I wanted to share a quick update here so that you won’t think I’ve forgotten about my blog. I haven’t. I just don’t have a lot of news to share right now 🙂
I’m making a conscious effort to put my writing first these days. It feels good. Really good.
Previously I’d been dedicating Friday afternoons to my writing, but I just wasn’t seeing enough progress there–not for one identity and certainly not for two. It was just too easy to put off writing in order to work on something else, or hang out with friends, or whatever.
I have a new strategy now!
I start each day by writing 500 words for whatever project my alter ego is focusing on. Once that’s done I dive into my email and all the other tasks on my to-do list, but not before. 500 words isn’t a lot but that’s actually kind of key to making this work. It needs to feel like a manageable goal — high enough that it will actually slowly add up to completed projects, but small enough that I can get it done and then get down to finishing all the other stuff on my to-do list.
Best of all? That leaves Friday afternoons free for me to focus just on Cori stuff.
Yay!
I spent a few hours today revising “The Manor” which was my NaNo novel five years ago O_O
Like any NaNoWriMo project it has its challenges, and those are exacerbated by the fact I wrote this using Write or Die in Kamikaze mode with my backspace key disabled… The first page looked like this:
But I think this story has good bones, and there are a couple scenes that I haven’t been able to get out of my head since I wrote them five years ago. So I’m excited to see how it develops.
My goal is to have this revision done by October 15th. Once it’s finished I will send it out to beta readers and then start working on the next segment of the story that began with Running on Empty while I wait for their feedback.
It’s daunting but exciting, this stage of development I’m at with this story.
Mostly daunting LOL But the excitement will grow as I watch the progress bar move.
Unrelated, except that it has to do with writing and progress. I have decided to shelf ‘The Switch’ indefinitely. It needs too much work, it’s still missing something I can’t put my finger on yet and its storyline is really similar to one I’m exploring for the Prairie Magic universe. Sorry little story, maybe we’ll see you again someday when if I figure out the key to unlock you…
