Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Getting back on track

It seems things are getting back to normal computer wise, well as normal as they can get. And now that I don't have to spend all my time working on computer problems I'm hoping to get back to my writing schedule.
When I used to work nights and weekends I had a writing schedule and for a while it worked really well. Then my job changed and it was hard for me to get back into the swing of things. After six months I feel like I’m finally getting back in a groove and a schedule is forming.
So now I’m trying to set the schedule and stick to it. I feel like I have a few projects going on and I need to keep them balanced. I didn’t mean to start editing my NaNo novel until after I finished Human Decency but I’ve got some stuff going on in my life that brings me back to my NaNo novel. I feel like now's a good time to work on it. And I’m having a little trouble pushing through with Human Decency at this time. I’ve got a great idea and terrific characters (so I think, anyway) but I need to come up with some idea of where it’s going. I need a little direction.
Now my tentative schedule for the week is to edit my NaNo novel during the day while I’m at work. After reading through it I made a list of things I want to change or need to think about. I’ve decided to change it to first person point-of –view. I do want to add in the final short story. I liked Jenni’s idea of having her live it then start writing it. I thought it would be cool to just have the story and let the reader decide if it’s real or if it’s another one of the writer’s stories but I can’t think of a way to do it that’s not completely confusing. I’ve yet to decide whether to get rid of the first story. If I keep it I definitely need to add more about how it relates to the writer’s life. And I need to make the story less chunky. There are chunks of the writer’s life and how that affects what she’s writing and then chunks of what she’s writing. I think I need to make the parts smaller and intertwine them more.
I know most of this probably only makes sense to me but I thought I’d share so it seems like I’m actually working on something.
At night I work on Human Decency. Well I try to push through anyway. I’ve been working on introducing the characters and bringing them together but I’m worried it’s not happening fast enough and that this book is going to end up huge. That’s if I think of something past the characters coming together. I also don’t want to cheat it.
On Saturday I work on writing short stories and editing them for submissions. Sundays I work mostly on submissions. I throw in a blog post wherever I can fit it. Occasionally, I go off schedule and work on a few other things like an action/adventure short story series, a Christmas story that I would like to get finished and submitted before the end of the month (*in time for a few literary magazine deadline’s for holiday stories) and anytime I’m around my family I get inspired to write a funny story for a humorous anthology that I really should do.

Well I obviously have a lot to do so I guess it's back to work.

2 comments:

whimsical brainpan said...

Good luck!

My boyfriend is a writer and he says a schedule is key. He is having trouble establishing a routine right now. It doesn't help that his computer blew up this week but at least his hard drive is ok.

Ashley said...

Whim- I totally agree I feel like I got so much done when I had a schedule and stuck to it.
And yikes about the computer. It seems there's a lof of that going around lately.