Writing Update: A Plan (1)

For anyone who's new around these parts, my dream in life is to travel from large metropolitan city to large metropolitan city a few months out of the year, clad in head-to-toe Boden or Anthro, to talk about the books I have written. I will win people over with mild self-deprecation, stories about my son, and a deep passion for what I have published. There will be after-parties full of wine, passed hors devours, and incredibly smart people that intimidate me so much I have to take full advantage of the free booze. It'll be equal parts terrifying and awesome.

There's one main problem: I don't write. I have full confidence that there is at a book, or seven, in me, but yet still, my word count is abysmal (and my abysmal I mean non-existent).

I've blogged about this before, about how I somehow keep the dream and confidence alive year after year. And I am also incredibly realistic, despite my opening paragraph. I know that once I finally finish the novel that is ricocheting off the walls of my head nothing will probably come of it, other than a celebratory blog posts and the pats on the back I give myself. And that's totally okay. I don't think I'm cut out to be famous. 

I don't want to be sixty or seventy or eighty wondering if I could have finished writing at least one novel, though. I already regret not trying harder to pursue in medicine, and while the boat that dream was perched on is long gone, this one is still waiting at the dock. (And with this sort of amazing abilities, HOW CAN I NOT TRY?)

I need a plan- a reasonable, clear plan that holds me accountable (god, this reminds me of all the SMART Goal inservices from a decade ago).

Sawyer is older, I've got work under control (well, as much as an English teacher can), and I have the itch to get things going. Now is the time. 

First of all, I need to summarize the ideas that I do have and pick one. I've started so many over the years and have had to toss them aside for life. Basically, I need to write up some book proposals for myself to choose from. One to two pages typed, for each of the three or four options I'm wrestling with. 

After this happens, I need to loosely outline what's going to go down. I think part of the reason why I have struggled over the years is because I have a solid idea of the beginning and just assume the rest of story will just come to me as a I write. Why the hell do I think this is something that would be successful for me? I plan 90% of my life, why would this be any different? Enough with the "I want the writing to come organically shit" and at least have some sort of road map. 

I've realized that I am extremely driven by public accountability, whether it's just telling me husband I'm going to do something, posting it here, or getting social media involved. I think the best thing for me would be to post a writing update some time during the first week of every month. Just a quick check in to see how many words I've written, how I'm feeling, what some challenges have been, etc...

Initially I had planned on the final component to this plan being a word count, but I think that feels a little too NaNoWriMo for me. I don't want this to be about racing to finish, but instead feeling like progress is consistently being met, so I'm going with time goals instead. I think for the first full month, which will be November, I just want to hit a total of six hours (since there's only eleven days left this month I just want to get the initial ideas typed out). I will probably download some sort of app to keep all of this on the up-and-up. 

Sorting out ideas, organization, accountability, and the accumulation of time- it sounds like a good plan right now. I know how life gets, though, and a lot of times these sorts of things take the back-burner. There's no money on the line, and not even really pride, since this isn't something most people every actually try to even attempt. That's why I have to use every tool I have to make this happen, starting with this platform!

Tun in....