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Planning and Goals

Returning from RT13 inspired, I spent the day planning my next projects and administrative tasks.  I’ve got 12 non-writing items on my to-do list.  Gulp.  Things like sending Her Grace’s Stable out for reviews, buying ads, gathering prizes, writing guest blog posts, etc.  It’s insane!

Then I sat down and made a list of all the projects I want and have to do work on.  There are only 8 on the list.  *laughs manically*

I made a list of what I need to do to get moving on Mama C again.  I re-read everything I’ve written so far, made some light edits, and jotted a few notes.  Then I worked on the story until I got 500 words.  It was pretty slow going — it’s been at least a week or two since I last opened the file.  But I did finally get the words I needed and the story was starting to flow better.

My plan was to get as much set up today as possible so I can return to D&E writing tomorrow.  I have a hard time dragging myself up out of bed that early, though, if I’m not already knee-deep in the story. e g. the characters need to be talking in my head without effort and I need to know exactly what comes next.  However, Mama C isn’t fully plotted yet.  I had a neat twist come to me that’s going to require some additional work.  I don’t have the middle-end of her story plotted at all–just a few scenes for the first Act.  That’s it.  I don’t want to write too far and then get stuck…

But I can’t sit around waiting to plot this book either.  I’m wasting too much time.

So what I’m going to try to do is work on my plot at night, at least far enough that I can get up the next morning and write the next scene.  Hopefully I’ll be able to keep ahead of myself.  Usually the ideas spawn other ideas, so as I write, I should get more and more future scenes falling into place.

I’m also going to come up with some kind of schedule to handle all the administrative tasks before my next release.  e.g. I need to write one guest post a week or something or I’ll lose my ever-loving mind again.

In addition, I’m building a new idea that I started developing this past week in KC.  I’m shuffling it a little higher on the list just below Mama C, with the goal of having it built and plotted so that as soon as I finish Mama, I can switch gears and immediately begin to draft the other project.  I need to get better at handling multiple projects in various stages of development at the same time, or I lose months as I try to get a new project moving.

I have a feeling Mama C’s going to run in the 70K range instead of the <50K range, so it’s probably going to take me into June before I can finish the draft.  We’ll see though.

That’s the plan and I’m sticking to it.  For now!

2 thoughts on “Planning and Goals

  1. Nice to finally meet you in person! I wanted to get back to your table and find out if you had a copy of your zombie category romance, and were planning another, but I wasn’t alone, and couldn’t get back to you. It was like a madhouse in there anyway–I’d rather have met you in a quieter area and talked about what you were up to writing-wise.

  2. You are on fire my friend :mrgreen:

    It sounds like a plan. Please don’t lose your mind, we readers need it healthy so you can keep us in our reading crack 😀 Way to go with the lists. I humbly bow to your lists.

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