Author Journal 23rd – 29th January 2023

Hiya 👋

I hope you all had a fantastic week because I certainly did! This week was one of the most productive weeks I’ve had in months, and I have yet another secret project to share with you.

Last week, I mentioned I was working on a series of blog posts about writing romantic suspense. What I didn’t say was I’m also working on a non-fiction book series to help other romantic suspense writers.

When I say “working on,” I mean I’ve mapped out an eight-book series that’s easy to digest, with each book being around 20-30K words.

Last week, I finished drafting the first book, and I’m working on the first draft of the second one. Hence the upcoming series of romantic suspense posts.

I got so caught up in working on this series that I started to worry that I wouldn’t have enough time to work on my main project, Running the Asset. But, I took an hour to figure out how to do both projects without sacrificing time for Adam and Elle’s story.

My mornings are often limited and filled with distractions, so I decided to work on the non-fiction book series in the morning. After an interruption, I find it easier to get back into working on non-fiction things. On the other hand, afternoons are usually quieter and have fewer interruptions, making them perfect for working on fiction. So far, it’s been working great!

Review 16th – 22nd January 2023

Here’s what last week’s goal looked like:

• Scene blocking for new scenes (Running the Asset)

Here’s How It Went

It went great! I was in a bit of a panic about going back to scene blocking. As you may or may not know, I have an aversion to scene blocking. So much so that I’ll do just about anything to avoid doing it. But ever since I developed my scene cards (well, printable A5 sheets with prompts), it’s been a whole lot easier.

I finally forced myself to sit down and go through my Scene Cheat Book (SCB) as I cry it. It’s basically a brief synopsis of what happens in every scene in the book—created after I finished writing it.

As I went through the SCB, I noted which scenes were missing or needed a total rewrite. Once I’d done that, I grabbed my pre-printed scene cards and went to work blocking out those scenes and slotted them into the SCB.

By the end of yesterday, I had all of the new scenes blocked out and ready to work on this week.

This Week’s Goal

I’m a bit nervous but mostly excited to get back to writing fiction after such a long break, which is handy with all the new scenes blocked out.

So, this week’s fiction writing goals:

Write Intro Adam (Act One Scene Two)

Write Elle’s got company (Act One Scene Three)

Those should come in at a total of 5K words. I think that’s a decent aim for my first time back with fiction writing.

On the Non-Fiction book series goals:

Complete drafting of Book 2

That’s my plan for the week. Fingers crossed that I can make it happen!

What are your goals for the week? Let me know in the comments!

Wishing you all a great week!

Thanks for stopping by, and take care.