So, What are you Working On?

Pixabay

If you're a regular reader of this blog, you know that my top (work) priority flip flops in January, May, August and December. Beginning in January and August, my class planning and teaching responsibilities get top priority. In May and December, my writing projects get top billing, at least until the semester starts again. 

This summer I'm teaching a class, so June will be a mixed bag. It's a small class and one I've taught before, so I'm optimistic that if I establish good habits in May, I'll be able to continue them into June.

So far, so good, even if I did get off to a late start.

So, what am I working on? In terms of short-to-medium length pieces, I've got blogs here, over at Organizing by STYLE and CatholicMom.com and some articles, both online and in print. 

As for novels and book-length work, last summer's list looked something like this:

• Project #1 is a novel with a new cast of characters. Over the past year, with the help of my critique group, I've been tightening and revising and I am within twelve chapters of finishing this stage of the project, which gives it front burner status.

• Project #2 is an idea I've been toying with based on my Organizing by Style blog. Because it's time sensitive, it has risen to the top of the list. Stay tuned for details, which I hope to have available at my Christmas in July Facebook party.

• Project #3 is the third Marita/Angel/Charli book, for which I just might have come up with a title when I couldn't sleep last Friday night. We'll have to see if it sounds as good in the light of day as it did at 3 am. I promise new twists and developments...which is why it's taking me so long.

This summer, Project #1 is ready for its final revision, thanks to the input of my critique book. Unfortunately, Kelsey, Jake and company will end up moving to the back burner because Project #2 has moved from idea to book contract! Writing Organizing by STYLE: The Book (which will obviously need a jazzier title) will be top priority so I can meet my deadline with Our Sunday Visitor Books and the book can come out next spring. 

As for Project #3...take heart, fans of Marita/Angel and Charli. I'm more than 60,000 words and 25 chapters in, so this book is getting written...just slowly. As I've said before, these characters keep surprising me (especially Bets), so I think it will be worth the wait. 

Project #4 is also taking shape, but it won't be ready for quite some time. I have a new character in mind and am using a cool, new (to me) character development sheet I picked up at Ramona DeFelice Long's Pennwriters workshop, "Damsels, Dames and Darlings: Writing Realistic Women." I'm using it to shape my protagonist and perhaps another female character as well. Since this is my favorite part of the process and, since I have several other time-sensitive irons in the fire, you won't be seeing Genevieve for a while. 

And now...my daughter just called to see if I'm ready to go shopping. 

It's going to be a great summer!

Pixabay

A Nudge of the NaNoWriMo Variety

National Novel Writing Month

I don't usually participate in NaNoWriMo, but I'm wondering if this year might be the year to make an exception. Again.

So far, I've done it twice, both with my own agenda in mind. The first time, I was close to finishing a middle grade novel, and I used the NaNoWriMo nudge to get myself to finish the book. By the end of November, the book was finished, but I'd gone off on so many tangents that the last quarter of the book had to be completely reworked. I decided then and there that NaNoWriMo wasn't for me.

Until a few years ago when I had another work-in-progress that kept getting swept to the bottom of the pile. This time, it was non-fiction and I had a plan in place, so, encouraged by an article I read on EBookWriMo, I once again dug in. This time, I was more successful in terms of structure, but less successful in terms of completion.

Once again, I find myself in the midst of a stalled work-in-progress. Time is the factor, but, if I'm honest, so is motivation, and I'm wondering if NaNoWriMo might once again provide the nudge I need.

There's something about writing with friends. The combination of camaraderie and accountability creates a "we're all in this together" spirit and, more important, an energy that's sometimes lacking when it comes to writing solo. I've found this in the sprint group spearheaded by Ramona DeFelice Long; this group keeps me moving in the summer, but I struggle to keep up during the semester. when my teaching responsibilities consume more than their fair share of my time and energy. And, before I know it, much too much time has passed between sprints.

When it comes to NaNoWriMo, everyone approaches it in his or her own way. My sister, a planner by nature, prepares for months ahead of time so she can maximize the month. Others just jump in feet first or dive in head first and start writing.

I'm somewhere in between. Nowhere near the planner that my sister is, I nevertheless require some sort of plan to make NaNoWriMo work, as evidenced my my previous experiences. Having no plan in place as I turned the calendar page, I figured this year wasn't the time to do it.

But maybe it's time to shake things up. Find something different to kick start my writing, and perhaps counting words for a month will do just that. And, if I add in the words for all of the writing I do, maybe it'll provide me with the sense of writing accomplishment I'm sorely lacking at the moment.

