To do list:

• Print up Social Media Consultants Write up (Regarding creating content, posting schedules, and strategy for communicating effectively)
• Write up my notes for my last session with my consultant, and print them out
• Gain familiarity with the recommended audio and video programs, then, produce a few videos in preparation for posting.
• Gather all of this together, in addition to doing some more marketing research, to be ready for a meeting with a friend in Big Leagues, traditional Advertising. They are willing to sit down with me, take a look at my books (The second one is ready to publish on Amazon), take a look at my current approaches and give me detailed, professional advice (Welcome!)

Then for the actual writing “To – do”

• Journal! The story has, again!, gone in a different direction than I was expecting (hoping), BUT, I think its better, still…
• Journal the current change in direction in order to internalize it, and, reconcile my inner desire with where the story is ACTUALLY going. (Something I’ve found Very necessary in order to continue with forward progress And, reduce disappointment / resentment. (Yes! very much a thing).
• Set a word count goal.

Something a friend of mine said to me, awhile back

“So glad you’ve gotten away from those self imposed daily, word counts. So toxic.”

Well, they aren’t really. And, I tried to explain why daily word counts were good for someone like me. No, I won’t always meet them, BUT, they help to force me to confront that reluctance I feel when the story is not going in the direction I feel it should, which, causes me to jump to my journals and try and work it out, and,

When journaling is getting me nowhere, its a sign that I need to just,

Write!

And see where that takes me.

Not so much writers block, as, writers quicksand. I get stuck, and, everything I’m doing just gets me trapped that much worse, and, I’ve learned, that if I keep doing what I’m doing, I’ll drown in it and go absolutely nowhere, thus,

Journaling has proven to be that anchored rope I can use to pull myself forward and out, But, it necessitates actually writing, as I’m journaling, to get me out of that bog, and,

Word counts are a very visual, visceral, metric for seeing whether I am still in the bog or not.

I’ve found, that a Very modest, 2K words a writing day, is a good indicator of progress. When I was writing my memoir, I could hit a high of 10K, But, there the scenes are memory, not, imagination, And, very importantly, I know where the story is going. I know the middle, the beginning, and, I know where I am at.

It greatly helped that I didn’t have to “process” much of the past or present. Doing that would have made the job impossible.

Which, leads me to…

This current novel is one which strikes very close to home. Its themes and threads are very personal, even though they are in a completely fictional setting.

In working on the first book of the third series (It is also born of the poems I’ve written, But, those poems are Very different than the poems like “Raven”, or, “Mammoth”, or even, “Love”. Very different, and, once again, they all seem to fit within a greater whole.)

But, in working that first book of the third series, I found that it is far less “personal”, and, I can easily support a 2.5K – 3K writing day word count.

I’d like to get to about 3.5K a writing day (I don’t write on Saturdays, and, working from home brings up all sorts of distractions, and, duties. Something I need to work on / learn to incorporate).

From my experience with the memoir, my 5K days did not really involve any more “time” at the keyboard, what was different was how easily the words flowed and how little need there was for journaling, or sitting back and letting the images form and allowing the scenes to “Breathe”.

Also,

One of the things which happens when the scenes take on a life of their own is that, they can go in such wildly disparate directions from what I’ve envisioned that, I end up either scrapping the scene, journaling, then, reigning in the writing based on what I’ve learned from;

• The scrapped writing (For it can often tell me a great deal about the characters, the setting, and the storyline itself.)
• The journaling session (how well did I integrate what happened?)
• Re reading the sections of the story affected

Doing all of this takes time and, it causes this, very, very new writer, to, hesitate / falter.

So, Journaling first, then writing, then the marketing stuff. I have five days to get my marketing work done, and, three and one half of those days need to be writing days.

There it is.

You are learning of this process with me!

Be Blessed!

-Timberbee