Starting Draft 2 of Project Urban Fantasy: A Writing Update

It's been a while since I did a writing update, but that's because I haven't done much writing. I had a busy June and early July preparing for the publication of my second novel. Comes with an Attitude* is a modern Pride and Prejudice retelling about an obstinate and headstrong alt-rock singer and a proud and grumpy pop superstar.

After publication, I could finally start working on my next project: an urban fantasy novel that I started back in 2021. I've been slowly re-outlining that book, and now I'm ready to start writing and editing the second draft. I've written two blog posts about the outlining process, one covering the start of the process and the second on making a plot grid and scene outlines.

How I’m Re-Outlining My WIP

Over the years, I’ve learned (sometimes the hard way) that writing is so much easier if I have an outline. My latest writing project, a soon-to-be-published Pride and Prejudice retelling Comes with an Attitude was the easiest book I’ve ever written, and I attribute that for the large part to the extensive prepping and outlining I did before I started the first draft (granted, it did help that I was following literary genius Jane Austen’s already existing outline!).

My next writing project most likely won’t be as easy. I’m getting back to an urban fantasy novel I started in 2021. I wrote the first draft during NaNoWriMo, and even though I did have some kind of an outline, it wasn’t enough. While the first and the third acts of that book are in a tolerable shape (at least in terms of the outline and the order of the scenes), the second act is a complete mess of disconnected events and scenes. That means that before I can start the second draft, I need to sort out that mess and come up with a functioning outline.

I’m hoping that this blog post will be helpful if you (like me) are a recovering plantser who wants to improve an old project or if you’re a pantser and you want to reverse outline a project before starting the second draft.

(Disclaimer: there’s nothing wrong with not outlining a book. If you can finish a book without an outline, awesome! There’s no right or wrong way to write. I just happen to be one of those writers who works better with an outline.)

Snippets from the Life of an Author

I've been busy with the third draft of my modern Pride and Prejudice retelling. Last week, I finished the main edits, and now I'm reading the draft one more time before it goes to copy editor in May. I'm so excited to share this book with the world!

If you want to see what more I've been up to recently, check out the writing vlog below:

2026 Writing Goals

I know, I know, I’m really late in posting my writing goals! But I have already started working on them; it’s only this blog post that is late. So let’s talk about how my writing went in 2025 and what my goals are for 2026.

The Writers Not Writing: Get to Know Me

I've seen a few authortubers do the "Writers Not Writing tag" on YouTube, and I wanted to join in on the fun! Check the video below to find out what I'm doing when I'm not writing. You'll learn about my day job, reading and other hobbies, dream job as a child, and if I have any pets. As well as the answer to the age-old question: tea or coffee (hint: it's neither).

I Finished Draft 2 of Pride and Prejudice Retelling (A Writing Update)

After three months of editing and revising, I finished the second draft of my modern retelling of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. This is a nice side project while my main WIP, Project Prehistory, is resting. This week, I edited the last five scenes, and now the retelling is off to my critique partner for feedback. I should be ready to send the manuscript to beta readers in November.

If you want to see more about what I've been up to in the writing vlog below.

Reaching the Midpoint of a Pride and Prejudice Retelling: A Writing Update

I've been busy with my multiple writing projects lately. Project Prehistory is still resting after I finished the fifth draft, but I have been doing query prep, researching for agents, and drafting a query letter and synopsis. I have a query letter critique scheduled in late October, so I still have plenty of time to polish the letter before the critique.

I finished final edits to a cozy fantasy short story and sent it to a literary magazine. Unfortunately, I got an almost immediate no from the magazine. Now I have to wait for another magazine to open their submissions.

Most of my writing time I've spent editing the second draft of a modern Pride and Prejudice retelling. I reached the midpoint a couple of weeks ago, and I'm now securely in the latter half of the story. The second half needs a lot more work than the first half, but I'm slowly working through it.

You can find out more about what I've been up to in the writing vlog below.

Solo Writing Retreat / Writing Update

This week I had a fun time going on a solo writing retreat in the Finnish towns of Hämeenlinna and Tampere. I started the second draft of my Pride and Prejudice retelling that I wrote the first draft of last November. As all my other writing projects are now on hold, I decided it was the perfect time to get back to this project!

I finished the fifth draft of Project Prehistory in June, and in July I have been preparing for querying. I've read books and watched hundreds of YouTube videos on the querying process, and I've written the first drafts of both the query letter and the synopsis. I have a blog post about how I wrote my synopsis, but since I wrote the synopsis while I was working on draft three, it needs to be updated. But luckily, it seems to be mostly in order!

Editing a Cozy Fantasy Short Story and (Almost) Finishing Draft 5

I've had a productive May so far! Yesterday, I finished the first pass of draft five of Project Prehistory. I still want to read it through once more and make some minor tweaks, but it's getting ready for querying.

I also started draft two of a cozy fantasy short story that I wrote in November 2023. It's been waiting for a right moment for me to edit it, and I decided the moment was now. It's set in wintertime, which makes it bit odd text to edit at this time of the year, but the worldbuilding and the characters are so much fun. I'm really enjoying the editing process, although I've only had time to edit the first third of the text. Hopefully I can finish it in June and get it ready for submission before the fall.

Check out my most recent writing vlog below if you want to see more of what I've been up to!

