Just like last year, so many special, happy moments and adventures happened in November that I just had to recap it!

NaNoWriMo

Like every year, I “unofficially” participate in National Novel Writing Month in November.

I say unofficially because the objective of NaNo is to write 50,000 words in your novel in a month, which is not my goal in November. During November, I am almost always still in the outlining phase of my current project and not ready to actually write yet—I prefer drafting during one of the Camp NaNos in April or July—so that’s why I say I “unofficially” participate.

So I’m still working on my novel during November and have a goal I’m shooting for, it’s just not the classic write-50k-words goal that most everyone has.

I believe NaNoWriMo’s term for unorthodox participants like me is “NaNo Rebel”. Noice!

So this month, I worked on my scene outline for my historical novel Warfare. My goal was 67 scenes by the end of December (so 67 scenes over two months), and I already had nine of those scenes outlined, so my November goal was really just to outline one scene a day.

You can read more about my historical novel Warfare on my author blog here!

I had a really fun time getting lost in my story world again. Not a few minutes after sitting down to work on it for the first time this month, I was filled with this strange sense of joyful affirmation in which I absolutely knew (again; I had no doubt before) that writing is what I’m called to do.

I document my writing progress on my Discord server and wrote:

(my “OMG” stands for “oh my gosh”, not the other one, btw)

There were lots of fun moments when working on the scene outline. I kind of want to share snippets but there’s way too many I want to share and this post will already end up long so I think I’ll just hold off for now. But if you’re interested, I can make another post about it.

By the 14th, my goal was getting hard to keep up with, not because of my motivation (I have extreme self-motivation) but because of my health.

I was definitely not reaching my goal of outlining one scene a day; not just because of my health, but also because there is a lot that goes into each scene. Sometimes I couldn’t get an entire scene with all of its many elements and plot complications outlined in one night.

By November 14th, I had managed to outline only eight scenes. While nowhere near my original goal, considering all the plot complications (thanks to my writing mentor for answering my questions) and enormity of the scenes and my iffy health, I’m really proud of myself. It took A LOT of effort to write even though I wasn’t feeling well.

(And just because I know some of you have expressed concern about this before, I’m not hurting my health further by pushing myself; ALL of my doctors are recommending that I push myself like this in order to get better. So I’m okay! :))

ANYWAY… what is this chaotic rant. The point is, I had a really good time getting lost in Warfare again—doing what I’m called to do again—and it made for some really special moments in November.

November 14th was the last time I worked on my scene outline because then we had…

November Vaca

VACATION!

With like, three days’ notice, we decided to go on a family vacation to the beach.

I’m a big sucker for keeping memories so I journaled about every single day so I wouldn’t forget it. :’)

Here’s a photo dump!

(I’m not watermarking them for the sake of time, but rest assured I do own the copyrights for every one and if you steal them… just ask my many enemies how sorry you’ll be. >:D)

Some notable moments include:

  • Watching my brother play Breath of the Wild every night
  • Drinking mochas every morning
  • Burying my brother in the sand
  • SO MUCH LAUGHTER AND HUMOR AND INSIDE JOKES THE ENTIRE TIME
  • Some old man flirted with me and my sister… r u n
  • Cooking and eating ramen noodles for myself, much to my family’s chagrin
  • Cutting my foot on a seashell… lots of blood and throbbing and and limping down the beach trying to get back to the condo but then I cleaned it and the cut was so small it was laughable
  • Waiting half an hour for a trolley at the bus stop, only to have it completely pass by us, then waiting another half hour for the next one, only to be denied access because we didn’t have masks :’)

Thanksgiving

A few days after we got home from the six-day beach vacation, it was Thanksgiving.

I gave myself a cute Thanksgiving hairstyle that looks nowhere near the Pinterest photo I found for it and makes me look ten years old:

Then I made a cute DIY Thanksgiving centerpiece for the table. RIP to the squirrels from whom I stole 20 acorns for it:

Kinda cute if I do say so myself. The fall-scented candle and gourds were from Walmart and the leaves and acorns were from my backyard. You should’ve seen me obsessively searching the grass for the acorns.

Then I ate three different kinds of pie like a responsible human being.

