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 |
I hope the desk is still neat and tidy 🙂
I can still see some of the surface… when my coffee mug isn’t there 😬
Well I suppose that’s OK then 😀
😁
That sounds like good progress to me, Susan! I’ve been cruel to a couple of characters this week, but the most important development has been that I’ve changed the gender of one of the MCs. It has really improved the whole dynamic of the story.
Oh, changing MC gender is always so interesting and fun. I sometimes play about with ages as well.
I have to say, I enjoy being cruel to my MCs on the big picture things, my issue is the wee things. Things like, you know a supporting character will agree to give up info, but I sometimes miss the opportunity to make the MC twist and struggle to get the SC to give up said info.
All part of the fun to take every opportunity to make a character wiggle on a hook! I’ll be working on some more of that soon.
Happy writing, Susan 🙂
I’m starting to get into the fun of the micro conflict of scene work, rather than concentrating more on the machinations of the big bads.
Happy writing to you, too!