It’s fall, and for a good portion of writers who grew up with the NaNoWriMo novel writing challenge, creativity is in the air. And to be honest, I’ve never been able to keep up a daily writing habit without a good, solid deadline. At this point I’ve been writing for decades, but it doesn’t matter – novel, article, conference paper, whatever – I do my best writing with a deadline on the horizon. That’s why I decided to draft the sequel to Breaking the Silence next month as part of Rogue’s Amazing Word Rush (RAWR)!

Prepping for RAWR

I’ve been preparing to write Taming the Beast for awhile now. I even started drafting it a couple of different times: I first attempted it last fall after I finished the rewrite of Breaking the Silence, but I found I couldn’t focus on this new draft while revising and editing Breaking the Silence so I shelved the sequel while I prepared the first book for submission. I tried again in January once I got the first book of my desk, and this time I tried making a daily fiction writing habit and drafting Taming the Beast “in the background” while I focused on some academic publications. I wrote about it here with such optimism! Unfortunately, that was an epic fail. So I made peace with working on one thing at a time, and if I don’t touch fiction for eight months out of the year, that’s probably okay! I’m still writing.

I started preparing for RAWR in earnest about two weeks ago when I researched the period when the book takes place, 879-881. It turns out that is one of the least-known three-year spans in the history of Carolingian Francia, which makes research difficult, but on the plus side, it allows me a lot of room for creative license. I think having a chance to focus on the research and outline a plot that makes sense, and then committing to drafting that plot, will be much more successful than trying to chip away at a project bit by bit while my mind is focused on other things (in another time period!)

I also participated in my first RAWR event of the season yesterday, a co-working session where participants compiled writing journals that will see us through the event. The best thing about these journals, and prepping for the challenge in general, is that it’s not all writing. Sure, there’s a project overview, synopsis, themes, outline, and character sketches in there, but there’s also gratitude and writerly wellness, and my favorite, writing tethers, or sensory cues that help you stay connected to your manuscript when you have to step away. I haven’t picked my tethers for this project yet, but I still have a couple of days. One of them will be a candle, but I haven’t decided what scent yet.

What I’m Writing

Starting Wednesday, I will be writing a first draft of Taming the Beast, once and for all!

I’m also working on revising my book about the flesh of Christ in Merovingian Gaul, chapter by chapter. At some point during the summer, I finished the final first draft of the final chapter, and have since started revising the other chapters based on feedback from colleagues. I’m almost finished with the first chapter. With any luck, the manuscript will be in good enough shape for me to submit a proposal to an academic publisher in the spring!

What I’m Reading

I’m halfway through Crooked Kingdom, sequel to Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo. And it is excellent. I really liked Six of Crows, especially the characters, but I think I like this one better, which usually isn’t the case for a sequel. It’s a completely different type of plot and I find myself basking in the character development of these people I already got to know in the first book and am now coming to know even more. Huge goals and inspiration for writing a sequel right now!

I’m also about to start a Beowulf reread now that I got my hands on this graphic novel version from the school library. I haven’t read Beowulf since college (that is actually my college copy with my notes in it), and even though it isn’t the exact setting of my late-Carolingian series, it is close enough to the medieval/martial/masculine vibe to get into the period for writing historical fiction.

Now to finish my project journal and take the plunge into writing this sequel. I will update at the end of October.