Normally I spend December prepping for the next year. I get a work schedule in place, I go through my books and writing, and I figure out what I want to accomplish for the following year. Technically, I did do most of that. It’s just that I’ve had a couple of realizations within this past month and I’ve decided to change some things. Well, not change things per-say, but I’ve decided to do some things differently – change some habits and be more open and less stressed. (Which, I guess, is changing things…)
I’m sure you all know at this point that I’ve been participating in the 85K90 Writing Challenge. January is a month of writing though I’ve been using this month to outline and prep. So, if you take a look at my progress tracker on the page, then you’ll see that I’m extremely behind. I’m not behind at all though, I’m just figuring things out. The nice thing about this challenge is that you have three months to write 85k words, but you also have April as a buffer in case you get behind. (April is also Camp NaNo where I’ll be writing 50k words regardless, so I think I’ll reach 85k by the end of April in no problem.)
The other day, the kids I babysit had a lot of homework. They were both sick the previous week so they had a lot of make-up work on top of their regular homework. It took them about an hour to an hour and a half to get their home done each day all week. So, I let them have a little extra iPad time throughout the week because they worked so hard and they were exhausted.
Thus, my brainstorming session.
I made a chart in my Brain Dump notebook for the entire year following the schedule of the 85K90 Writing Challenge. January, February, and March are writing months. May and June are editing months. August and September are prep for publishing months. October and November are publishing months. April, July, and December are finish months, which can be used to finish whatever you didn’t yet or they can be break months. Then there’s also Camp NaNoWriMo and NaNoWriMo in April, July, and November. Two happen to follow on break months and the other happens on a publishing month, which will most likely continue to be prep for me.
I knew I needed to prioritize my writing and figure out what projects I wanted to get done this year. I needed to look at which stage each project is already on and line them up with the appropriate months.
In 2019, I’ll be working on six to seven books. It seems like a lot, but honestly – I’m including Sunday Morning, which will be published soon. I’m also including two novellas. Yes, I’m going back on Wattpad. It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything on there and I have a couple ideas for some short works. I definitely need to update my profile and such, but I’m planning on publishing two more novellas on there this year.
In addition, I’ll be working on George Florence & The Perfect Alibi, volume two of Sunday Morning, another project I’m not ready to announce yet, and… whatever I decide to write during NaNoWriMo in November. At least I have some time with that! Who knows though, I might use that month as a “rewrite” month for certain projects.
I’ve prioritized my projects and broken them up into the outlining, writing, and editing stages. I’ve designated each month of the year to work on two or three of these projects. As long as I stay focused and everything goes according to plan, I’ll have a few books completed by the end of the year. I’m looking forward to it.
I’ve updated the My Books page if you’d like to see the projects I’m working on and tentative deadlines for them.
Do you have a writing plan for 2019? Do you have a backlog of books to work on like I do? Let me know in the comments below. If you liked this post, please share it around.
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