Later that day we went to Walgreens to get ice cream to top our pies off with. Shoutout to my brother for swinging the plastic bag back and forth which caused the ice cream carton to literally yeet out the bottom of it.

We were all like:

Black Friday Shopping

Thanksgiving night I had the brilliant idea of having a frantic adventure at the mall on Black Friday. It wasn’t as crazy as I thought it would be (sadly). I did get two pretzels though, and buy gifts for my mom. Shoutout to Icing for being a super cute mall store, can I get a gift card to there please?

We came home and watched The Mandalorian while I ate chocolate chip pancakes!

Family Movie Time

One of my favorite things to do is to watch movies/shows with my family. Preferably while eating. XD

This month we watched some cool stuff:

  • Hello, Dolly! (1969)
  • Titanic (ClearPlay filtered)
  • Hidden Figures
  • Robin Hood (TV series)
  • The Mandalorian
  • and some other random PureFlix movies we died laughing at because bad plot and quality

My Beautiful Homemade Mask

The picture says it all. Aren’t I just gorgeous?

I probably just gave you all blackmail to use against me when I’m a famous author but ok.

Election Night

I’m massively out of order because this was way earlier in the month, but on November 3rd I stayed up late to watch the election while eating plenty of delicious snacks and joining Discord VC with friends to stream polling sites and root for our candidate in ridiculous ways. (I stuffed a mini American flag in my hair)

I didn’t want to pull an all-nighter because I will get sick from lack of sleep so I just went to bed at like 3 AM. I know, I know, lame XD

Funny Discord Conversations

Discord in general isn’t really specific to November, but during November I’ve had some SUPER fun conversations and moments with my friends, and hilarious interactions with trolls on servers I moderate.

(Ninja_ is me)

(Madi is also me)

When I can’t get out of the house to make IRL friends, I’m really glad to live in the era of online friendships.

And I can’t WAIT to meet up with Olive one day.

Beautiful Music

If you know me, you know that music is a big part of my life! This month I listened to some amazing music:

  • Kill My Vibe by Bad Party Heroes
  • Celtic Trap on Audioblocks.com
  • Montaña by Evan Craft, Sam Rivera, & GAWVI
  • Renegade by Sam Rivera & Spencer Kane
  • Superhero by Matthew Parker
  • Showtime and Winning by Zauntee
  • Severely by Xander Sallows & Ben Lawrence
  • Sweatband by FF5
  • Put On Your Sunday Clothes by Hello, Dolly! (1969 movie soundtrack)
  • Lost Woods Trap Remix (YouTube)
  • Breath of the Wild CG5 Trap Remix (YouTube)
  • Song of Storms Trap Remix (YouTube)
  • Song of Time Trap Remix (YouTube)
  • We Three Kings and God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen by Tommee Profitt
  • We 3 Kings by Matthew Parker
  • The Very Best by Francesca Battistelli
  • Lioness by Beckah Shae

I recommend all these songs!

Other Moments

  • Adventure in the Air is officially one year old with 100 followers! Thank you all for providing me a place to share my random life adventures!
  • Making cute cartoon versions of my book characters
  • Eating lots of ramen and blue Gatorade
  • Sending a birthday package to my friend
  • Scheduling an appointment with a new healthcare professional that we think will really help me!
  • Tripping the security alarm to our house because I am clearly a success at life XD
  • I have to mention the tons of hilarious sibling inside jokes again, they’re just too good not to mention :’)

_
BAM, THAT WAS MY NOVEMBER IN A NUTSHELL. (Sorry again squirrels)

Now a lot of times I read recap posts like this and then get envious of other people’s seemingly problem-free lives, even though I know nobody’s life is perfect. So lest you think my November was all blue skies and butterflies… it wasn’t. Believe me, it wasn’t. As most of you know, I’m still dealing with health issues!

But I choose to focus on the good, and that makes me look back on November—and my life—with fondness.

How was your November? Have any plans for December? Did you know that International Ninja Day is December 5 and I will most definitely be making a post about it?

Wow this post is 1.6k. I HAVE SO MANY WORDS.

P.S. Jesus loves you!