Step Three… Clean Up and Plan…

Two Things to Get Ready to Go…

Cleaning Up…

Stunning how much just basic stuff gets forgotten or left behind as a year goes on. Some of my most brilliant organization plans at the start of any year are often in tatters by the end. For me, this year was no exception.

For some reason, while I was in a sling, my writing computer just decided to alphabetize all my files. Yeah, that was a shock.

So the last two nights I have been cleaning up my writing space, putting notes in order, and getting files back with their series. Oh, joy, but by the 1st I will be rolling and organized once again.

I can not begin to underline the importance of this simple step to your writing.

Planning…

Impossible, even for those of us who write into the dark, to not have something to help you fire up on the 1st. Ramping up as I talked about yesterday helps. But goals or projects or even just forms of writing help a ton more and can make the difference between getting started and being frustrated.

Two years ago, in 2022, I set out to write a short story per day for the entire year. Made it past 100 days in a row before missing, but knowing the form I was going to write was critical. (I didn’t know which story or anything when I sat down on the first, just knew it would be a short story.)

Starting a new novel is a great thing to do on the first, even a new series. Why not?

And plan word count goals. Say you have four days to write, and have three hours per day. Get 3,000 words a day done for those four days. And keep your writing time sacred. Publishing time can be garbage time as that pops up. Keep your planned writing time firm.

So step three as you ramp up the writing is to organize and clean and plan what you are going to do when you start. And remember to keep even all this stuff fun.

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Reminder… The Targeted Workshop Sale is going on. Check the previous few posts for details.