The high demands of my day job has always given me a constant struggle of balance with my writing. But it’s also my reality and instead of getting bitter and sad about it, I knew I had to find a compromise to work within the parameters of my current situation.
My goal is to have a polished WIP by spring. I know that the day job will take up a lot of my mental energy so instead of getting overwhelmed and not getting anything done, I’ve decided to tackle my novel with a focused strategy.
Operation 50/50: 50 scenes in 50 days.
I’m a plot chick and outliner and after struggling for awhile, I’ve finally figured out the structure for the last 2/3 of my novel project. This has negated a lot of writing that I’ve already done plus will require writing a totally new ending. But that’s okay. That’s what revision is about — taking draft and making it better or axing it.
Now that I have the structure and a list of scenes, I can revise/rewrite out of order or focus on whatever speaks to me. My average scene is usually 4-8 pages or about 1000 to 2000 words.
I believe breaking it down like this into manageable chunks will work for me to reach my spring milestone.
It will also cause me to think about my priorities and schedule time to focus on my scene of the day. Does this mean that I must revise or crank out 1000-2000 words every day? No, because for me that will cause performance anxiety, overwhelm me, and set myself up for failure. Remember that 2011 is the Year of Spaciousness.
My focus will be on one scene per day — the intention, the characters, the setting, the arc, etc. Focusing on what makes the scene tick and then revising or rewriting it with that focus in mind. Word count and pages are great of course but just the act of making writing a priority in my day and honoring that time will be key for me. Exposure to my novel on a daily basis is my main goal.
Operation 50/50 officially starts Friday, February 25, 2011 and ends at midnight on Friday, April 15, 2011 (This is not by accident. I’m an accountant’s daughter and this date has always been sacred to me. Ha.)
Do you have a novel milestone you want to reach? Join me in my war against the distractions and time suckage and make writing a priority. Just think how much we can get done during this 7 week period.
I’ll post weekly milestones on my progress. Wish me luck!
Wow, Karen! This sounds ambitious but doable. It’s great to set up a plan to help with achieving your goals. Maybe I’ll do that too (though it would have to be on a much smaller scale than yours).
Sounds like a plan! And sometimes that’s all that is needed. I do set up a schedule like you. When revising – it’s a chapter or 2 a day, depending on how much work it needs. If not, it can feel overwhelming.
I agree it’s ambitious but do-able. Especially if you’ve already got scenes in mind. I hope to join you in my first draft frenzy starting in March. Happy writing!
p.s. writing every day makes it so much easier to keep the story in your head
Andrea: Small progress and focus is key for me because otherwise, I’ll just sit down with a pint of ice cream and not writing anything! Ha.
Laura: One scene per day will keep me sane because when I looked at ALL what I had to do, it was making me a little nutty.
Karen: You should join me in March for sure. Little steps. One day at a time.
Best of luck! I’ll be cheering you on while working hard on my own WIP which I hope to finish editing by the end of March!
That sounds like an amazing plan, Karen. I’m hoping to get most of my WiP written next week during spring break. Best of luck!
Great plan, but maybe start on Feb 27th so you can totally enjoy the SCBWI conference and be-in-the-moment there!
Good luck! I recently reworked my WIP outline which means some of what I’ve written so far will be axed or heavily revised. But it’s okay because my reworked outline is much better and like you, I have the scenes worked out so it’s just a matter of tackling them one at a time. My goal is to finish my draft by the summer so I need to figure out my strategy to make that happen since I also work full-time. This 50/50 plan sounds great and is inspiring me to come up with a plan of my own!
Heather: I’m just trying to be like you and all the other cool kids! :) Seriously, though I think this strategy will work for me.
Emy: Looks like you’ll be getting some writing done. I’m glad you are finished with finals! I just know you aced all of your tests. :)
Gail: I’m not going to Springmingle this year. :( So I’m leaving it up to you to post fabulous a recap on your blog.
Ghenet: You have the right attitude. Sometimes you have to write things that get axed. I think you can finish your draft by summer. Totally doable! :)
Concrete goals like that can be so motivating. You can do it!! :-)
That sounds like a great goal! Good luck!
LOL at the tax day deadline. You crack me up. This is such a great goal, and I’ll bet you’ll conquer this writing task. I look forward to hearing about your progress!
You’ve caught me at such a funny time, Karen! Just these past few days I’ve been thinking I’ve needed a concrete plan to get my revision done by this summer. And I really like how your 50/50 plan isn’t overly ambitious, but definitely focused and hard-working. So I think I might join you, or at least an Anne version of the plan! I’m not an outliner at all, so my problem is going through each scene I’ve already written and figuring out if it works and is necessary, then rewriting it. So I may have a lot fewer than 50 scenes. But this forces me to keep going, and try to tackle at least one each day. Great idea, thanks!
Anna: Concrete plans and focus are definitely good. :)
Tiana: Thanks! :) Hope things are going well with your writing project.
Julie: Ha. I grew up with the tax deadline being like a MAJOR celebrations. Seriously, parties were thrown! :)
Anne: Great timing it is! :) You should definitely join me! Can’t wait to see what kind of progress you report back to me next Thursday. We can do this!
Awesome plan. I’m sure it will work. I find that Scheduling my scenes works out for me, so I know exactly how many to do in a day, and when I’ll finish my draft. :P Good luck on this endeavor. Cheering you on!
Nutschell: So far it’s going well. Three scenes down, four more to go for the week. Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment. :)
Hi Karen,
Just dropping by to say thank you for the warm wishes you left on my blog last week. I really am looking forward to the next stage in my journey. I hope your scenes are going well! May you always have inspiration and energy to keep you company. have an awesome week!
What a great idea! I’ll have to give something like this a try. I could definitely use a little more focus in my life. Good luck!
Thanks for the follow! :)
Nutschell: You’re quite welcome! :) Keep honing that query letter.
Abby: You should give it a try. Small focus keeps me from going insane from looking at the whole novel. :)