The Year Keeps Rolling On
2020: the year the world as we knew it splintered into something else.
Every time I think I've got a handle on the situation and I'm coping fine, something pivots in my brain. I'm sure many of you know the feeling - what's the point in doing normal things when the world's going steadily crazier by the hour?
But, here's the thing: I'm a writer and a writer writes. It's an intrinsic part of who I am, plus I invariably feel worse when I don't write. So, I have to write. Simple...right?
Since I released Such Crooked Wood in April, I've been in drift mode. I wrote about this at the beginning of August and, sad to say, little has shifted since then. I've been working on an edit of a short political novel which I hoped to finish by the end of August - I'm still only 20,000 of the way in to what is likely to be around 45,000 in total. I've been meandering on some edits for my episodic historical novel but getting nowhere fast.
With three months left to the end of the year, I need to set some goals and (more importantly) get myself in shape for 2021. So, I've spent some time over the last few days playing with tables in Airtable (database software that's basically Excel with a better look) and I've come up with a framework for 2021.
But what about the next three months? Well, here's what I want to do:
- Finish the political novel draft (October)
- Write a short story set ten years on from the events in But By Degrees (October)
- Participate in NaNoWriMo (November)
- Finish edits of episodic Victorian novel (December)
That's the author side of things done. I've also got Rhubarb Writing Shed to think about now we're fully up and running (more about that in a future blog post):
- Finish and release 99 Random Questions (I missed my deadline because I was wallowing in the pit of 2020)
- Welcome more members to RWS
- Run the dedicated NaNoWriMo Shed on RWS throughout October and November
Listed like this, it's all rather intimidating, especially when I factor the day job into the equation. And there are the new kittens to contend with...
Again, that's a post for another day!