It’s autumn in New England, and that means it’s time to prep and write a novel.

For years I participated in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), where a crazy person (me) tries to write a 50,000-word novel in November.

November.

The beginning of the holiday craziness, when you’re guaranteed to lose days to cleaning, shopping, cooking, and guests.

I tried for several years to write all those words and won one year. I quit after my last try, when some guy started talking dirty to me in the chats. It was absolutely exhausting to fend off some asshole when all I wanted to do was write and talk about writing. That, on top of the organization’s collapse, made it easy to walk away.

But fall still means writing to me, and fortunately several organizations have picked up the banner for a fall writing challenge.

This year I’m joining Novel November at ProWritingAid, where I’ve been a Premium subscriber for several years. It’s their second year hosting, and it’s free to join. October is prep month, and tomorrow (October 1) is the kickoff. I’m attending a presentation by Jessica Brody on how to develop an idea that can carry you through a month of writing.

That means I need an idea!

I’ve got several unfinished manuscripts, but I want something fresh to get me excited about writing again. Free-writing and brainstorming it is. I spent about an hour at it this morning, and here’s what surfaced:

1. I like a good mystery. I recently read The Waiting and The God of the Woods and loved both.
2. But I also love cozy. Yes, the world is a little too much, and there’s a reason Ted Lasso is so loved. Kindness and hope speak to me.
3. No romance. I read one of those pumpkin-coffee-library romances this past weekend. I like all those things, but I wanted more story than the HEA: less misunderstanding that a simple conversation could clear up, and more tension, suspense, and mystery.
4. No hard science fiction and no fantasy. I love both. I read Tolkien at twelve and have been an elf-and-magic-and-swords fan ever since, but I’m maxed out on fantasy for now. Also, cozy fantasy has been done so much. I’m not up to writing hard SF right now but cozy in space could be fun.
5. The setting has to matter. It needs to be so relevant that the story couldn’t happen anywhere else. That pumpkin library story could have been set in New England, the Pacific Northwest, or England. It was actually set in Ireland, and I didn’t make that connection for the longest time. I don’t want a setting that’s interchangeable like that.
6. The story has to be something I want to read.
7. I need to have fun writing.
8. A messy zero draft is required.
9. It needs to be woman-centric.

That’s a lot, and it still isn’t a story.

Here’s the kernel of my plot: a woman in mining tech has been out on a mission for months, and she’s had a nasty disagreement with her colleague. They come back to a station for a brief shore leave before shipping out again. She’s looking forward to seeing her family.

Then the problems begin. She hasn’t been paid because her colleague filed a complaint against her. Her family isn’t on the station, and she doesn’t know why. Without money, the only place she can bunk is with the disagreeable colleague. Everyone else on the station has gone a little crazy for shore leave, and all she needs is a quiet place to figure this out.

Yes, it’s a space station, but think soft sci-fi: people and mystery first, tech second. I’m hoping the cozy comes from the community on the station and the kindness she finds there.

That’s all I’ve got. I’ll keep brainstorming as the month goes on, and I’ll report back after Jessica Brody’s presentation.

Are you doing a fall writing challenge this year? Tell me in the comments!