Mills & Boon Challenge 2026

Step 1: crowdsource a plot. Step 2: write 70k in 50 days. Step 3: find a way to edit it. Step 4: Mills & Boon open submissions. What could possibly go wrong?

[romancenovelchallenger]

a brief organisational list of tags, key posts, etc.

The plotting

the original polls that determined plot and characters (including a brief explanation of what the hell I'm doing)

further crowdsourcing: polls and suggestions

dramatis personae

questions to the peanut gallery

The writing

word count updates

bingo card updates (for suggestions I want to include)

excerpts

commentary and asides

Editing and publication submissions

TBD

Miscellaneous

reviews of existing mills & boon novels

"state of the author" updates

Asks, submissions, replies, etc. are always welcome, and will be bunched together under #asked and answered

[romancenovelchallenger]

in case anyone's wondering, i'm not dead, i'm just having an unexpectedly rough time that hasn't left much time for editing

i will get there eventually! i swear!

(i'm really mad this has derailed the whole "write a book as fast as i can" concept of this project, but. listen. we do what we can.)

[romancenovelchallenger]

side note to the "it is now time to focus on an academic essay" point: the wires in my brain have got thoroughly crossed and now i'm like SO LUDDITE ROMANCE NOVEL EH?

someone stop me before i start using regency romances as a trojan horse to trick people into learning about the political aims of 1810s labour activism

[romancenovelchallenger]

Final (first draft) stats!

so last night I finished the first rough draft of Chivalrous Surgeon for the Sensible Housemaid (idk i'm still on the fence about that title)

here's some vital statistics:

TOTAL WRITING DAYS: 49 (plus 7 days where I didn't write for various reasons ranging from "was 100 miles from my computer doing Quaker things" to "had an essay due" to "just didn't feel up to it")

TOTAL WORD COUNT: 87,642 (a mere 12,642 words above the maximum for submitting to Mills & Boon...)

TOTAL CHAPTERS: 19, plus an epilogue

AVERAGE DAILY WORD COUNT: 1,623 - although if you only count the days I wrote something, that goes up to 1,865

BEST DAILY WORD COUNT: 4,147 words in one night last night. I also had 8 other days where I wrote >2,000 words. (on the other hand, there was one day I only wrote 631 words)

CUPS OF TEA DRUNK: countless

under the cut are some graphs (no alt text bc i have no clue how to describe them concisely honestly)

[romancenovelchallenger]

anyway I think the next steps are:

take a three-day nap (not really but i DO need to rest a bit)

ask my partner to read the horribly messy first draft while i'm resting from it (i think he will be good at suggesting structural fixes and also he's stuck with me so i am less ashamed to show him my Most Garbage Work)

focus on my studying until my essay is due (end of April). i had hoped that this was when i would put the book out to betas but haha i forgot that first drafts are Too Garbage For Beta Readers

late april/early may: structural edits and pull this into a readable form

mid-may: put out to beta readers, draft a cover letter/precis

june is for editing

july is for polishing everything up and submitting it

we aren't done yet but we're maybe just gonna. rest here a sec.

[romancenovelchallenger]

Final (first draft) stats!

so last night I finished the first rough draft of Chivalrous Surgeon for the Sensible Housemaid (idk i'm still on the fence about that title)

here's some vital statistics:

TOTAL WRITING DAYS: 49 (plus 7 days where I didn't write for various reasons ranging from "was 100 miles from my computer doing Quaker things" to "had an essay due" to "just didn't feel up to it")

TOTAL WORD COUNT: 87,642 (a mere 12,642 words above the maximum for submitting to Mills & Boon...)

TOTAL CHAPTERS: 19, plus an epilogue

AVERAGE DAILY WORD COUNT: 1,623 - although if you only count the days I wrote something, that goes up to 1,865

BEST DAILY WORD COUNT: 4,147 words in one night last night. I also had 8 other days where I wrote >2,000 words. (on the other hand, there was one day I only wrote 631 words)

CUPS OF TEA DRUNK: countless

under the cut are some graphs (no alt text bc i have no clue how to describe them concisely honestly)

[romancenovelchallenger]

87,642 words

it is fucking DONE!!!!!

[romancenovelchallenger]

please GOD it is ONE IN THE MORNING

[romancenovelchallenger]

FATE AND GOOGLE DOCS ARE AGAINST ME

[romancenovelchallenger]

i do feel like i have slightly over-concentrated the gay content into like half a page here,,,,

[romancenovelchallenger]

the only thing worse than trying to keep going with a sex scene when you're tired and burned out is trying to pick back up on a sex scene when you're tired and burned out

[romancenovelchallenger]

like also idk about you but some days it's just really hard to write smut that doesn't feel Exactly Like Every Smutty Scene You Have Ever Written, ykwim?

(i mean not exactly because penises feature a lot less in about half of the smut i write. but in general. there are certain metaphors and turns of phrase that are really hard not to fall back on.)

[romancenovelchallenger]

me @ me, constantly

[romancenovelchallenger]

the only thing worse than trying to keep going with a sex scene when you're tired and burned out is trying to pick back up on a sex scene when you're tired and burned out

[romancenovelchallenger]

like also idk about you but some days it's just really hard to write smut that doesn't feel Exactly Like Every Smutty Scene You Have Ever Written, ykwim?

(i mean not exactly because penises feature a lot less in about half of the smut i write. but in general. there are certain metaphors and turns of phrase that are really hard not to fall back on.)

[romancenovelchallenger]

the only thing worse than trying to keep going with a sex scene when you're tired and burned out is trying to pick back up on a sex scene when you're tired and burned out

[romancenovelchallenger]

yeah sadly i think i have to call it for tonight

(if the chart looks different, it's because I submitted my essay three days early so they're no longer non-writing days)

i swear to GOD i am finishing this fucking draft tomorrow

2,993 words today (new personal best), 83,495 in total.

[romancenovelchallenger]

also i DO feel like the pacing of this whole story is kinda uhhhh

off?

in that i am now 6,313 words past the main resolution of the Big External Conflict, and still going. so it's now looking like at least 10% of the book is essentially epilogue.

hhhhhhh i think this might be garbage lads

[romancenovelchallenger]

every night this week i have hit a point where i'm like "aw MAN there is STILL MORE OF THIS STORY" and it makes me so depressed i have to pack up and go to bed

well

might be hitting that point right now.

why do endings take so loooooooong

[romancenovelchallenger]

it's 11:30pm and i should probably stop writing at some point and focus on my essay reading. but. like. we are so solidly into the "wrapping it up" part of the story (this is basically an epilogue tbh) that i keep going "i can totally finish this tonight if i just Keep Writing"

[romancenovelchallenger]

1934 words today, for a total of 80,502 words

continuing to hope i will finish this thing either tomorrow or Thursday. but right now i am, with the best will in the world, knackered.