TL;DR version: I’m not sure if what I write below is a system, but I do have a daily order to getting things done. Breathing helps, so does focusing the attention on where the passion lies and then working on one thing at a time.

I don’t deal well with overwhelm. I love having lots of projects going on at once but of course, this means that occasionally they collide and I feel lost and overwhelmed with it all and wish I can do it all, when i know i can’t. Today is one of those days.

My current writing to-do list looks like this:

• Write RS11 posts (about 5 of them)
  
• Continue writing ETT book draft
  
• Write emails to peeps
  
• Work on reviews for W&P
  
• Write potential tarot essay for publications.
  

Earlier, I posted this to my Twitter feed:

Feeling overwhelmed with all the things I gotta write and catch up on. It’s another hunker down and do it day.

Which got this response on Facebook from a friend:

Would love to know how you deal with that. Do you have a ‘system’ or other advice?

To tell you the truth, there is no real cut and dry thing to how I get so much done. I’m not even sure I have a system. I do keep a list of everything I want to do in a day but I don’t really nail it down with priorities. Setting priorities usually backfires on me because while I may set a deadline, my mind will want to work on the bottom thing. So I’ve decided not to do this unless I have a HUGE external deadline looming.

I usually work on a project until I run out of steam, or need feedback, or whatnot. This allows me to rotate through various projects during the day and never allows me to feel bored.

All this said, however, I do have some bits of a system that I do daily that gives me large chunks of time for writing.

First thing every morning, I go exercise. Running is my meditation and it allows me that sacred 30 minutes of having no thoughts fluttering through my mind. My mind is so hyper that there are times when I wish I could turn it off.Lately I’ve been adding 15 minutes of weightlifting and another half hour of stationary bike into the mix.

Once I’m done with the exercise, I stay out and about to complete any errands. This includes library runs, post office runs, groceries, etc. I find that if I don’t get the out of house items done, then these tasks weigh on my mind and nothing “gets done” at home.

Once I am at home, I take some time to check email and then clear out the social media clutter. I’m horrible at replying sometimes, so I do a quick scan to make sure I’ve written a response that needs to be addressed. (I usually try and respond to things in 24 hours or less. If not, it’s because I feel overwhelmed and have no idea what to say.)

Then I look at my writing to-do list and pick one item that can be completed in short time. Usually, this is a blog post or email. Something to get the juices flowing and the achievement meter up. Sometimes, I’ll fire up the industrial music and pick a good hard beat to get the juices going. Having the music pumped in through headphones also helps to focus that energy.

Once quick items are out of the way, I get to the long-term projects. These I work on in small chucks– half hour to an hour. Doing short bursts of energy on these projects gives me the ability to feel like I’ve worked on them, as well as giving my body a break from being at the keyboard for so long. I sometimes forget to breathe, so this regime also allows me the time to breathe and refocus energies to the next item on the list.

I also try not to write past the time my hubby comes home. I want to reserve the time during the evenings for him and me. So far, it’s worked pretty well.

Feel free to post any questions about this… until then, I’m off to work on those Readers Studio posts!

Recently I dusted off that notebook and revisited the idea of keeping a usable writer’s notebook. Having done NaNoWriMo for a decade and relearning how to do scene tracking helped spur this decision as I needed to figure out how to collect all the new data.

The first thing I did was to think about what I wanted to track and how much obsessive organization I wanted to dump into this thing. When I write by hand, I tend to write haphazardly and without rhyme or reason. I write longhand in short bursts of time because of the death grip I grip pens with (I am getting better— big barreled pens help). Therefore, realistically, I need a notebook that’s simple and flexible to manage both fiction and nonfiction works in progress (WIPs). I didn’t want to micromanage sections down to plot, theme, character, dialog, setting, because I’d never use it. So, this incarnation of my writer’s notebook had to follow the Keep It Simple, Stup!d method.

The new notebook, then, contains the following sections:

Submission Tracker. I wanted to keep a written list of current projects and their status of Draft, Revision, or Published. In the past I just listed the names and then a date of publication but I decided that this wasn’t really good book-keeping. So in the new book, I use a Cornell Note sheet and in the open left hand space, I list three boxes: D (for draft), R (for revision), and P (for published). Next to this, in the gridded box, I have the name of the project, and then I list the start date, any info on the publishing place, and when the item got published. I draw an X through each D/R/P box as the piece goes through my writing process.

