023
<<< "PerNoWriMo" 2: Success Success Success!
<<< "PerNoWriMo" 2: Success Success!
<<< "PerNoWriMo" 2: Success!
<<< "PerNoWriMo" 2: Cover Art, and Why I Hate Doing It
<<< "PerNoWriMo" 2: Heaven and Hell to Pay! On the Control Freak Work Ethic, Friendly Bullies, Helluva Boss, and a Deal with the Disney
<<< "PerNoWriMo" 2: A Force for Good? On Pony Comics, Academic *itches (Take Your Pick), and Mort
<<< "PerNoWriMo" 2: Redemption
2021
<<< "PerNoWriMo": Failure
<<< "PerNoWriMo": Meet the Impo
<<< "PerNoWriMo": Report from the Halfway Mark
<<< "PerNoWriMo": A Bit of News for Imposing Sovereigns Contestants
<<< "PerNoWriMo": My First Success is a Lemon!
<<< "PerNoWriMo": A Luckless Lapse
<<< "PerNoWriMo": Personal Novel Writing Month
