November 1st is on the horizon. I have my plan. The ultimate goal for this coming month that will help to save my sanity over Christmas break and the following the semester. I’m going to finish those lectures and the novella. And maybe do some work on the Draft 2 outline for HiS. I’m not going to give in to the whisper of any Sexy Other Projects.
Nope. Not gonna do it. That project is not on deck at any point in the next year. I’m not sure when it would be on deck. It’s this crazy story about the apocalypse and and angel who has to convince an athiest that she’s a prophet who can stop the end of the world. Talk about your ultimate impossible relationship. It’s an idea that’s reared up and taken me by the throat two or three times this year, long enough to make copious notes on the characters (which is about all that I have). It’s on my mind again since I just finished Covet and have been thinking about angels and the End of Days. The apocalypse actually features into the meta plot of my Mirus series, so maybe eventually I’ll figure out how to work around to making it a part of the series.
Or who knows, possibly the series won’t make it, and I’ll make it its own standalone thing. Obviously, not hoping for that one.
Either way, I’m definitely hearing the siren song of literary abandon that is NaNo and wanting to drop everything to write like a maniac for 30 days.
Not. Gonna. Do. It.
I must be grown up and responsible or my life this spring will be hell because I procrastinated. Procrastination is a BAD THING. Every time in my life I have ever done it, I’ve lived to seriously regret it. Well, except for the 8th grade Invention Convention when I won 3rd place with my left handed pot drainer that I didn’t think up until the night before. But the balance still weighs heavily on the Don’t Procrastinate side of the scale. I simply can’t juggle things well if I procrastinate. I have to spread stuff out and do it at a steady pace or I’ll go nuts.
That’s another reason I keep trying to fine tune my plotting method. I pretty well decided after HiS that since I’d plotted the whole thing first I wouldn’t have as much work to do second time around. WRONG. So I’m thinking that I need to hit the high points. Figure out the major plot points as outlined in Larry Brooks’ story architectures posts at Storyfix.com and then just plot the specifics from one major plot point to the next, write them, then do another round of plotting. One of these days I’ll hit on the right mix for me.
Anyway, the October Novel Push Initiative is just about over! So participants be sure to report any words you haven’t already by NOVEMBER 1st! I’m skipping the week 4 update since we only have 2 more days before the end, when I’ll be reporting everybody’s total word counts and daily averages.
2 thoughts on “Resisting Temptation”
Don’t go there, Kait! You can do it — stay strong, resist the shiny new plot! I know the feeling, but you are right, working steadily and surely is the only way to have good, solid projects COMPLETED rather than a bazillion half-a*sed ones sitting around without a publisher. The new plot will get there, just give it time.
I actually am so close to finishing my first novel and have learned over the past nine months that I am a detailed plotter. I started reading a book recently in anticipation of beginning my next story: First Draft in 30 Days by Karen Wiesner. It actually is an outline, not technically a draft, but I had seen Angela Knight mention it on her blog. It is very close to the kind of detailed plotting I like to do ahead of time, although I substitute my own worksheets for plot based on the storyfix story structure, which makes more sense to me and is just as detailed. I plan to start with plotting as soon as I finish this novel (hopefully during Nano!).
Now if I could just figure out which of the two possibilities banging on the door to my brain to choose for next in line…
NPI word count for today: 3002! Woohoo! 🙂
Kick BUTT! That’s an awesome word count! As an aside, think I have figured out how to put shiny new plot in the universe my other stuff is in, which means it’s WAY on down the line in the timeline.