Work In Progress. This section contains whatever notes and scenes I track on each current fiction or non-fiction piece. It also contains tarot readings done for characters and plot.

Freewriting. Occasionally I enjoy taking time to just write with a pen and see where the Muse takes me. This section contains those bits and pieces that may or may not end up being entered into Scrivener.

Quotes. I collect quotes and wanted a place to write or paste sections of prose that I enjoyed reading. I’ve got quotes from fiction titles, author interviews, and other various locations stored in here for my reading pleasure. Sometimes this reminds me why I’m in the writing biz altogether.

Blank papers. What’s a good notebook without a steady and handy supply of blank papers to jot things down. This section seems pretty self explanatory, really. I hope.

Pocket Folder. Trailing the blank papers, I have a pocket to stuff handouts, biz cards or materials that I’ve printed out and don’t want to manually bind into the circa notebook. I foresee items in the folder rotating in and out depending on what I’m working on and where I am at in my career.

And there you have it. This the new writer’s notebook, and amazingly I do use it and have been since I made it.

I originally wanted to post this recap of Saturday’s awesomeness on Saturday or Sunday but my brain was feeling a bit too fried. Doing it today also gave me the distance I needed for perspective. One of the fun events that our Vancouver region does during NaNoWriMo is to do an all day writing event. Known as Write in Motion, this year we wrote across the town at various spots.

To summarize the event, We had a blast! Our ML, nancy, and I discovered that together we wrote one half of a novel in just one day with our combined word counts! As you recall, Kender dared me to wrap up my novel Saturday. And I’m happy to report that I beat that challenge and wrote 13289 words.

Leg 1: 8:00-10:00 at di Tazza
Wrote 4684 words
Woke up bleary eyed and ready to write at the gawd awful early hours of the a.m. I ordered a apple turnover and a medium sized non-caffeinated hot chocolate and grabbed a spot. Others slowly started trickling in and soon we had a rousing group of about 10 people hammering away at their word count. My friend iScribe joined in on the fun and she also brought her viking hat of writingness. During this leg, I uncovered that I could write about 2500 words in an hour and that sugar is just as effective as caffeine for fuel.

Leg 2: 10:15-1:45 at the Cascade Park Community Library
Wrote 5364 words
Nine brave souls, caravanned to the library and felt the pressure of the parking lot of poor planning. We quickly rushed into our room and got all set up and quickly started writing again. Nancy led us through a short stint of wrist stretching (which I think helped my wrists from getting sore the entire day). This leg also contained a lunch break, some of us fell into some discussions about writing, using Scrivener, and other writing tips and tricks. Personally, I was shocked to see that, despite my “slight” lack of focus, I managed to somehow kick out almost 500 more words in this leg. Talk about the insanity.


Leg 3: 2:00-4:00 at Barnes & Noble
Wrote 3241 words
After lunch, we drove to the local Barnes and Noble, who had a circle of chairs ready for us in the back corner. Many from the last leg dropped out but we were joined by a few more writers. Our numbers totaled 9 again and we sat in silence as we typed. About an hour into this jaunt, I finished my novel, stretched, and wandered around the bookstore looking at all the various stories, hoping that one day my stories would also be found among the shelves.


Leg 4: 4:15–6:00 at Three Creeks Community Library

Spent this leg decompressing from having my brain explode from writing so many words. I did work on a bit of tarot group homework so I did get some writing. I also tried to fight of the sadness that usually comes from having spent intense time in a world or a story and then having to close the back cover on it so quickly. I will return back to the SGI world, once it has had some time to sit and stew and is ready for revision.

Leg 5: 6:15-8:15 at Van Mall Round Table
The final leg was more of a wrap up and party than an actual write-in, even though two intrepid authors kept working Had some more zany fun here with the 6 remaining authors, I even invited Kender to join us. We were all highly amused at the “WRIGHT BOOK” sign on our door. Guess they didn’t realize we were writing books, right? Hee. Ahem, in any case, we tallied up the total words, played the NaNoLand game and ate pizza.

