I just wrote a rather lengthy rant about how horrible I have been with my writing and how resolute I am to fix that starting right now. None of which I feel needs to be repeated here. But if you do care to read you can find it here on my personal blog if you dare.
But, as I intended, this blog is for work. And while I can’t fix the fact that there hasn’t been much of that over the past few months, we are here to move forward.
END RANT TWO.
I’m not dead yet, so I am not going to waste any time worrying about failure and all that rot. But rather, here is a look at what is coming up in the immediate future. And if I can hold onto my resolve that might be something significant.
Step One: Updates
In a month or so we will all be flocking to NaNoWriMo.org with wild hopes of noveling delight. Titles will be filled in, blurbs will be lovingly crafted to encompass all the excitement of our story to be, and then we will have a month to nervously bite our nails until commencement at midnight on November 1st.
While I haven’t done much in the writing vein, the story still pulses through me taking over every facet of my being. So it has grown in newer and more interesting ways. I have so many scenes in my head I could fill my 50,000 easy between the five or so books I have planned.
Which also means I have a metric shit ton of stuff I need to keep track of. I have already forgotten about three major names that I shouldn’t have. Enter my PASK or Portable Author Survival Kit. A compendium of all the characters, places, and lore of the Either Earth Universe so I don’t have to raid my brain in a panic to find it.
And given all this lovely plotting I’ve spent the summer doing, there are some updates.
Step Two: Habits
My best NaNo from April 2017 I had it mapped out. I spent every morning before work at Starbucks (conveniently located directly across from work) writing without interruption for two or more hours. Then I would come home and pound out words for another three or more hours until I head bashed into my laptop from exhaustion.
Repeat for 30 or more days.
Now that I have since changed jobs, cars, homes, and outlooks on life, the routine has changed. Habits, even good ones, have been broken. Which leaves me now to rebuild them in the next couple of months, in the hopes that I will see victory in November.
Step Three: Decisions
Whatever I decide to do, I need to move forward with one mind. Not easy of course when you have a dozen stories backlogged up there and every one of them you want to see written and ready to publish.
But if I allow myself to be drawn off the path, say my pet weird project, The Merry Windsors, winks at me with promises of an easier and more fun storyline, I will flounder and find myself five days from December wondering why I have nothing to show.
I cannot flip-flop from The Beast and the Brain for being too preachy, or from Merry Windsors for being too melodramatic. While I know I want to write something light-hearted and fun, I have to balance out and have something substantial too. Even if I have to unbury it during the edits.
Step Four: Input
I do not read enough. And when I do, recently it has been rereading comforting and safe YA fare. Nothing that challenges me, and therefore nothing that feeds my brain and stretches my head. The only plus is that in reading these I have the sense to realize that I should be writing.
It isn’t for the shortage of books. I have spent years collecting weird and not mainstream books from Goodwill and other such places so there is plenty of brain food to go around. It is more a matter of picking up a book and just letting myself devour it.
Step Five: Take Care
I suck at this, taking care of myself. For the past year, I have just picked up a quick pre-made breakfast and hit the day without any deliberate action. Then when I come home I shut down and just wait for the next day.
And I wonder why I have no energy to write?
The last step is the most important. I need to slow my brain down and start taking deliberate action again. I know I can, I had nearly got a handle on it before I upended my life last year. But it is one more habit like above that I need to fight for again.
Preparing actual meals, exercising, taking time outside to breathe in the fresh air rather than canned. All of this, as well as a million other little things, will lead to a better overall life for me. Which in turn will lead to me finally finishing a damn novel? Maybe.
I’m not dead yet, but someday I will be. And I would rather it be at the opposite end of publishing my stories.
Either Earth 