I don’t make resolutions, but it is time to consider what I want out of this year and what I’m willing to do to get what I want. This means it is time to enter the Planning, Plotting, and Preparing mind set. Writing out my plans does not guarantee I will accomplish them, it provides a gentle reminder for those times in the year when I find squirrels far more interesting than they should be.
Top of this year’s plan: Writing. Not a surprise, but it’s important to write it down. Here are the books I plan to write:
- Midnight in Line and Form – In progress – about ready to send to editor
- Midnight Something (tossing around several titles in my head) – ready to get started
And one more book. I know I can do it, but I haven’t decided which one to do, and I haven’t written two books in one year before. Planning! A must to stay on plan.
Other writing tasks I plan on taking part in: (All begin 1 April)
The annual A-to-Z Blog a Day Challenge celebrates its 10th Anniversary in 2019. I participated last year and had a ball. The plotting begins now: What will I write about every day for the month of April? I have some ideas, but I nothing concrete. So, I mark my to-do list to sketch out a plot or two. No preparing till I’m sure of the topic.
NaPoWriMo: In 2018 I combined the blog challenge with the poetry challenge. This year, I’m considering not combining them. My planning for April needs to be precise if I am to plot and prepare items for all challenges in April.
Camp NaNoWriMo: I completed this in 2018. Was it cheating to do all three with the same material? I think not, since the material lead me to other projects for my blog, my poetry, and my fiction.
Planning provides the means to accomplish all these things. Remind me of that when you see me huddled in a corner crying in the middle of April.
The plan for January is planning. Can’t remember a time when I ever organized my year in such detail. Hey, maybe this is my “Do something new” everybody talks about in their New Year’s Resolutions.
Plan for the year, live in the moment. You may hunker down in April, but you will play in May. I agree with planning and prep as keys to keeping frustration away.