So, I'm dipping a toe into NaNoWriMo. I wish I could say I was more committed and optimistic than that, but the fact is, this is an act of desperation.

Wish me luck.

Anatomy of a Sprint

freepik.com

One of the best things about the break between semesters is the opportunity to put my writing first. And, thanks to a great presentation by fellow writer Ramona DeFelice Long, one way that I do that is to make sure I get my writing sprints in. If you're a regular reader of this blog, you know all about my writing sprints, so you understand that getting myself into the habit between semesters (when I have lots of one hour time slots at my disposal) makes it easier for me to maintain the habit once the semester begins.

For me, the ideal sprint remains the one Ramona taught me: one hour, first thing in the morning, before the day takes over, with a goal of writing 1000 new words. This is the gold standard, the one to which I aspire.

The reality, however, is somewhat different.

On a good day, my one hour sprint consists of sixty uninterrupted minutes sometime early in the day. Because I have a high school student living in my house, and because procrastination is part of my writing process anyway, these sixty minutes rarely occur right out of the gate. I usually putter for a bit, checking email and often writing and posting my blog before settling in for my sprint, which occurs anywhere between mid-morning and bedtime.

pixabay.com

Some days, I end up with a split sprint -- the first thirty minutes in the morning or early afternoon and the second thirty minutes in the late afternoon or evening. I try not to cut my sprint into more than 2 pieces, but some days, it happens.

Perhaps the most useful sprint variation I've stumbled across is the sprint as a means of digging into an unpalatable or overwhelming task. For me, that task is revising. I hate revising, but there's something about breaking revisions into one hour chunks that makes the process much less painful. By telling myself I have to revise for only an hour, I've already taken an insurmountable task (revising an entire novel!) and made it more approachable.

I rarely "cheat" and count writing I'd do anyway (blog posts, for example) as my sprint time. Regardless of how I do it, when I do it, or how many chunks I break it into, I think sprinting is meant to advance a work-in-progress.

What task do you want to tackle, but keep putting off? Could a sprint be the answer for you?

A Writer's Notebooks

officedepot.com

I am a notebook nut. In fact, I imposed a moratorium on my notebook purchases after a recent organization of my office revealed just how many brand new notebooks I already had in my possession.

In addition to my new, just-waiting-for-the-right-project notebooks and the many others in various stages of usage, there are three notebooks I use daily.

My Word Count Notebook. I chose an old steno notebook to record my daily word counts when I began Word Count Wednesday last spring. The two-column format is perfect for this: the date and the task go in the left-hand column and the number of words I wrote goes in the right hand column. In addition, I note writing tasks that did not yield new words (such as revisions) in the left hand column. For these tasks, time spent goes in the right-hand column.

This notebook has a place of honor on the right hand side of my desk. I leave it out because its very presence serves as a nudge to tackle my writing and revisions.

My Sprint Journal. Ever since I attended Ramona DeFelice Long's workshop at the Pennwriters Conference in May, I have been trying to do a writing sprint at least five days a week. Ramona advocates sketching each sprint out in a notebook, but pantser that I am, I like keeping my options open, so I journal after I sprint. Weird, I know. Ramona's planning makes a lot more sense from a logical perspective, but I've found that journaling post-sprint works better for me.

I'm repurposing a calendar as my sprint journal, so each entry includes the date, the length of my sprint(s) and the number of words accomplished during the sprint. Because I make sure that I write in my sprint journal daily, this journal also includes what I did on the days I didn't sprint (e.g. class planning, family responsibilities, etc). This notebook is a companion to my word count notebook, and as such, sits underneath the WCN on my desk.

My Catch-All Notebook. Decades ago, when I took my first course through the Institute of Children's Literature, I was taught to carry a notebook everywhere I go to jot down ideas as they occur to me. Decades ago, this wasn't necessary. As I prepare to celebrate my 53rd birthday, it has become essential.

My catch-all notebook is just that -- a little bit of everything. Slightly smaller and much more beat-up than my WCN or my SJ, it goes almost everywhere I do. As a matter of fact, when I make my daily trip to Starbucks, I often have to remember which bag I used the day before so that I can locate it. Right now, it contains lists of boys' names (I am struggling to find character names I like for my work-in-progress), samples of my daughter's handwriting (guess what traveled to a medical appointment with us last week), lists, class planning notes, and partially written blogs…among other things. I buy these basic notebooks three to a pack at Staples when they go on sale because I like the size and the fact that the pages are perforated.

