Before we begin, a little song . . .
More on that later.
As we kiss 2020 goodbye (more like kick its sorry ass out the door), 2021 has a head start on being a better year for the simple fact that it’s a new year. We won’t get into the deets on why, that’s already been established. With a new year comes new chances, new adventures. And the dreaded New Year’s Resolutions.
To cut to the chase, this year I vow to write everyday—be it a sentence, a paragraph, an entire chapter. Every day I will write. Something. Even if it’s garbage. Even if it has nothing to do with anything.
I vow I will write for ten minutes every day in 2021.
I will allow myself to break this resolution only in extreme circumstances—illness, special occasion, my birthday. This should be an easy resolution to keep. Every night I have my computer on my lap (I guess that’s why they call it a lap-top, duh). There is nothing keeping me from opening a new document and spilling out the digital equivalent of word vomit. Resolution met!
Read More
It’s gonna cost me precious writing time, but I’m gonna read more than I do already. I typically go through a book a month. I’m no marathon reader, for sure. This year, I’m going to try to double that.
So to meet that, what’s the first thing I did? I splurged. I bought myself a monthly subscription to a book box. I’m a bit bummed to see only YA available in monthly boxes, at least those that will ship to Canada at a reasonable price. So my monthly sub will provide my YA fix, and my monthly trip to the book store will have to continue to provide my Fantasy fix.
Dream More
80% of my ideas come in those long hours it takes me to fall asleep at night. Insomnia’s kinda a jerk that way. Since the pandemic began and I’ve been relegated to the confines of my house for medical reasons, my anxiety has shot through the roof. As a result, I’ve sometimes refused to dream up ideas for my novels.
This year, I’m going to throw that out the window. That is because I’ve figured out why I refused to dream. Fear. I was afraid that if I dreamed up a really good idea, I wouldn’t be able to write it. Working from home during the day means just that—I need to focus on the real world. I’ve learned that’s much easier to do in an office environment, but takes an effort at home where there are so many distractions.
My number one fear was getting a great idea and either shrugging off work to write it (and risk losing my job) or doubling-down on work and forgetting the idea completely.
Then I realized something.
Admitting my fear was the first step to getting out of this writing rut! From there, I could only go up. So once I get to spewing out the word vomit, I figure I also need to take care of the stuff I’ve already written.
Edit More
I have two novels that need to get out the door. They’re in rough draft-mode. I need to get them through self-edited mode and out the door to venture into the world of The Professional Editor. Dun-dun-dun.
Editing, especially the professional stage of the art, is something I’ve come to figure out is more like smoothing out the icing on the cake. It’s not meant to be hurtful or painful. It’s not meant to feel like you wrote a piece of crap. I’ve come to realize that I’m great at spilling out a story—I can mine the gems but I can’t polish them. That’s what my editor is for—polishing up the chunks I’ve dug out of my mind and organized onto paper, digitally speaking.
I need to get those novels out the door, and they won’t get anywhere until they’re edited. So above and beyond my reading and writing resolutions, I will also edit my novels and get them out into the world to be come grown-up novels.
Pay Attention to my Muse(s) More
Okay, okay. That is not grammatically correct, but nothing in my mind is. Least of all, my muses. And of those, I have an army.
Now, I’d like to think my army of muses is well-put together, mildly behaved, and perhaps just a little introverted. But in reality, they’re just as messed up as I am—prone to silliness, absent-minded, and definitely less mature than they should be.
One of the things I need to learn is how to organize my army into a strategic, plot-killing armada. When writing, I often pull out one muse at a time, put them through hell, and then put them back in their cage. I’m not too good with making them work together. Each muse is a one-man/woman-show. If my army is gonna write a novel, we all have to work together.
I suppose that means I need to start with organizing my own brain first. I’m far too obsessed with making lists, organizing things, and putting pen to paper. This is exactly the opposite of my pantser tendencies, and I’m fairly certain I do this just to procrastinate. So that leads me on to my last goal.
Ease up on the journalling
I have five writing journals. FIVE! I’m certain they’re enabling my procrastination and lack of actual writing. This year, I’m going to retire three of them and allow myself two: my reading planner and my writing-journal-slash-bullet-journal.
I’m keeping my reading planner as a way to organize my reading. If you’re interested in one, you can find one in your local book store, or download templates for free with a simple internet search. This planner is something I couldn’t come up with on my own (that, and I just love the quality of a mass-market planner).
I’m also keeping one of my writing journals for the sake of jotting down ideas when I get them. This journal will also double as my bullet journal to track my day-to-day. Keeping my writing journal whittled down will force me to type out more of my thoughts rather than writing them out by hand. I have so many ideas stuck in my journals that organizing them and typing them out is taking away from my actual writing time.
Keep up with the Wiki
This one was a pleasant surprise for me. Although 2020 was the first year in a long time I didn’t complete NANOWRIMO, I did keep the wiki on my latest WIP alive and growing. One of the hurdles of picking up an old work and continuing it was trying to figure out what the heck I was doing in the first place. What is this character’s motivation? Why did I make this bird talk? Was Number Five really the shooter on the Grassy Knoll?
When I kept my wiki up-to-date, I found I wasn’t back-tracking as much to figure out what in the world I was thinking when I wrote scenes or chapters. It was also a place to keep track of the little details, like eye colour. As I wrote my scenes, I’d take notes on the purpose of the chapter, where I wanted to go, and any little Chekhov’s Guns that may need to be fired somewhere down the storyline.
I use an open-source product called wikidPad, available at SourceForge, which I think I’ve mentioned before. I believe there’s a scaled-down Android version but I haven’t used it. In any case, I love it to pieces. In place of my library of notebooks, I’m going to strive to use my wiki more often. Keeping things digital instead of analog will be a challenge in itself as I love writing things by hand. My pens and pencils will need to take a break this year.
Wrap it all Up
Finally, since I’m putting all my eggs in one digital basket—aka my computer—I’ll need that most important of regiments, the backup. With a Gmail account, that’s easy. Google Drive is an easy place to drop off files I’ve been working on. With that I need to keep in mind that Google’s cloud storage isn’t infinite as they’ve recently implemented an inactivity trigger.
My Android tablet will serve as a secondary back up and will also double as a portable version of my works should I find myself stuck in . . . well, I dunno. In the “new normal” will we still be allowed to loiter in doctor’s offices and watch our children in karate classes? Those are questions for future me. For now, I’ll consider that as a ‘piece of mind’ back up.
I’ll set a schedule for these backups. Depending on how much I write, I’ll backup to the cloud at least once a week and backup to my tablet once a month. Backups won’t be limited to just my word files. I’ll back up my wiki and any Photoshop files I have on the go, such as cover art ideas and maps—betcha didn’t know I do my own cover art! Five years in website design before my current adventure in environmental services has taught me well.
Have you set your goals for 2021 yet? My advice would be to not go all-out. Start small. Make a small goal you know you can meet every day or every week. Write ten words a day, or write for ten minutes a day. Do ten sit ups a day or exercise for ten minutes a day. Small things. Baby steps. I find if my goals are too big they start to feel like work and obligations. My inner teenager rebels against those societal strangulations outside of my adult world and actual paying job, in which I thrive on deadlines and obligations.
Work-life balance, right? Or maybe real world, fantasy world balance fits better.
Until next time!
– Rissa
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