I'm Still Writing A Novel (BtB update)

It's been a while since I have put out a BtB (Beauty and the Beast) update on my blog. The last time I really said much was December 16th, 2024. Since it has been so long, let me share what has been happening behind the scenes:

In October 2024, I began scribbling ideas, notes, etc. in a notebook, planning out how I ought to begin a novel-length (by novel length, I mean 30,000-50,000 words) retelling of a classical fairytale: Beauty and the Beast.

In November, I started actually writing the beginning of my novel, which I will call BtB for short. I told myself that I would work on this project for Novel November, although I confess I did not get quite so far along as I might have wished. I think I hit about 5,000 words by the end of the month, sporadically writing here and there, but not sticking to a consistent schedule.

Let us continue on to December. December is when I finally introduced you to Corinne, one of my novel's MCs. MC stands for main character. Often, there would be just one main character in a novel, but in BtB, I kind of have two.

Corinne (Beauty) and Cassian (Beast) both play very central roles in this novel, as it is written in first person. The story swaps back and forth from Corinne's perspective to Cassian's perspective, and back again.

I ended 2024 with what I think was somewhere around 5,000 words of BtB scribbled in a big gray notebook, waiting to be revived and expanded.

In January 2025, I don't believe I touched BtB at all, and for good reason. I was hard at work readying Three Feet of Trouble for submission to a small publisher is Newfoundland. I also wrote nearly 4,000 words of a different story, Dear Kasey. I needed to write the beginning of that story before I forgot it. Dear Kasey has now been set aside in favour of BtB & other projects. I have gotten my most important ideas for Dear Kasey out on paper, making it easier to focus on BtB, my "main project."

My email subscribers may remember that sometime in January I mentioned taking a coaching call with a lovely young lady named Sarina. Here is what I shared with everyone on my email list:

"Another thing I did this month was chat over Zoom with a lovely girl who works for The Author Conservatory. I have no idea if I will ever attend this online program or not, but this girl offered to meet with me so that I could ask questions about The Author Conservatory's program. She also gave me pointers on what areas of my writing I should be focusing on right now, which was really encouraging and helpful.

This young lady, Sarina, is also one of the three girls currently hosting a challenge called 50k in 50 Days, which you can read about at the bottom of today's post."

Not long after completing this coaching call (which I really enjoyed, by the way!) I received an email inviting me to participate in a 50k in 50 Days challenge with three lovely ladies, Sarina, Julia, and Sarah, all graduates from The Author Conservatory.

Starting February 1st, I dove back in to BtB with fresh enthusiasm and motivation, excited for this 50k in 50 days challenge. The first order of business was to move the first ~5,000 words of my novel from my notebook to my computer. In the process of doing this, I revised, cut, and expanded the first bit of my novel.

I originally set out to write 1,000 words per day on my novel. Yeah...didn't exactly work out the way I had planned. A mixture of sickness/exhaustion, busyness, procrastination, and just plain forgetfulness all combined helped out with not achieving 1,000 words a day.

Fortunately, I have outside accountability to keep on writing this novel. As part of this 50k in 50 days challenge, I meet regularly with other challenge participants to chat over Zoom, and to spend one silent hour together, writing. So even if I were tempted to give up or ignore this big writing task I have created for myself, I get regular emails reminding me that another Zoom call is coming up, which encourages me to make progress. While I may not complete an entire draft of my novel by the end of this challenge, I will have made significant progress.

In addition to regular Zoom writing sessions, I also told my family that I was participating in this challenge, so I also must answer the inevitable question from them, "Did you work on your novel today?"

Well, did I?

I hate answering that I did not, so that helps me keep plugging away.

It's March now. Have I worked on my novel yet this month? Yes. Some. But then I decided to write a play.

You see, I found this writing contest looking for ten-minute long plays.

Okay, I thought, I can write one of those!

I'd never written a play before, and this contest closes at the end of the month, but I went for it anyway. I have a rough draft down. All of this is kind of a story for another day, though.

So that happened, but now I can get back to BtB, only sneaking back to the play to edit it here and there.

Oh—wait!

Somewhere in these first few days of March, I have also worked on a submission to WFNB's (Writers' Federation of New Brunswick) Sheree Fitch Prize for Teen Writers.

Umm...there's also a poetry contest that has a deadline at the end of the month.

Okay, now back to Beauty and the Beast. For a little while, at least...

Hey, if it makes you feel better, I am also trying to get together an entry to a contest that has to do with BtB. It's also due at the end of the month, so I have some serious work to do. Never fear. I have great plans for BtB this month.

In case you've somehow missed the theme running through most of this post thus far, March is PACKED with writing projects all due on or before the 31st. I've got things to do, places to be, goals to meet.

There's your update on my Beauty and the Beast project, plus some other tidbits. Before I go, let me tell you something exciting: as of this moment, BtB sits at 12,104 words. That's nearly half of the way to the end of my first draft, assuming an end goal of 30,000, and about a quarter of the way to a complete first draft, assuming an end goal of 50,000.

Thanks for taking the time to take a peek into my currently mildly chaotic world of writing for a moment.

Until next week!

Lily Page