Last week was hectic. So hectic that by the time I got around to posting my journal, it was already too late—like Friday late—and I decided to skip posting it.

It’s not that I had a lot of unexpected things pop up. Nope. I knew about them. I just hadn’t set time aside for them in my planning. Well, that’s what I thought until the same issue occurred this week.

It wasn’t until this morning that I realised why I’ve been so short of time the last couple of weeks, and the weeks before my holiday time. The time-culprit is so obvious that I can’t believe I missed it. My schedule changed. Monday hasn’t been the first day of my week for a while now. Yet, I’ve been planning everything around it being that way.

The first day of my week is actually a Thursday which explains the major “noh” feeling I get on a Monday—my Friday. Therefore, I’ve decided to post my journal on Thursday from now on.

With that cleared up, here’s how last week went.

Review 27th May – 2nd June 2021

My Writing Goals for Last Week

• Complete Action Step (AS) 36 from Sparking Story Drafts by H. R. D’Costa

This step aims to ensure I’ve not been too soft on my characters. Basically, it’s going through all my index cards and checking to see that I’ve got enough obstacles for them—and that they’re entertaining—and adding more if there’s not. This step also aims to ensure that the characters act in a realistic, human way, i.e. snapping at other characters when the shit hits the fan.

Did I Achieve My Goal?

No, I didn’t manage to complete AS 36 last week, though I did make a decent dent in the task.

How Not?

It wasn’t all down to being short on time or missing the obvious fact that I’d cut my week short. It really comes down to the changes I’d made to the index cards. All those plot changes didn’t have the number of obstacles between the main characters and their scene goals as I’d liked. And coming up with multiple entertaining obstacles takes more time than I want it to take.

Onto this week.

This Week’s Goal

Complete Editorial Pass #6 (of 7): Character (Sparkling Story Drafts) for Working The Asset.

Okay, this goal is probably a wee bit over-the-top, but I’m going for it. There are many moving parts and a heap of work involved, but I’ll be one editorial pass away from the actual writing if I can blast through it.

It wasn’t until I was doing my goal setting for June that I saw the finish line up ahead. If I really get my head down, complete the last two editorial passes, I can have the first three chapters/10,000 words of Working The Asset under my belt by the end of the month! ?

Schedule

Thursday	AS 36 and blog post
Friday	AS 36
Saturday	Read chapters 38 and 39 of Sparkling Story Drafts (SSD); AS 37
Sunday	Read chapter 40 of SSD; AS 38a; read chapter 41 SSD; AS 38b
Monday	Read chapter 42 SSD; AS 38c; AS 38d; celebrate completion of Pass #6!
Tuesday	Day off–bike ride
Wednesday	Day off–bike ride