Authors Are Weird (Am I?)

A couple of months ago on YouTube, I came across a fun tag with ten questions about weird habits authors and writers might have. I obviously wanted to know if my habits can be considered weird! Check the video below to find out my answers (spoiler: it seems I'm not very weird).

Short Story Submission and Writing Contest Feedback

Past few weeks have been very productive for me! First, I sent out a literary fiction short story to three literary magazines. They are my top-tier magazines that are currently open for submissions. It will take several months before I hear back from them, so now I can only wait.

In the meantime, I'm continuing on with draft five of Project Prehistory, a coming-of-age story set in a matriarchal prehistoric society. I'm doing so well that instead of the originally intended two chapters a week, I'm now editing three chapters a week. Last week, I reached and passed Chapter 20, which is the midpoint. At this speed, I should be done with the first round of edits by early June. Then I'll do another pass of the draft in case there are still some things that I've missed.

A Week in My Life: Working on Two Projects and More

Want to know what my week looks like as a self-employed indie author? I filmed a week-long vlog where I show everything I did in a week. Last week, I was working on two projects: editing the fifth draft of Project Prehistory and revising the third draft of a literary fiction short story that I plan to submit to literary magazines soon. I also entered a first page writing contest where I will get feedback on the first page of Project Prehistory, read a bunch of books (although I only finished one of them), and baked a delicious blueberry cheesecake. Check out the vlog below for more!

Desk Makeover! Setting Up a New, Functional Writing Space

If you've watched my writing vlogs, you may have noticed that I rarely work on my desk. I mostly write in the living room, and the main reason is that my office space is not ergonomic or inspiring place at all. But recently, I did a little desk makeover and upgraded my office to hopefully be a more productive and functional writing space. Check the video below to find out what I did and how I transformed the place.

Starting Draft Five of Project Prehistory

This week, I finally started the editing/revising/writing process for draft five of Project Prehistory, my prehistoric coming-of-age story. I spent January reading through draft four and marking all the sentences and words I want to change. At this point, it's mostly line edit stuff, but I do want to make a few minor additions (and hopefully also delete some things so that the word count doesn't go up). My goal is to edit two chapters a week, and at least this week I'm making great headway. You can find more about how I edited Chapter 1 in the writing vlog below. 

Writing Goals for 2025

It's almost the end of January, and it feels a bit late to do a post about my writing goals. But honestly, I've been busy making my goals a reality, so that's a win. Without further ado, let's talk about how my writing went in 2024 and talk about my goals and plans for 2025! Big things are happening and even bigger things are in store for 2026...

I Finished My Modern Retelling of Pride and Prejudice (November Writing Challenge)

And we're done! I'm done with my modern retelling of Pride and Prejudice and the November writing Challenge. I lost a little bit of steam as we got closer to the end of the month, so the final word count is a little under 56K words (55,702 to be exact).

The whole manuscript needs a lot of attention and changes in the future, but right now I'm taking a little break from writing to read two writing guides. And then it's back to Project Prehistory in early January!

If you want to see how my last week of November Writing Challenge went, you can check you the vlog below:

Hitting 50K Words (November Writing Challenge)

I had a productive week last week! I started with less than 40K words, but by the end of Saturday, I had over 50K words in my manuscript and only seven scenes remaining.

Check out last week's writing vlog below! I start writing the last third of my modern Pride and Prejudice retelling, share a book haul, and try writing in the library.

Reaching the Midpoint (November Writing Challenge)

Another productive week done! We've reached the middle of the November Writing Challenge, and I reached the midpoint of my modern retelling of Pride and Prejudice. I've written over 38K words, which means that the final manuscript will most likely be closer to 70K. I was aiming for 50K-60K, but I'm not complaining if I write more this month. 

If you're interested in seeing what I did last week, check out the writing vlog below. I'm working my way through the fun scenes in the middle of the novel, where my modern versions of Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy face similar problems as their counterparts in Austen's original two hundred years earlier.

Writing the First Third of My New Novel (November Writing Challenge)

I'm making great headway with my Pride and Prejudice Retelling! I wrote the first third of the novel in ten days, so I'm right on track in my November writing challenge. During the first full week of the challenge, I had several over 3K days. I'm slightly scared of the word count -- if I keep going like this, the final manuscript might be over 70K words!

I also got my new reading journals in the mail. I've published three new reading journals (*Amazon affiliate links). Reading Journal for Romance Readers, like the title suggests, is designed specifically for romance readers. Book Review Log is for those readers who don't want to be bogged down the goal setting and are looking for a reading journal with nothing but review spreads. And my absolute favorite and reading journal for 2025: Jane Austen Reading Journal. 2025 marks the 250th birthday of Jane Austen, and what better way to celebrate than with a reading journal with inspiring bookish quotes from Jane's novels. You can find my other reading journals here.

Check the writing vlog below if you want to know what else I did last week.

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*As an Amazon affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Starting a New Novel | Preptober Week 5 & November Writing Challenge 1

Woohoo! It's November, which means it's time to start writing my new novel, a modern retelling of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. I have tons of ideas and I'm excited (and a little nervous) to write this book.

Watch the vlog below and you'll see me finish the outline, write down some more ideas for the story, combine my outline and notes, and finally start writing. I got over 5000 words done in the first three days of November, which means I'm right on track for my 50K goal for the month.