[Placeholder] (Complete) NaNoWriMo 2016

Running in Place

The Muse walked in from the story fog and found the Writer sitting alone at her desk and staring at the computer without typing. The Muse took a seat in her comfy chair, pulling out her tablet out from between the cushions and settling into a companionable silence.

"Someone randomly stopped by my memorial post for Kielle today." Said the Writer after a bit. "It's been eleven years since she passed and it's still weird to think about her as being gone. She was so central to my online life back in college– I mean she's the one that really encouraged me to keep writing fan fiction in the first place. Even when I was really bad at it."

"You were pretty bad," The Muse agreed, thinking fondly back to all the crazy X-men fanfics.

"I don't think I'd be here still flailing away if it hadn't been for her." The Writer looked over at the piles of other unfinished stories that were on the floor next to the desk. "But it's been eleven years and eleven plus NaNo's and I still don't really have anything to show her for it."

"Except for all the fan fiction," the Muse pointed out dryly. "Look, if it bothers you that much, why don't you just make working on your writing a priority outside of November?"

"Because I have too many priorities already!" The Writer grumbled. "Plus I feel like I'm spending a crazy amount of time writing this month and I'm still not getting anything done." She glared at the half-formed story notes.

"To be fair, MuseFic'ing does tend to cut down on the actual word count a bit." The Muse mused. "But look, this whole mess still counts as a book, right? Even if we only end the month with a rough draft of a novella, we'll end up with a story about the story... and by NaNo rules that's still a thing."

"It's not a real novel though," said the Writer.

"Technicalities," said the Muse and summoned up a television, some ice cream, and a floofy blanket so they could both crash on the couch and watch Pixar movies. "Now come over here and give your brain a rest. We'll do words tomorrow when you aren't so gloomy."

And they did.