24: October 2025 Writing Update

Renee Ella
Nov 3, 2025
4 min read

Updated: Nov 3, 2025

I set myself what I thought was a challenging but achievable goal for October: write six story steps and reach the 75% mark of my first draft.

It was a hard writing month to begin with. I’d lost momentum after overcommitting — six story steps, building Renee Ella, and trying to do all the things — when really, all I needed was to slow down and listen to my intuition again.

So I didn't hit my goal... and I'm okay with this because I had other wonderful wins from this month and I know this won't stop me from holding my first draft in my hands by 31DEC25!

Renee Ella writing and mindset coach completing a beta read on her kindle outside with her german shepherd sitting on the grass in front of her

I’m so proud of how far I’ve come and how the story has started to lead me.

During one of my community writing sprints, I had a completely unexpected revelation: I needed to kill off a certain character. It wasn’t something I planned—it was pure intuition. My logical brain was saying no, because I had just started to really grow to like this character, but something deeper whispered yes… and I followed it. In that instant, everything clicked and the writing truly flowed on its own from there.

Writing is funny like that. Sometimes an idea just drops in out of nowhere and you know it’s right, even if it breaks your heart a little.

Other Wins from October

This month, I also found a content style on Instagram that feels so aligned after lots of experimenting and I had a massive revelation about how I want to help authors:

The Universe dropped the idea of offering professional beta reading! I am so excited to build this out and see where it takes me.

October wasn’t perfect, but it was beautiful, revealing, and inspired and for that, I’m so grateful.

Writing Progress

Current Project: Project Valourwood

Draft: First Draft

Word Count: 128,291

Percentage Complete: 66%

Favourite Scene Written: I don’t want to spoil anything, but the moment I realised a certain character had to die — and watched the story effortlessly domino from there — was pure magic.

Song / Playlist of the Month: LOTR ambience videos on YouTube. Four hours long. No ads. Pure writing vibes.

Reflecting on Last Month’s Goals

Participate in a 30K words in 30 days challenge

❌ Missed — it was a rocky writing month!

Dedicate Wednesdays and Thursdays strictly to writing

❌ Didn’t quite happen. My writing ended up flowing whenever it wanted to.

Complete Pinch Point 5: Midpoint / Split Desire

✅ Achieved — and possibly one of my favourite story steps so far!

Complete Pinch Point 6: Situation Desperate to Surrender

❌ Did not achieve.

Beta read a friend’s book

✅ Achieved — and it inspired me to start offering professional beta reading in 2026!

What went well: I truly leaned into writing from intuition this month rather than a plan and it made all the difference.

What didn’t go as planned: I expected to have six story steps finished this month and only managed three.

Biggest lesson learned: When I trust my intuition, things flow. When I over-plan, they stall.

Creative Lessons & Takeaways

One of the lessons I want to touch on in this writing update is consistency really is everything.

When I write a little each day, my momentum carries me forward. But when I take days off, I lose rhythm. I forget where I was up to and spend half my session trying to reorient myself.

Beta reading this month also gave me a whole new perspective. Because I wasn’t emotionally attached to that story, I could see structure and pacing so clearly and it helped me look at my own writing with more objectivity and curiosity.

But my biggest creative lesson? My intuition writes the best story of all.

When I let my story lead the way and stop trying to control the outcome it all flows so much easier and truly better than I could have imagined.

What I learned this month: How it truly feels to trust my story’s direction, even when it surprises me.

What inspired me: My virtual writing sprints — especially the first one in October, where that game-changing idea first landed.

Next Month’s Goals

Draft Target: Complete 6 Story Steps (84% of first draft). Keep it simple — six story steps, no extra projects, no overwhelm. Five days per story step.

For You, Dear Writer

Learn to listen to—and trust—your intuition.

It truly is your greatest creative power.

Your intuition is your magic. It’s always guiding you toward the next right step, even when it doesn’t make sense. The more you create from that place, the more you write and decide and dream intuitively and the more aligned your story (and your path as an author) feels.