I can’t believe we’re into May already! Last week just wheeched by, and I’m still trying to get my head back round the right way.

As you’ll see below, I’m still working on making plot, motivation, stakes, and character changes to my stack of index cards for Working The Asset. In my fantasy version of pre-editing, it was going to be so quick and easy to make all these changes. But it’s not. It’s slow and laborious. Though, not as bad as doing it after writing 80K words.

The pre-edits are helping me craft a pretty incredible story (well, the kind of story I love to read, anyway), and I’ve had to remind myself often that I’m learning a new method and that it will get faster with each book.

If it wasn’t clear from the above paragraphs, last week did not go as planned. But, the story is growing into something that genuinely excites me. Something I know will be worth the hard slog. Something I can’t wait to share with other romantic suspense/action-adventure romance fans.

Review 26th April – 2nd May 2021

My Writing Goals for Last Week

• Make changes and clean up index cards for Act 1 and Act 2a (part 1)

How Do I Think It Went?

Until I sat down to write this, I thought I’d had another bad week. But, even though I didn’t meet my goals, I did get a lot closer than I’d initially thought. For some reason, my daily journal had me down for more work than I’d planned on. Still, I didn’t get it all done.

By the end of the week, I’d made a dent into Act 2a (part1). A toatie one, but a dent none the less (or is it none the least? In the words of Shawn Spencer, “I’ve heard it both ways.”)

So, What Went Wrong?

As I noted above, the week whizzed by for me. There were a few non-work-related things I had to give my attention to—one of the curses of working from home (the only real curse I’ve found over the last decade or so)—and I always find it challenging to get back into work mode after those kinds of interruptions.

It doesn’t matter what I do, music, tea, a hefty dose of coffee, nothing gets me back into the writing flow. Hopefully, one day I’ll figure it out.

Eventually, I did get some work under my belt, the bulk of which was over two days, most of it on Sunday. I’m not a fan of stuffing a week’s work into two days, and it’s something I’m going to work hard to avoid in the future if I can.

Improvements For This Week

I’ve noticed in the past that when I break a task down to micro-micro-goal level actions, I’m able to keep myself motivated. I think it comes down to the momentum of wee wins atop of wee wins. It’s something I’m trialling this week. If it works, I’ll implement it for all future mahoosive goals. Don’t worry; I’ll keep the Schedule section at the macro level.

This Week’s Goals

• Make changes and clean up Acts 2a and 2b (part 1) of the index cards for Deniable Unit #1: Working the Asset (DU#1)

Schedule

Monday	Act 2a (part 1)
Tuesday	Day off/blog post (the one you’re reading right now)
Wednesday	Act 2a (part 1)
Thursday	Day off/work on craft site (braithwaitecrafts.com)
Friday	Day off (Sneaky extra day… Sonic All-Stars with Jez, methinks ?)
Saturday	Act 2a (part 2)
Sunday	Act 2b (part 1)

Do you struggle to get back into work mode after having to deal with non-work interruptions? Or, have you figured out how to dive back in without too much friction?

That’s it for this week on the update front. Thanks for stopping by, and take care.

Susan