Getting my Camp NaNoWriMo on.

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cliff-hanger, Harmon's Plot Embryo, must read, NaNo Prep, NaNoWriMo, Novel drafting, Planning, plot points, story outlining

I’m doing it again. Trying to write a complete project in a month. But this go around, my word-count goal is so much smaller than my last four attempts at a measly 20k.

Yes, I just put measly before 20k, but on average I aim for 40-50k in a NaNoWriMo session, and I’ve only hit that goal twice.

Finally, I’m getting to work with my LOVING RED characters again. This one will be a prequel, outlining both Kaia’s background with Dev—the bear and ex—and the circus incident with the Scarlet Queen, whose just appeared in Ria’s world. I am so excited to continue this story thread. If you don’t know anything about the LOVING RED gang, their storyline jumpstarted with Facebook roleplaying…which is why many of my characters have their own profile pages.

Anyways, I don’t so much want to talk about their story (but I’ve done that here, here,  and here if you want to know more). Instead, I wanted to set y’all up for the NaNoWriMo advice and exercises I’m going to be throwing at you over the next few months.

Now is the time for planning…even though I may have outlined this story at the end of last year, it’s nice to review and remind myself what the hell I’ll be doing.

Originally, I used Harmon’s Plot Embryo to develop my ideas and create more symmetry in my stories. I tend to lean toward the cliff-hanger and don’t want to be a one-trick pony. My notes on that below, and an excellent YouTube post I took these notes from.

From this process, I teased out the major plot points and decided on an alternating point of view. Like in LOVING RED, I will use first person for Dev—as he is the character I created and played in roleplaying, and third person for Kaia, who was played by a close friend.

That let me create my current outline, which I’ll sneak peek right here.

For the rest of this month, I will be reading this over, working through details as best as I can, and will probably start the opening scene(s) before July hits. Yes, I know that’s cheating, but I’m doing this to get my first draft down, not to win anything. Besides, I play by my own rules!

And that’s it for now. I’m set up, finishing another story, hopefully giving myself a week break in between, and jumping in to this novelette.

Are you using the summer to complete some writing goals? Do you participate in NaNoWriMo? Let me know what you’re working on, what your goals are, how you plan to meet them, and if you want to hear about keeping on track, catching up, and adapting to real life as you craft.

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Closing Circles: New Year, New Goals, New System.

Tags

bullet journal, imagination, level ten life, marketing advice, New Year, Planning, project tracker, the process, transitions, year at a glance

I know a lot of people are writing about their years and their plans right now, but I want to reflect on the difference between crashing into 2017 and peacefully stepping into 2018.

Last year, I wasn’t prepared for the type of growth I would have in my business and all of the little things I didn’t know how to do at the time. It’s good that I’m a quick learner, because the transition could have been disastrous.

Don’t get me wrong, I barely held on and still sport some road rash from it, but ambition has a way of whittling down the fluff of dreams—something I desperately need with my wild imagination and grandiose ideas.

This year, however, I got a relatively easy transition, watching Futurama with my husband and a little bubbly. My projects were complete, planned, and simply waiting for a few finishing touches. I didn’t have to scramble.

Boy, was that nice.

I must admit that this has inflated my inner dreamer, and she’s bursting with far too many new ideas—new circles—that will need closed or popped.

So, in echo of last year, when I wrote about how I think and plan and process, I’d like to give you a glimpse of my next year, literally.

Let me know what your plans are for 2018, how this year compares to last, and what system you use to keep on track!

Plan With Me: July & Quarterly Planning

Tags

bujo, bullet journal, fitness tracker, NaNoWriMo, Planning, productivity, PWM, quarterly goals, YouTube

 

Summer is a time for big, creative goals. I focus on creation and new habits as the rest of the year is devoted to editing and publishing and grading…

So. here’s what I’m currently focusing on and how I’m keeping myself on track.

One of my favorite things about summer is that I don’t have a second job to get in my way of working out, which means I can up my workouts from two or three times a week to five or six. The problem is…I’m home all day…with all of that food I buy each week…

That’s why I implemented two spreads, my 21 Day Challenge, which incorporates four exercises I actually enjoy doing, and a longer plan for my workouts in hopes of creating variety and mixing up my normal heavy-lifting workouts with cardio programs and light weights.

I also have a special spread for July Camp NaNoWrioMo and my four major writing projects for the year. I’m actually working on the same project I started for last year’s NaNoWriMo, which got put on the back burner for the After the Happily Ever After anthology.

