This October I’ve spent revising an old work from before Naughty List, Wandering Off the Path. When I was submitting it last year I thought it was fantastic and I was convinced it would be my first published work, but all I received was rejections.  I was devastated, especially as my first try, but it was necessary. I was lucky enough to get a lot of great comments, loving my voice, and what concerns the editors had.

Last September I was all ready to do another revision when I got the idea for Naughty List and was taken far off the path of this story.  First I was bogged down with edits and revisions, and then promo and an urge to write the rest of the Naughty Holiday List series (I had intended them to come out by each holiday at first, Midnight Mirage a month after Naughty List, Heart’s Ultimatum a month after that, but I realized now that is too quick a pace for me to write quality work).

Now with two of the books out, Naughty List and Midnight Mirage, Heart’s Ultimatum in the pipeline and Amy’s story brewing, I thought this was a perfect time to revisit Wandering.

Immersed in the edits, I’ve realized two things. One, I love this story. It’s a historical and I love historicals. Historicals were the first romance novels I read and tried to write. I hope to get back to those roots some more in the future (ideas are brewing ;D). And Two, I’ve learned a lot over the last year. All the comments the editors wrote in their rejections now all make sense, and I agree.

As I read through it I see all the areas I made mistakes, newbie mistakes. Like the line of head-hopping, or Wolf’s back story, which now I realize doesn’t fit his character. It’s a classic story of a new writer trying to steer the character in a certain direction. As I read it now it sounds so false. It’s why all the editors said they couldn’t get a grip on Wolf’s motivations.

But all these things are nuances I would never have picked up before. It’s only come with time and experience. I still have much to learn, but it’s nice to see how much I’ve learned in a year.

I’m hoping to finish revisions on Wandering by the weekend. And then on to Nanowrimo…I can’t wait.

Nanowrimo starts in almost exactly two weeks and I’m already excited. My muse is just as thrilled, and she’s been torturing me all month long. New ideas are coming fast and crazy. But before the nanowrimo craziness starts I need to do a bunch of nanowrimo prep.

For most people Nanowrimo prep includes character charts, outlines, research and plotting, I have even more prep I need to do before this crazy event kicks off and takes over the next month.

Eliminate projects. Right now I have about six projects screaming in my head wanting some attention. But to get the most out of Nano and to get a few completed works I need to limit the number of projects.  Since I write mainly shorter works, I don’t expect to only work on one project for 50k words, but I do want to work on completing works, not just hacking away at ideas. So I want to limit my choices to three or less projects to consider part of the Nano craziness.

Finish world building and write character profiles. Since more than likely my new fantasy idea and my expanded femdom short are two of the projects I want to work on, I need to finish my character profiles and world building for those two works.

Finish revising Wandering. I'm almost half way done revising Wandering, and I'd love to finish it by the end of the month and have it sent off to a publisher. It will certainly make the wait easier during Nano wrim

Get blogs ready and posted. I have a few blogging a promo obligations in November, but to not split my focus during Nano, I’m going to try and get those put together and scheduled in October so I wouldn’t have to worry about it, come next month.

Finish cleaning up my office. For the last year plus my office has been a mess because I’ve been using that room to house everything not kitten approved. But now that the kittens are older, and it’s just damn time, I want to clean out my office so I can use it to focus during nano. I dropped off two large bags at good will last week, did some organizing and threw out a bunch of stuff. It’s not completely done, but it’s come a long way.

Clean up my inbox (as much as possible). My email inbox is kind of a monster, stealing time like a thief in the night. While I don’t know that I’ll ever be able to get my inbox down to nothing, I’m going to try and clean it up as much as possible, so I can ignore it and not think about it in November, besides essential business emails. Amazingly, every year, it seems like the amount emails I get decreases during November. Wonder why that is :D

Do a deep clean of my home. I’m not going to want to clean the house during nano (though I never really want to clean the house, hence how long the office above as been a problem). While little areas of cleaning will have to be done (like laundry and dishes) a good thorough cleaning now will mean less work during November.

Go shopping. Since I’ll want to spend time writing instead of shopping, I want to make sure and refresh all the essentials now, such as cat food, pastas, frozen foods and canned soups. Unlike other Nanos I’m in the heart of the Romance Biggest Winner weight loss competition this year, so I’ll still have to go to the store regularly for produce, but if I stock up on the other stuff now it should make those trips faster.

Clean up the most I can at the EDJ. Last year nano was really spoiled by all my commitments at my evil day job (combined with edits for my December release for Naughty List). Last year I’d just gotten the job in October, and didn’t have the chance to clean up all the problems lurking for the end of the year. But this year that’s not true. While my job does have a lot of commitments towards the end of the year, there’s nothing to say that I can’t star t cleaning up some of that now. I have meetings scheduled for the last week of October to clear up a few things, and I’m making progress. Will I fix every issue, of course not, but everyone I do will make it that much easier for me to leave on time and write during my lunch breaks uninterrupted.

Get the cats a vet appointment. Something that needs to be done before the end of November for the rabies shots to be good, might as well do it in October to have more Nanowrimo time.

Spackle my walls. I want to get someone in to paint my hallway (I’m hoping during November when I’m taking time off to write) so I want to  make sure everything is spackled and ready to go for them, so as soon as they are ready to come in I can have them show up. I definitely don’t want to spackle during Nano. I’ll be too busy writing.

Get some sleep. After nano comes, sleep will be at a premium, especially if something big happens at the EDJ or my edits come in for Heart’s Ultimatum. Now’s the time to get caught up on sleep, because who knows how much I’ll be getting in November.

So that’s my list of things I have to do before Nano. What’s on your Nanowrimo prep list?

I’ve made some progress revising Wandering. It took a little while to bite the bullet and really start revising it. I think I was a little scared it would be really bad, and I love this story so much, I don’t want to have to abandon it. But once I got over the hump (and the first crutch word filled page) it moved a lot smoother. I made it through the first chapter and I’m part way through the second. I know I have some serious revisions I need to make to the third, four, fifth and last, so I’ve definitely done the easier work so far, but still forward movement is so key, I’ll take any I can get.

An amazing idea came together for me this week. An idea I’ve been playing with for a while but just couldn’t get all the right components together. Until now. Just like Naughty List, where the idea had bounced around in my head for years before they found the right fit. Only problem it’s a fantasy romance.

Don’t get me wrong, I love fantasies. Good fantasies are amazing. But they take so much work and so much planning, which are not my forte.  But these characters are great, and I’ve always dreamed of writing something so big, and impressive as this, so I’m going to go for it.

I’ve started a world encyclopedia, and have a creation myth for my world all put together. The pieces are coming together, slowly. And that’s what I need to remember about this particular WIP. This one is not a race. I can write contemporaries fast (very minimal world building, once the idea comes I can just write) but I can’t create a whole world fast. It took billions of years to create the earth. I can’t expect to do it in a week.  

So I’ll be working on my fantasy, here and there, and see how it goes. But I’ll continue on my same path with my other stories. And I’ll probably ignore it during November.  Less than four weeks to Nanowrimo. I can hardly wait.