Month: December 2009

I don’t know about you, but I’m a ridiculous overachiever.  I put way more things on my list than I can possibly do, and then stress myself out needlessly because I can’t get it all done.  Well, duh, of course I can’t get it all done!  Not with a full-time job and three monsters running around sucking out my brain cells.

Yesterday, we wrote up The Dream List of every possibly thing I’d like to get done by 4/30.  (Don’t look back, it’ll give you nightmares.)  Today, I’m going to do something hard, really hard.  It’s going to hurt.  I’m going to whine about it.  But it’s a necessity.  As with any project, we have to be able to define a successful timeline and deadline.  For that deadline to be met, one assumption that we always specify in the scope is that the required RESOURCES will be made available.

As much as I hate to admit it, I do have to sleep occasionally.  I also have to keep the monsters in clothes (you should see our laundry room), cook dinners, and keep my EDJ extremely happy, plus an endless list of household chores.  As much as I’d love to lock myself up in a writing cave until I finished everything on my list, I just can’t do it.

So bring out the scalpels.  Brace for the pain.  And cut that list down.

Take a long, hard look at that endless list of wishful to-dos.  I’m going to concentrate on December only and ask myself:  what MUST I finish by 12/31 in order to be successful?  What can I reasonably, safely, and sanely accomplish and still sleep and function like a normal working human being?

These are going to be my A list priorities, or my MUST DO items.  Now don’t throw away the rest of your list in disgust — we still may be able to accomplish a few extra things too.  Pick a few more things that you just really wish you could do — if time allows.  This is our ROCK STAR list.  If the top priority things are getting crossed off the list, who knows?  We might be able to fit a few more things into our schedule.

So after taking a careful look at my list, I chose the following things to concentrate on in December.  If you can, assign a deadline to each top priority item so you know immediately if you start to fall behind.

DEC MUST DO (deadlines penciled in)

• Finish the first draft of Victor by 12/7.
• Polish first 3 chapters of Return to Shanhasson by 12/11.
• Revise The Horse Master by 12/15.
• Revise Return to Shanhasson by 12/31.

DEC ROCK STAR

• First draft of Victor’s synopsis and query.  Oh, yeah, and a TITLE that’s better than the hero’s name would be good.
• horror short story (antho deadline is 1/15/2010)
• First Revision Hell pass for Victor.

And now, to keep myself in touch with projects on the horizon, I’m going to make a list of things to keep in mind.  They don’t have deadlines, exactly, but I can’t forget all about these items or I won’t be successful in January, etc.

FARSEER

• verbally committed to submitting Victor in January.
• horror story antho call 1/15/2010
• SFR series:  read partial, organize notes, prepare to return to drafting in January
• steampumk antho call 4/30/2010: continue mulling over plot, characters, and world.

Since it’s the first of December — OMG can you believe 2009 is almost over?  Nooooo! — I decided to evaluate my goals and make sure I know what the first of 2010 will bring.

And let me just say that I got a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach looking at my to-do list.  Seriously, how on earth am I going to get all this done?  I have one book on submission, one that’s *this close* to a completed first draft (Victor), and then I’ll have two books in desperate need of Revision Hell ASAP.  Then there’s a short story I’d like to write, and maybe something for that steampunk romance anthology at Samhain, and oh yeah, my new SFR series I want to kick off.  Oops, and I also owe one last Keldari novella to Deena at Drollerie.

Not to mention all the promotion work for Rose releasing in print Dec/Jan and Dear Sir, I’m Yours in April.

Before I started popping Motrin for the splitting headache or uncorked the bottle of wine, I decided to step back and approach this just like I would any major undertaking I complete for the Evil Day Job. I always have multiple projects in the queue, with varying needs and usually tight deadlines, yet we always manage to get everything (or nearly so) done.  That’s because we plan.  And then we plan the plan.  And then we plan just a bit more.

So for the next few days, I’m going to post about planning and goals, in particular mine, but maybe you’ll get a few ideas on how to start off the new year with a solid plan in hand, while I work toward the endzone for Victor aka THE END.

My first step I completed was to make a list of every possible thing I’d like to get done between now and 4/30.  (I picked that date because that’s the deadline for the steampunk antho.  You can pick any date.  A month.  A week.  All year.)  At this point, I let myself put anything and everything on the list, no matter how unlikely it’ll be that I can humanly accomplish a fraction of all this work.  This is dream time, pie in the sky list in no particular priority or order.

• finish the first draft of Victor.
• Revision Hell for Victor with a goal to submit by the end of January.
• Revision Hell for Return to Shanhasson with a goal to submit by the end of December.
• Polish the first three chapters of Return quicker — say by Dec. 11 — for potential giveaway idea.
• Revise and polish The Horse Master, my old freebie story (the first I think I ever put up on the blog) for potential promo idea.
• Consider writing a short story to give away for the holidays with The Horse Master to help promote Rose.  How about Dainari?
• short horror story for fun looking anthology
• Finish Deathright and query ASAP.
• Replot Seven Crows once Deathright is done.
• Jot notes for Vicki’s story (the last Connagher).
• Come up with an idea for the steampunk antho.  Worldbuild, plot, etc.  I have something possibly in mind…but the pieces won’t fall into place.  Needs some major brainstorming.
• Drag out Given in Fire notes and rethink the plot in preparation for drafting.
• Manage all the promo giveaways for the holidays, keep the blog interesting, etc.
• Set up the “Find Gregar!” contest.
• Book signing 12/12 at my hometown library.
• Personal note:  trip to home office for EDJ likely in first quarter 2010.

I’m exhausted!!!  I’ll continue this process tomorrow.