The Writing Life—The April-May (2018) Learning Curve

Four weeks ago, I set a couple of goals: write 4k/day, improve my outlining, and catch up with my publishing schedule, or something like that.

Results: 4k was successfully written, every day, and all on the one project - M3 is now over half-way complete at 47,215 words. My outlining improved, and I now have a 'fullish' idea of what is going to happen next, as well as a skeletal, dot-point run to the end of the novel. I published my next two releases, both short works and both with enough time to spare to go onto a pre-release schedule with Amazon and Smashwords, and I started the editing process on M2, which is a full 91k novel due out in a fortnight - what can I say? I hurt my back and fell behind. The long-term goal is to take some of that pressure off by working to being pre-released 3 months in advance, but sshhh, that's one of those behind-the-scenes things I work towards, even if it takes a long time to get there.

What did I learn? That outlines help - a lot! - with writing speed, but do not stay static or in the same shape you set them in, and this can be adjusted on the fly without necessarily losing the original plot skeleton. I have to do me more of these! Oh, and using a fill colour to mark the bits you've done, cutting and pasting sections you complete out of order, or don't complete at all, minimising the bits you don't use to 8 point font, noting sections you add in different coloured fonts, and prefixing the day's work with a date in bold, all help you track what you've done and where you're going... even if it's a pain in the ass. Finally, I learned that 4k on one project *might* be my limit for that project each day, as I need to let what I've written start to set.

Three weeks ago, I set myself the goal of writing 4k/day on one project and 1k/day on the next. This worked fine, until I had to prep a full-length novel for release in a fortnight. When the time-frame got down to one week with the novel not uploaded, I shuffled things around, splitting time between finishing the third novel in the series and publishing the second. This meant I left the chapter book I wanted to finish, until Friday – but with only 3,000 words left on the projected length, it shouldn’t have been a problem.

Results: So far, I’ve added 9,000 words. It wants to become a novel… and I’m going to let it, but I’m going to shuffle my schedule around, first. Firstly, because I’m really just starting out, I should have given myself more swing room. I’m going to drop back to a fortnightly release cycle to allow that. This will mean more time to do the work I need to do in order to publish more frequently in three or four months’ time. It also means a bit more time with my family, and time for exercise, both of which are important. Finally, it means more time to do some of the publishing tasks that need doing, and to deal with the unexpected, whether it’s an opportunity, or a chance to help out another writer, or a doctor’s appointment.

What did I learn? That schedules shift, and I need to be flexible enough to shift with them. There are days when I have to let an ideal go, in order to be practical and do what needs to be done within the timeframe it needs doing in. So, if 4k/day gets in the way of getting something released on time, then the release takes precedence, even though I’ll try to get some writing done each day. Also, what we think and what we actually can sometimes needs a little recalibration, especially when we’re starting out. Apparently we’re only human.