I’m excited to dig into each of these again, my snarky YA paranormal detective, Boden’s journey home, a fire story about Ria’s father, and the prequel to Loving Red. The last three are short, so I’m hoping I can tackle each one with enough vigor to get their first drafts complete, or near-complete. You can join my cabin, Transmundane Team, or simply wish me luck. I know I’ll need it.

Finally, I’ve updated my quarterly goals to be more beneficial to me as a whole rather than simply working towards a better business. Sometimes, I forget other things exist outside of publishing, and I really need to focus on family, my home, and personal development with a bit more cohesion than I have been.

And in case you were wondering what planning for the next three months looks like. Here’s a quick peek.

How do you plan? Set goals? Stay productive? Share your process and hopes with me. I’d love to cheer you on!

Want to see my entire set up? Check out my plan with me on YouTube.

 

Plan With Me: June. Let’s Try This Again.

Tags

Boho Berry, bullet journal, creativity calendar, future log, habit tracker, Lisa Jacobs, monthly spread, mood mandala, one line a day

Hello, lovelies!

Sorry for the duplicate post, but the links didn’t work in the email. So, round two, let’s try this again.

I’ve been slowly integrating some planning elements into my blog posts. You’ve seen my bullet journal(s) for my projects and some of my doodles, but I don’t think I’ve revealed just how deeply obsessed I am with my bullet journal.

I am equally as obsessed with watching how others utilize their planners and journals, aka my YouTube history is littered with plan with me videos.

I’ve finally filmed my own, and here are my highlights.

First, this my month at a glance. On one side, I have my appointments and dates—as you can see, I don’t have a ton of them, but it’s nice to have a place to jot them down when they do come up and to see when birthdays are and if I have a promo (something I try to do every month to some degree). I might also use it for delivery dates to track packages as we need to open our gate for deliveries. It’s the first time I’m using this in my bullet journal, so we’ll see how it works.

At the top is a small section for future appointments that I can take with me when I plan my next month.

Down the right side of the page, I have a habit tracker. I smashed these together because I didn’t want to waste a lot of space for either of these spreads. I’d used the bigger habit tracker when I first started bullet journaling over a year ago, and I put my spin on it for a few months before it became too much. I’d forget to look at it and fill it out, and quite frankly, it wasn’t making me feel guilty enough for not getting things done that I needed to—especially self-care items.

This version hits some of the same things that my creativity calendar does and my weekly spread does, but I wanted the overall representation of how I’ve improved and if I’m staying on track. Now that I’ve gotten a handle on my social media schedule, I hope this will remind me that I am actually getting shit done.

On the left is my Week Of…spread that I got from Boho Berry and Lisa Jacobs. I tweaked it a little to fit my overall aesthetic and put my major goals down the left, and my weeks on the right. Each holds tasks that I need to complete in order to achieve project goals. I’ve found this really helpful, even when I don’t cross everything off. (Let’s be honest, not many sane people like to pile to-do’s on themselves like I do).

At the bottom of the spread, I listed my main monthly goals. I used to have a full page spread for this, but I noticed a lot of repetition in my Week Of spread and my goals spread, so I smashed them together to test it out. I’m hoping that this means I can cross more off and, once again, not overload myself, which often leads to less productivity.

I’ve posted about this next one in passing before. This is my creativity calendar. I plan out when I need to post what and where it needs shared. If you think it looks full now, wait until I put my #WritingCommunityChallenge posts in there for Instagram and facebook. Fun times.

Next, I have a page for my mood mandala. It’s not much to look at now, so here’s a picture of this month so far, so you can see what it’ll look like.

This next spread is also new to me, it’s simply to track one line a day of my life, diary style. I’ve found this helpful in my dailies, but when I mark major notes, it’s nice to have them in one place.

The last monthly spread I have is new as well. Essentially, I hope to track my husband’s moods with more intent to look for patterns with his bipolar and undiagnosed PTSD. I show off my community challenge spread and my weekly in my YouTube Plan With Me companion.

Let me know if you have questions about bullet journaling, planning, and the writing/publishing process. Or personal shit, I answer those sometimes, too.

Closing Circles: My ultimate project timeline

Tags

2017, bullet journal, closing circles, editing tips, plan, project tracker, Timeline, writing tips

This last week, sick with some extra ick had its grubby grip on my faculties. Luckily, I had a blessed four-day weekend and spent some much-needed time writing in a personal project.