I don't think I'm alone in my notebook peculiarities; I think proper notebook selection is a quirk many writers (and students) share. It's all part of finding the right tool for the job. To some, the overlap among my notebooks might seem inefficient, but it's a system that works for me.

How about you? Are you picky about your notebooks? Big or small? Top spiral vs. side spiral (or no spiral at all)? Lined or unlined?

A Sprint of a Different Kind

http://run.isport.com

I sprinted yesterday. No, not the running kind. Despite the fact that my daughter is nudging me to be better at going to the gym, the physical sprint is not in my foreseeable future.

Yesterday's sprint was a writing sprint. Not at all surprising since I was at a writing conference, and a quiet hotel room seemed the perfect place to put theory into practice.

Sprint writing consists of setting aside an hour long block of time and attempting to write as many words as possible in that hour. 1000 words is the target, but depending on the task attempted at a particular sprint event, sprinters may legitimately fall short of (or exceed) the target word count.

At 9 AM, I attended Ramona DeFelice Long's workshop on sprint writing and by 10:25, I was back in my room, listening to the clock tick and staring panic-stricken at a blank page. Once I got started, it was a pretty good first effort, but I also learned a few things as I set my sights on that first finish line.

http://www.freepik.com

1. Taking advantage of opportunity is a good thing. That was actually a theme for me throughout the entire conference, but more on that later this week. Although my first effort at sprinting left me a bit winded (see #2) and I didn't quite make it to the end of my hour due to a welcome interruption, taking advantage of the quiet hotel room while the idea and the motivation were fresh got me off to a good start.

2. Warming up is necessary. Ramona told us this, but since I squeezed my hour in between sessions and check-out (okay, I actually skipped the last workshop), I cut this step due to time constraints. Consequently, I strained myself. Not my muscles or ligaments as in a physical sprint, but rather my confidence as I attempted to leap into a task without first making sure I was ready to attempt it. Though I haven't yet started a sprint journal like Ramona's, even five minutes of warm-up in the form of reading the pages that preceded the section I wanted to write would have eliminated the panic-stricken, time ticking away feeling that almost sabotaged me from the start.

3. It's important to be ready to adjust -- which is different from walking away completely. Life happens, and while some of it can be held at bay for the hour of sprinting, interruptions will occur. My welcome interruption came in the form of my sister unexpectedly returning to the room. Because she's a writer, too, I could give her a quick explanation and keep typing, but since we had to be out of the room and at a final session shortly after her arrival, I ended up finishing my thought, jotting down my word count and stopping ten minutes early. While that has to be the exception and not the rule if sprint writing is to work on a regular basis, it's important to accept that despite proper preparation, some sprints will be curtailed before reaching the finish line.

4. Keeping the end in mind is key. I am writing this blog in a sprint (and hoping to finish it and move on to another work-in-progress about halfway through my sprint time). Before I post it, I will need to add links and images, but because I'm writing this in a sprint, those finishing touches can wait -- at least today. On days when time is tight, I may need to work them in during my sprint, but since today's schedule is flexible and I want to maximize my sprint time, I will write for the entire hour and add finishing touches later.

5. Turning off distractions is key.  Ramona told us this should be part of our prep, so I closed my email program before I started. But, since I am composing this post online, notifications keep popping up on the upper right hand corner of my screen anyway. My daughter's iPad is charging on the kitchen counter and it just beeped to announce a notification. Today I am determined and focused, so those distractions are easy to ignore, but on other days, their mere presence could be enough to pull me from the task at hand, allowing me to lose precious time and concentration. I'm learning that consideration of my state of mind and distractibility will play a key role in my warm ups.

6. It takes time to turn sprinting into a competitive event. Let me clarify -- the only person I am competing with here is myself. Though I will usually post my sprints on my writer page and tweet them on Twitter, the purpose of doing so is to build camaraderie and community; it's kind of nice to think of other writers clicking away at their keyboards while I'm clicking away at mine. But when I speak of turning this into a competitive event, I mean earning my best word count. Just as a runner seeks to shave seconds off her time each time she sprints, a writer seeks to add as many good words as possible each time she sits down to write. Preparation, practice and determination all play a role in achieving this goal, as does the knowledge that we are all human, and so some days will be better than others.

http://www.freepik.com

This new (to me) approach -- one of so many great ideas I gleaned from last weekend's conference -- fits perfectly into my life, especially as I transition from the semester into the summer. In my case, the key to a good sprint will lie in the preparation. Yesterday's warm-up was minimal, and that hurt my outcome. Today's was better, but I still need to make a few adjustments.

But even an imperfect sprint is better than no sprint at all.