All in all it was a wonderful experience, filled with frantic typing and great camaraderie. I have forgotten how much I do enjoy writing with other authors and I really should plan to make some more writing dates with my peers soon. Oh and while I may be done with my 2010 nano novel, I still have plenty of words that need to be written elsewhere, namely my blogs, the first draft of my tarot book, and crocheting a bunch of items requested by various peoples.

I’ve done it! I’m now on the backside of 50k words. I’m not sure if it’s all downhill from here but it does feel good. Julien has returned to the Earthborn plane and has been mirroring Tracy around. He’s trying to get a feel for what is going on and observing her activities throughout the day. He has yet to contact her directly through dreams but that will come soon enough. I did get Julien in trouble by first attempting to shift Tracy’s aura so that it’s more relaxed. Then I had him use her computer to try and uncover what happened after he died. As there was no info on it, he got frustrated and acted out. Which drew attention from those in the house. Julien has fled back to SGI HQ and tomorrow we’ll see what that does for him.

Amazingly kender (the world’s best nano cheerleader) put today into perspective for me. I told him that I felt like I was slowing down because it took me 4 hours to write the goal when it took a mere hour to do it a week ago. He said:

It’s natural to slow down. At the beginning of the book, you don’t have to worry about consistency. So you can just fly along. And as you go, you need to keep track of more stuff.

Which is so true, and I’m a bit amazed that I didn’t think about it. He also recommended that instead of writing everything in one shot, like I have been doing, to break it down into two 1500 sets. That if I do that, it may help me continue to write.

ETA: okay, so kender kicked my butt in gear and told me to write more. So I did. I am now on track to finishing this draft on Saturday when I do the Vancouver Region’s Write in Motion. I’m planning on writing 10k words that day throughout the day. Let’s see if I can do it and finish the novel.

Hooboy. What a weekend. I didn’t post anything mainly because I was busy with a Tarot Intensive that my friend Katrina Wynne was putting on. Pretty much ate most of my waking time over the weekend. But I did manage to write just above the normal daily word count all three days.

So what is going on? Well, I graduated Julien and introduced Tracy and her plight. What a plight she has going on. Things are just getting worse and worse for her and finally she called out to have help from “the powers that be.” Julien is now briefed on her case and he’ll be sent Earthbound to observe and see what he can do for her.

My goal is to try and keep writing 3000 words a day and to wrap this up by Thanksgiving. Then it’s time to switch gears and work on some other things that have been neglected.

Today I took the plunge and badly wrote a car race and wreck for my MC Julien. Basically, the goal was to kill him off so the real story starts. A friend of mine remarked about why I did two days of “prewriting”, and I basically told her that I wanted to have a pre-living and death scene in the story so that the reader has a small chance to connect to the MC. This way we can watch him develop from a jock teen to a spirit guide in training. Tomorrow the fun part starts as I get to figure out the ins and outs of SGI, Inc and introduce both Julien and the readers to this new world I’m trying to create.

Most of the word count was achieved while doing a small 15 minute word war with my friend Lyndsey. It really helped me focus and hone in the time to write. And it gave me a reason to ignore the IMs popping up on my screen. Word count achieved, I rewarded myself with a sushi treat from Freddy’s and a Lavender soda.

Spent most of last night worrying about today’s writing and the rest of the week. I’m going to be out and about Friday through Sunday at a second Tarot Intensive in Portland. I know I’ll get it all done but I worry about how much writing I’ll get done in between the hours I’ll be gone and sleep and exercise. Ah… who am I kidding, this is nano. Sleep is for the weak. *gryn*

In 2008, while I went crazy and wrote a novel in a month by hand, instead of posting the whole thing live, I wrote about my writing experiences. This was partially based off a fellow writer (and friend) Jamie Grove. I didn’t do this sort of coverage last year but due to the whole social network thing getting tied into the site and all, I think I’ll bring it back. Click the more button to read on!

So welcome to the first day of NaNoWriMo 2010! *insert clapping and cheering here* For me, the day began at precisely midnight:01 as I attended this year’s Midnight Write-in at a local Shari’s dive. By midnight, we had about 20 or so writers sitting around 10 tables waiting for the darkest hour of the night to arrive. Many of the new friends I made last year were here and we had a good time chatting, discussing the merits of Scrivener (who not only released a new version of the software for Mac today, but also have a beta out for Windows), and general writerly camaraderie.

