A Week to WRITE -- Monday, Day 1

Planning for Dedicated Writing Time

Photo by Riccardo Pitzalis on Unsplash

As you know, I’m in the End Times of working on a novel for adult readers. It’s over 100,000 words long, has been through numerous drafts, and for some weeks now has been at the point of needing that certain type of time that I need to bring it to an end—analogous to the pushing stage of child-birth, is how it feels. The last bit of hard work, renewed effort, with huge reward—it’ll be complete and out into the world. (Which does bring forth its own set of other emotions. But I’ll get there, and deal with them yet. Yes, there is post-partum to delivering a novel. More on that later. I need to get to that point.)

To that end, I decided that this week, immediately following Jazz Festival week, will be IT, the week I turn into a most self-focused individual. Off in my cave…

To prepare for this week

For the past two weeks, I’ve let people—including my mother—know that I’m just not available or around. Days after letting my mom know (I usually spend one day per week with her, visiting, running errand, being useful), her specialist called with an important appointment. I assessed whether I was truly needed for this—as in, did she need a hand to hold, literally, as has been before. No, not this time. We discussed, and she booked a “seniors assist” driver, from her community. (Thank you, oh Mighty Volunteers!) And a woman from her church stepped in as well.

I feel satisfied that she is taken care of, and all is understood; my mom supports my writing. When you have people in your life that you feel responsible for in one way or another, to plan like this is good. And always, an understanding that if there is an emergency, that changes everything.

Friends who I have been spending time with of late, for various reasons—important reasons—I have also told about this week. I want phone calls, emails, and invites to be minimal. I’ve worked to have the least possible number of distractions. Let’s see how successful this planning is.

For our workshopping group here on The Unschool, I’ve offered feedback, written up notes, and set up publishing times ahead of time. I also began to write a post for the 5th of the month, but have instead decided to share a brief—brief!—daily “process journal.” This is the first, and I’m writing on Sunday, July 3, and will set for publishing Monday a.m. early. I hope you find these pieces useful, if for no other reason than to compare with your own approach. We have much to learn from each other.

Know that I am nose-to-grindstone, and deeply immersed in this novel… so if you want to post notes on this, share with each other how you plan for such a dedicated writing time. (That 3 Day Novel thing is looming at summer’s end—you might want to start your planning.)

I’ve purchased fresh coffee and food, enough for simple meals that can be made quickly. Sugary stuff tires me, and makes my brain sluggish, so I prefer not to have such snacks even around. But fruit is good. My fave salad, made of dark green something—lettuce or spinach—with either an avocado or goat cheese, and pieces of grapefruit and berries… mmmm. That gets me going midday. Especially the avocado. Oil for the brain.

I plan on riding the stationary bike when I’m stuck. I have a couple Mary Lawson novels on hand, one I’ve read before and another new to me, to read for inspiration with writing deeply into characters’ emotions. My bike has a lovely table-like space for a book, and I usually read or listen to music while riding. (My idea of exercise.)

If I get a good amount of work done by evening, I’ll go to the local pub for a little music. And take my notebook with me in case ideas come. In this dedicated mode, they can come on quickly. Or I may need to blank my mind. That can be useful, too!

Plans for Monday

A lot of process-journal keeping for me is to jot notes about next steps. I love the “find” feature on a laptop. It allows me to follow single threads through the story. I have several secondary characters who have changed in unplanned but necessary ways through the hundreds of pages. I’m pleased with how they have done this growing… but now need to begin with the first mention of each such character and go through seeing how this has evolved and what further work I need to do. I expect this to take up most of Monday.

I also have the most recent set of comments from my writing group, and plan on reviewing them, thinking through what resonates (and what doesn’t and why that might be, too. So often when something gets under my skin, it’s for good reason!)

If the work slows, I’ll be trying to see the manuscript in a holistic way, and listing what else needs to be examined. I know, for instance, that my chapter titles need to be reviewed, possibly changed.

My main character has a number of blog entries, and these need reviewing, expanding. I need to think about the fictional audience for his blog. That might be Tuesday work.

We’ll see. I’ll keep you posted.

Now there’s this little matter of a broken handle on the inside door of the driver’s side of my ancient Corolla. (Official Writer’s Car.) It happened on Friday. But unlike the last time this happened, no spring flew out of it. No piece came off in my hands. So it’s still functioning, sort of, if I’m extraordinarily careful with it. No mindless door opening. And I foresee crawling across the front seats at some point to climb out. But in order for this week to work I need to Ignore the whole thing, and let it go.

Okay, I’ll call my mechanic and get him to order the part, for next week. Last week, my computer screen needed replacing. The week before that my website was hacked and required emails and precious Time. There is always something.

It’s entirely possible nothing will get written today; sometimes it’s a battle against interruptions and distractions.

What are your writing plan for today? for this week?