Nothing is Set in Stone

 

I admit it, I'm floundering. I've reached the messy middle of my WIP fantasy, and it's....hard. What happens next? How do I use action to show the plot difficulties in a given scene? Which character POV is best for each event? And hardest of all, for me, is working out the nitty-gritty step-by-step of those events in each scene.

Yes, I can change all of it. Any of it. The barrier I'm struggling to cross is I edit too much. Sure, I'm improving the prose, sentence structure, blah blah blah. But I need to save my edits for when I actually finish the first draft. That's when the rounds of editing begin. That's where all those edits *should* be happening.

Anyway, I know all the reasons, and I still have great trouble not doing it. So for 2025, I've set some new writing goals. 

- Write an average of 500 words a day, five days a week (about 2500 words per week). This allows for days when I'm not able to write at all, and days when I write more (admittedly less frequent than the zero days).

- At the end of each writing session, set up a new document for next time that includes only the last paragraph as a reminder. Then Scrivener will open directly in that nearly-blank document. Otherwise I get distracted and start editing yesterday's stuff.

- Work on the pivotal scenes first, then fill in the gaps. Some people have a need to write "in order". I don't. Sure, it's possible to forget details from previous scenes that I'll have to add or change  - but *later*. Nothing is set in stone. Get the darn thing written first. You can't edit a blank page!

- Learn about Scrivener's tracking tools and use them. Scrivener is a great program, with a huge set of functions for writing long-form. But you don't need to learn all those features before you start writing. Just learn them when they're needed. And it's time for me to learn about the tracking tools.

NOTE: Scrivener, if you've never heard of it, is a writing program. It's a one-time purchase, not subscription-based. You have 30 days to try it (the 30 days don't have to be consecutive) before you purchase. It does word-processing, but also lets you organize work, including the manuscript, research notes, website urls you want to save, photos, character info, plots outlines, etc.

The left column is like a binder, where you can drag-and-drop documents and folders in whatever way you want them organized. It also has a noteboard view, where you can re-arrange individual scenes/sections (as long as those are each separate documents). The side-by-side display lets you write and see your research notes in the other screen for easy reference. It can save your writing in various file formats, including pdf and .doc., when you want to send your story to someone else. And that's just some of the features.

No, I'm not paid by Scrivener. I just think it's great software for writing novels - especially background intensive work like fantasy.

- Write notes on paper. Writing on paper is a great way to stay focused. It's more work, so I'm less likely to edit as I go. And there are plenty of times when I think of an idea for the setting, or characters, plot, whatever, that I want to remember but don't have time to sit at the computer and type out.

- Lastly, spend one day a week (at least) doing some other kind of writing, or research. Whether it's this blog, a short story, researching publishing markets or agents, etc. It's shockingly time-consuming to look for places to submit short stories. I submitted a new story to two online magazines in December. There are two more places I could submit to, but one only accepts submissions on the first day of the month. I hope to remember it on Feb 1st. The other's submission period ends on Jan 31st. The response time for all of them is literally months long. Sigh.

So, those are my goals for the new year. Still trying to remember to do them, but I'm getting more consistent. My time has become very unstructured since I retired. You think once you're retired that you'll have soooo much more time. And on a daily basis you do. But in the long term, you don't. And that's the thing, isn't it. I only have so much time left, and I plan to write more than one book. So I'd better get a move on!