My goodness, time flies when you’re having fun I guess. I cannot believe it is already the middle of December! It feels like I was just getting used to the warm weather and we got 2 inches of snow the other day. What’s more shocking is that I haven’t touched my revised manuscript since I finished the rewrite.
I’m not sure if I’m scared of it, or just want to have the proper brain energy to really dive into it. Either way, it’s been a few months. I plan to reread it soon, maybe over the holidays or maybe at the start of the new year. I’ve gotten some good feedback from Beta readers and now just need to form my own thoughts about it.
Loose Goals
- Start releasing Saving the Music chapters on Radish
- Reread and plan revision of Magick Forest
- Start plotting and world-building for Project Dragon
- Short story practice
I don’t think I’ll hit all of those, but a lot of them can be worked on simultaneously. I do have some stretch goals as well.
- Get Magick Forest professionally edited and ready for querying
- Submit a short story
- Return to an old project I haven’t let go of (secrets)
Loose Plans
They always say that you have to make “SMART” goals to succeed with them. People say you at least need a plan for your goals. “Goals without a plan are just dreams.” I’m not sure if I believe that, but it makes sense.
I do have some loose scheduling, but I’m going for the Caroline Donahue “Meaningful yet Manageable” approach. Basically, you take whatever deadline you have and double it to give yourself more time. We always put ourselves under so much pressure to get things done. But, when we give ourselves more time to complete projects, especially projects that don’t otherwise have a strict deadline, it loses the stress a little bit.
Last year I was working on the Magick Forest rewrite in November/December. For the new year, I gave myself an entire year to get the next draft done because I knew it needed a lot. I WANTED to say 6 months, but I gave myself 12. I ended up finishing in just about 9 months. For Nanowrimo, I told myself I had 2 months instead of the usual 30 days and I’m still working on that draft. I only have about 25k – 30k left till the end of that one.
I’m not going to share with you my schedules for the year. Because…sharing everything takes the fun out of it. Also, I don’t want to put any additional pressure on myself by sharing a deadline.
In 2023
In 2023, I’m looking to give myself more creative freedom. I found that read so much more when I told myself I can read whatever I want. I wrote so much more when I let myself choose on the day what project I wanted to work on. I don’t think I could ever have just one project going thanks to that. It feels so much better to give myself the freedom of the project while sticking to the writing habit schedule.
Basically, write almost every day, but it doesn’t matter what you’re writing. 🙂
I’m bringing back the fun to my reading and writing in 2023.
Happy Writing!
Rachel
Subtle Stories 