Happy Father’s Day to all!
Reflection on My Progress as a Writer
I must say that I have come a long way in these past few months and arrived at a place I thought I would never be in: fully prepared to write my first manuscript. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been here (or thought I was) before, however life circumstances always managed to push aside what I had desperately wanted to accomplish. Now that I’m on my summer break and no longer working overtime, I’m fully devoted to working on my manuscript/first book project.
Prior to this resolution, I discovered the genre I wish to write for: Romantic Suspense/Thriller. For all my incomplete book projects, I leapt in with the notion that I would finish the manuscript and everything else would fall into place, without realizing that I needed to know my audience, what genre I’m writing for and even what publisher I’m considering submitting it to. This time around however, I’ve worked out the first two and intend to work on the latter towards the end of my outlining process.
For this three month endeavor, I intend to use my previously defined creative paradigm or writing process: Snowflaking Outline with a Hint of Seat-Of Your Pants. It is my goal to make an extensive outline, mapping out my characters and the setting, which I have deemed to be my weaknesses. Along with that I will sketch out each of the scenes I intend to include in my novel, but exclude any explicit details; this is where the seat-of-the pants writing comes in. I like to write my scenes this way just to see where it takes me, but at the same time have the definitive structure of my scene overview so I don’t veer off-track.
Yet another thing I’ve learned as an aspiring writer is the importance of setting attainable goals. By this I mean, goals that you can actually reach within the context of your writing habits and busy lifestyle. As it stands now, I’m far from a professional writer’s level of being able to devote enormous amounts of time to their writing. Quite frankly, I have far too much going on to able to devote 5+ hours to my book project. So instead I created a plan that I believe I can follow with ease. It requires that I devote an hour to my writing each day, which is really nothing, and set out to write 800 words a day. That may not seem like a lot, but by the end of the six days I intend to write, I’ll have a total of 4,800 words. And on the seventh day, I will edit the work I’ve completed so far.
From making this plan I’ve realized that all the other writing plans I’ve made have been unrealistic when compared to the busy life I lead. It was because I decided to time myself and see how many words I could type in 15 minutes that I was able to devise this new writing plan. Because I tested this out, I now know that writing 800 words a day, 400 a half hour, 200 in 15 minutes are manageable and therefore I can achieve my daily and weekly goals with ease. It’s all about knowing yourself and your limitations when it comes to devoting yourself to writing and I think I’ve started on the right track toward improving upon this skill.
I look forward to the start of my project and hope to share my weekly success (or even failures) with you, my fellow writers.
~MEM~
You have come a long way since I started reading your works. :)
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