Blown Away

I'm feeling like a dandelion, half blown apart and drifting on the wind.  It's already Sunday and time for the next ROW80 check-in?  And it's the half-way point.  Just past it, actually.

I think I have to acknowledge that I'm not getting anything done this round.  I'm spinning my wheels.  That happens to me a lot.  This time, I'm not going to give up and go into hiding over it, though.  I am going to make some adjustments.  If I have to adjust things every week until I find something that works, so be it.

I've started certification training as a Kaizen Muse Creativity Coach this week.  One of the things we'll be doing during training is working on a creative project of our own.  I am choosing to recommit to my story and find my way back into it.

My plans on how to do this may change as I go along.  For now, I'm going to use the novel engage tactic I learned from StoryWonk.  Each weekday, I will do something that helps me connect with and stay engaged with my story for at least 10 minutes.  Some of the things I plan to do:

• Write part of the story
• Work on the outline
• Make playlists to write by or for characters or scenes
• Find outfits for my characters to wear for particular scenes
• Journal as a character
• Work on a writing prompt to make it relate to my story

Thanks for all the words of encouragement, fellow ROW-ers!  You guys are what is keeping me from just putting the whole thing aside again until months from now I can't stay away any longer.  Thank you for helping me keep going!

Novels, NaNo, and No Organization

I have been mentally lax for such a long time now I can't seem to get my mental muscles back in shape.  I'm participating--in a fashion--in the #novelengage Twitter chat Lani Diane Rich of StoryWonk started.  It's a great idea, this engaging daily with your novel even if it's for a short time.  Before I went to Chicago I was doing pretty well.  Since I've been back, I just can't seem to get back in the swing of things.

It's okay, though.  I have a plan.  Sunday I started reading Larry Brooks'(of Storyfix.com) book Story Structure--Demystified.  I really like the way he breaks everything down.  Most if not all of it is stuff I've picked up in various places or just through my own observations about storytelling, but Mr. Brooks does a great job of clarifying the stages of storytelling.  I also like the breakdown of how much of your novel should be part 1, part 2, etc.  He even gives some info on approximately how many scenes should be in each section.  That's really useful stuff for a newbie who's never finished a novel length work and has never actually outlined one, either.

So I'm going to finish reading the book, writing down the story ideas it's stirring up for me, and then I'm going to actually write down my outline ideas.  I'm going to push myself to not panic because I don't have all of my key scene ideas yet--I'm just going to do the parts I know and then worry about filling in the rest.  I'm going to keep writing my morning/daily pages to help me control the anxiety that keeps stopping me.  This week, I am going to stop freezing up because of things that might happen and just do something, anything to move myself along.