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mistressofmuses) wrote2024-08-07 10:46 pm
Writing Goals/Calendar:
And it's time for another semi-monthly check-in on my writing progress!
The year so far...
January - March was pretty much a dead zone, where I accomplished very little.
April was devoted to a belated editing project for a friend.
In May I finished my own belated writing project, getting the last lingering unfinished fics from last year completed.
June was more editing and then also beginning the process of getting my own fics categorized so I can decide what I'd like to work on.
My goals were:
- Finish the idea inventory for my fanfic ideas, making sure I liked the ideas I narrowed it down to, and start doing rudimentary outlines of those.
- Do the idea inventory for my original fiction ideas, narrowing them down to a few favorites in a couple different categories. Then, again, doing basic outlines for the ones I'm most interested in.
- Once the outlines were done, I planned to pick my favorites out of each category. Tentatively, that'd be four works: one KH fic, one non-KH fic, one "serious" original idea, one iddy original idea.
- Then I hoped to figure out some way to facilitate working on multiple things.
- Maybe post at least a little bit about the theoretical WIPs here.
And how did it go?
- I did finish the idea inventory for fanfic... mostly. I shuffled a few things around, and the list changed a little bit. Rather than true outlines, I mostly did a document for each talking myself through what I liked about the idea or wanted to get out of the fic, including some general reminders of desired tone or particularly important plot beats, as well as downsides/challenges/aspects that didn't appeal to me or needed serious reworking.
- I have not really done much at all with my original fiction.
- As I didn't get through that, I have not done more traditional outlines, much less selected the next ones to work on.
- Definitely haven't gotten to the "how to do this."
- Didn't post about any of the potential WIPs here, though still plan to.
So... not great, but also not completely terrible. I did at least work on some things, if not making quite the progress I'd hoped.
Outside of creative stuff, work has been extremely stressful and left me with less energy and interest in things, so I'm trying to be very cautious about how hard I push to do things. I don't want another span of months during which I don't write at all because of burnout.
Plans/Goals for August:
- Decide which of the fanfic ideas get full(er) outlines. Right now I'm leaning toward eight of them, of varying lengths.
- Do for the original fics what I did for the fanfics; narrow down the ones I'm interested in, then write up a document for each of them detailing my goals for each, the aspects I most like or dislike, the things I want to make sure to include, etc.
- Do more complete outlines of at least a few of the fanfics.
- Continue being glad I did not try to commit to AUgust this year, lol. (To be clear, zero animosity toward the event, and I may do it again someday! It's great and very fun! I am glad I did it both the years I did... but it was hell spending nine months trying and failing to finish the challenge last/this year.)
For September and beyond:
Trying to be a bit more realistic for my current writing pace.
In September I'd like to finish outlining any fics I don't get to in August, and I'd like to decide which of the original fics will be getting more complete outlines.
In October I'd like to outline some number (to be determined) of original fics, and then begin the rough drafts of at least one or two works.
Today I tried to really take a look at the eight fic ideas I've decided I'm most interested in, and think about what a realistic timeline would be for completing them. My strong preference is to complete two full drafts of each fic before I begin to post, so that it is complete and getting nothing more than last SPAG edits before I share chapters. I do not plan to change that - I hate hate hate posting as I go, and would rather not share anything at all ever than having to do so.
Since most of the fics I like the ideas for are probably going to shake out at least around mid-length, novella to short novel length, I don't think there's all that much hope that I could have all these things outlined, PLUS at least two full drafts of something done before probably the middle of next year, and that's if I at least initially focus on a single project more than I was intending to. (Though it may be worth doing that, just to give myself SOMETHING I can start to share.)
Even the most ambitious timeline I can think of - get one mid-length thing done early next year, then the short one that I want to share over the summer, then another mid-length one later in the year, then the shortish holiday one at the end of next year, then plan on the other two mid-long ones the year after that, with the hopes of maybe having gotten the REALLY long one also done by that point...
That's only looking at 8 fanfics, and NOT taking into account any of the original works I want to work on, and it's already basically trying to plan out my next two and a half or more years of writing, which feels... a bit daunting! And that is considering a very ambitious pace that I know I will not realistically maintain. It'd be more reasonable to double it, I think, which means this is suddenly a 5-year fanfiction plan, which sounds RIDICULOUS, in part because how do I know I'll maintain interest in these same ideas for that long? Am I resigned to not having anything that grabs my interest between now and then? What if I DO find the new fandom I'm longing for? If I add in my original works I want to work on, and consider alternating between fanfic and original fic, then is this a whopping 10-year plan???
Now, talking myself off that ledge a bit, the goal of this whole reassessment/outlining/plan for the future is not to actually stick rigidly to this as a schedule. My intent with getting the outlines done is to provide a sort of pool of ideas I can pull from and work on when I want to, with some of the groundwork already in place so that I don't have to feel like I'm starting from scratch, and so I can also combat the decision paralysis that I'm often afflicted with. If I have new ideas that I get and like, I can start from scratch and add them to that pool or let them jump the line entirely. If I lose interest in something, I can move it to the pile of other temporarily or permanently discarded ideas.
"The time will pass anyway" as they say, and having some choices narrowed down is something I think will help keep me from spinning my wheels quite so badly; I keep running into spending months not quite able to find something to work on, feeling like everything is too much work to start, then getting discouraged because I haven't worked on anything in so long, and knowing it'll be months and months before I have something to show even once I do start. Five years from now, or ten years from now, I'd rather have those eight or ten or twenty fics/original works completed, regardless of how silly it feels right now!
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But seriously though: can I just... make the ideas happen, and the writing be good? Lol.
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Our processes are similar in that regard! For multi-chapters I'm rarely/never 100% done but the major work and rework should be completed by the time I start posting.
"The time will pass anyway" is quite a powerful statement. Good luck picking out your one next thing at least!!
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"The time will pass anyway" is one of those quotes that really did kind of attach itself to my brain as a useful reminder. It helps me with perspective, when I look at how long a project could take. The time will pass, whether I'm working on something or not.
(Which is not to say that I think everything needs to be productivity grind! No! But if the thing that I find MOST daunting is "this will take so long..." well... the time will pass either way.)
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Good luck with all of it!
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Yeah, the whole idea of what and how to tackle these different things is very much a WIP in itself. I imagine there'll be aspects of it that I realize suck and don't work, and maybe some new strategies that help manage some of the issues... or at least I hope so!
Thank you!
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