I’m pretty much the example of why writers shouldn’t have multiple projects going at once. I jump back and forth across multiple works, add to that the editing and the teaching, it may make a bit of sense as to why I operate like plate spinner.

I will say that I typically only write one project at a time—at least, one book. Short stories, sure, I can juggle a few. This is also the product of my master’s degree in creative writing. Deadlines are deadlines after all.

So why the hell am I talking about it? Because too often, we writers and editors spout advice and our own stories with a great deal of confidence and certainty. I don’t want to come off like my way is the right way or the only way. It’s simply the way I do things, and my process changes depending on my project.

But in all of them, planning has come in handy—even though I consider myself a panster.

Ultimately, I wanted to share the new way I track my projects for the year.

 

This is my yearly projects at a glance, so I know when I should be doing what. This includes the planning, writing, editing, pre- and post-marketing, when to ask for help, and when to launch. This baby has all of the basics.

You’ll notice I limit myself to four projects on any given month. They’re in varying places of production to keep me from trying to create too much at once or edit too much at once, etc.

I will also be tracking the realities of my work ethic and ability to keep to deadlines. So far, I’m pretty close.

But it is just January.

How are you staying on track for your 2017 closing circles goals?

Closing Circles: A peek at my four-step planning process.

Tags

#ClosingCircles, ahea, bullet journal, goals, marketing plan, project management, publishing, Timeline, to-do list

If you follow my business partner, co-editor and co-publisher at Transmundane Press, you’ve heard of this process of closing circles. If you haven’t, you should really follow him.

Anyways, here’s Anthony’s plan:

• Figure out what projects are worthy of completion
• Organize and Prioritize
• Follow through

His goal is to clear his slate before starting new projects.

My plan is a long-term plan, a now-until-2030 plan. Everything I start is important enough to finish. The steps are a bit different. It’s just the way I think and plan and process. Which is not to say that I don’t have small, lingering unfinished stories and projects, but they’re on my list. And when the time is right, I will finish them.

Here’s my plan:

• Brainstorm and list making
• Create a timeline
• Break list down into actionable tasks
• Follow through

I use a series of planners and white boards and post-it notes to help me. I’ve mentioned and posted videos about the system called bullet journaling, but I’ve never shown mine.

So, here’s my system.

• Brainstorm and list making

I do this in several places, like I said above, I have notes and lists everywhere.

Much like Anthony, I need to decide which are priorities and which projects can wait, but for this part of my process, I prefer to jot down EVERYTHING lingering in my mind. Every connection I can make between characters and plot points that might generate an interesting story. I don’t want to dismiss anything.

I know this seems counterintuitive for closing circles and finishing projects, but if I don’t know the possibilities available, I can’t plan my future properly.

I also use this system to keep track of my marketing plan and ideas.

And here’s one of my planning partners, Tecnn, and yes, he’s as big as he looks at 28 pounds of black, furry flubber. He loves to help me read, write, and edit as well.

 

• Create a timeline

I work with a strict timeline for my series, and I have a lot of characters that demand stories. And they all take place at the same time.

Here’s a peak at my ideal write/publish plan until 2030.

For business purposes, I keep another timeline of my writing with other publications, including Anthony’s, to keep our press on schedule. This also allows me to know when I can devote time to writing, editing, and marketing for each project.

 

• Break list down into actionable tasks

Obviously, the next thirteen years is a long time to plan out, so I work in the next five years, the next year, its quarters, months, and weeks.

You can see how I brainstormed my next year’s projects and the major steps needed to complete them. Then I divided these steps into quarters so that I know when I need each step completed by. From here, I work out my quarter and my month, becoming increasingly smaller and more specific until I come to my weekly planning.

 

• Follow through

I track my progress to keep myself accountable. I can only re-write the same task so many times before I feel guilty for not having it done already.

Weekly planning works the best for me as I can slip the rest of my life into the days on the left and keep a tracking page for the week on the right. Note how I track when I work on my craft, my job, and my goals. I also categorize my weekly tasks: business, create, plan. The rest is personal tracking for my health and my family and my home.

Finally, I also break down projects, like my novel or blog post planning and tracking. Honestly, if I hadn’t had this process for AHEA, I’d probably still be editing and planning rather than marketing and selling, which again, I also track. I have to note everything or I don’t remember what works and what doesn’t.

Share your process for planning and completing projects with the hashtag #ClosingCircles.