Managing Expectations, Goals, and Writing

August 2020 is done and we are into September. Still 2020, but a new month, so I’ll take it.

Ending August was rough. We left summer vacation mode and jumped into full remote learning for our daughters. That meant we had to fully deal with the reality that the fall was going to be a lot like the summer and the spring. And that realization was very, very, difficult. We’ve had to manage expectations around what this next new normal would be and how the days will go. We know we are not alone and as I keep reminding them and myself (all the time, each day, everyday) this will not last forever.

I realized that the first quarter for my writing goals was complete and took some time to look over how June through August went. In that time I managed to finish the first revision of MS:D (wahoo!) and I completed my plan for revising MS:SB. I also started revising MS:SB and the addition of a prologue and the reworking of the first few chapters has made this next draft exponentially better already. I did hope to do some work on MS:L, but that fell a bit to the side as ideas for Nanowrimo 2020 really began to fire off in my mind, especially this past month. I know the manuscript I want to write for Nanowrimo this year will be the third and final book in a trilogy I’ve already written the first two books for. Knowing that, I have started to make notes about how the characters in books one and two will meet, interact, and move together through this final piece of their journey in book three. Moving into second quarter, I have two major goals. I want to continue working on the revision of MS:SB, and then get ready for and complete the Nanowrimo 2020 challenge.

Working on describing what the writing process for me is last month really helped me start to get those ideas for Nanowrimo out of my brain and onto the page in a more organized manner than I have in the past. I started a Scrivener document and have pages set for collecting notes about the characters, the world, and ideas for scenes within the story. I’m excited to really expand on that document in October and get ready to complete the first draft of that third manuscript, which will be referred to as MS:R, for the Nanowrimo 2020 challenge. For right now, I’m going to focus on revising MS:SB. The plan for MS:SB is set, I’ve already started the revisions, and knowing what I want to do to tweak the rest of the story will make it a much smoother revision process.

What goals are you working on this month? Are you thinking about taking on the Nanowrimo challenge this November? What was the last thing you worked on that you were really excited about? In case you haven’t been told today, you are doing a great job and you are enough.

Happy Writing!