The leaves flare gold and rust against the sharp blue sky, the days contract, the sunsets spill a watercolor wash over the horizon, and National Novel Writing Month is just around the corner. I’m still working on marginalia for the manuscript project, but hopefully drawing a close–of this phase of the project, at least. I hope to finish marginal notes by the end of the month, and then move on to illuminations.

But I’m feeling the need for a change. Time to shift gears, to adjust to the short sweet spans of winter sun and gear up for a new (old) project. This year, I’ll be doing NaNoWriMo again, but not to create new content. I’ve written six novels, and all of them could use some revision attention. So this November, I’m going to use the NaNo kick-in-the-seat-of-the-pants to revise Vessel, the novel in which my manuscript plays a central role.  This is not, strictly speaking, following the letter of the NaNo law, such as it is–I’m not writing a new story–but this is the project that needs work right now.

If you’re thinking about signing up for NaNoWriMo and would like to add me as a writing buddy, I’d love your company. I’m Emily Bee on the NaNo site and would love to connect with you there.

I’m also feeling the need for another social media break–modified a bit, this time. I don’t want to go cold-turkey, but I need to eliminate the things that really enable my frittering-away of time. My intention is to continue blogging weekly and to post occasional updates on my Facebook author page, but to avoid Twitter and personal Facebook, which I’ve discovered are my two mightiest time-sucks.

Time to curl up by the woodstove. To light candles against the long night. To dig deep, burrowing into the crunch of autumn leaves for bright shreds of inspiration. Time for the shift in the air to propel my own shifting, burrowing, deepening.

Happy autumn.