The moment the clock struck twelve-oh-one, we were off like rabid rabbits eating everything in sight. I started my nano playlist and let that carry me to victory. Strangely, I was nervous before actually beginning to write but as I continued to hammer out the words, the only calm I experienced was that of my fingers moving really quickly across the keyboard. I wrote about the life of Julien, my MC, while he was still alive and in high school. I ended today’s word total with him speeding off in his new car to get ready for the race that will end his life.

I won the first Word Wars with something like 900+ words in 15 minutes (or was it a half hour, can’t recall) minutes. I then slammed through the rest of my remaining daily goal of 2500 to reach it in about an hour’s time. Wow. Talk about fast typing.

I’m feeling good. Spent most of today cleaning the house and getting ready to hand over those duties to Kender who’s been an awesome cheerleader so far. Also did a bit of prep research for tomorrow by trying to find out what muscle cars and or drag racing cars were popular during the 1960′s. Asked for kender’s opinion and he gave me a good idea that will pit the two cars I found against each other. In any case, I’m looking good for tomorrow.

In any case, as soon as I asked the question, “How did you get assigned to me?” the seed of a story idea flooded into my mind. I then said, “Never mind. I guess this sort of answers it.” And thus, Spirit Guides, Inc. My novel in-progress for 2010 was born.

Here’s the novel in a nutshell:

Where do our spirit guides come from? How are they assigned to people?

Welcome the world of Spirit Guides, Inc. (a clouded company) that handles spirit guide counseling between the spirits of our ancestors, animals, and other creatures, and their corporeal Earthbound companions.

This novel follows the adventures of Julien as he learns the ropes of becoming a licensed Spirit Guide. His first assignment, to protect Tracy Springer who’s soul is slowly being destroyed by a member of the rouge organization called The Shadow Group.

And here’s a glimpse of the banner I created for the novel to use on the NaNo forums.

Creating a playlist of songs, helps me set my story pace. There are fast songs and slow songs and I find that I have to have a certain pace or beat to fill the gaps between each major plot point. So, behold… here’s the playlist for my 2010 NaNoWriMo novel. Enjoy!

1. Branwen Slayne by Faith & The Muse from Annwyn, Beneath The Waves
2. Twist by Tones On Tail from Everything II
3. Who Am I? (Animatrix Edit) by Peace Orchestra from Animatrix Soundtrack
4. Silent by Fiction 8 from Forever, Neverafter
5. Jacob’s Chain by Jamin Winans from Ink The Complete Soundtrack
6. Sister by She Wants Revenge from She Wants Revenge
7. Devotion by Necessary Response from Blood Spills Not Far From The Wound
8. Who You Were by Jamin Winans from Ink The Complete Soundtrack
9. John’s Walk by Jamin Winans from Ink The Complete Soundtrack
10. Light & Dark by Mind.In.A.Box from Lost Alone
11. You by VAST from Visual Audio Sensory Theater
12. Don’t Fade Away by Dead Can Dance from Toward The Within
13. I Melt With You by Nouvelle Vague from I Melt With You/Teenage Kicks

Today I pulled out one of my writing notebooks and decided to put my own writing to the scene test. I broke open a new pack of Circa storyboarding sheets (sadly, Levenger does not make these anymore) and sat down to practice this process using the past four years worth of NaNo novels. I sat down with each novel’s plot outline and started unraveling the story into scenes.

For each storyboard bubble, I wrote down a location and then listed all the actions underneath. Here’s what I found out:

• In 2006, I had 11 scenes.
• In 2007, I had 11 scenes.
• In 2008, I had 8 scenes.
• In 2009, I had 12 scenes.

What does all this mean? Well, it means that I am well under the 20 scenes of a modern day script masterpiece. (However, the quality of my first draft prose is debatable). This gives me a bit of a new quantifiable way to break down my novels and story structures to see what is going on and perhaps give me some insight into fixing any issues when it comes to the revision process. And using storyboarding paper is fun, especially if you know how to draw and can create images to go along with the scenes. (Sadly, my bubbles have no pictures yet.)

I have not started a plot outline for this year’s NaNo novel entry. But now that I’m aware of the value of tracking scenes, I know that I’ll try and have no more than 12 scene changes in the whole book.