5 Steps to complete today:
1) If you don't have one already, create a space devoted to your writing.
2) Organize your space. Purge and cleanse the space of everything but your manuscript and notes. Organize extraneous notes in file folders by chapter or add to your Plot Planner.
3) Hang your Plot Planner for easy viewing. Keep extra sticky notes and a pen nearby.
4) Create your writing schedule for the new year. Take out the 2013 calendar you bought.
Think long and hard about your daily life and obligations, and your personal best and most productive times of the day. Decide how many days a week you are willing to devote to your writing. Add an extra day to that.
Now mark on your calendar the days and time you will devote to your writing.
By scheduling in your writing time, you'll be more apt to stick to the schedule. Plus, when friends or family or work request/demand your time, you'll more easily tell them the truth:
I have a pre-arranged appointment at that time. We'll have to come up with another time.
Without the pre-scheduled time, chances are much greater you'll put yourself and your writing last, which invariably means you'll not get to it.
Don't despair if you find honoring yourself and your writing time is difficult at first. With practice, you'll find yourself joyfully committed to your writing time. An added bonus is that when the muse finds you consistently showing up, creativity is more readily available to you. The habit itself creates miracles and mysteries.
5) If you plan to write during family time, consider creating some sort of signal so family members know you're working and honor your uninterrupted time. Isabel Allende lights a candle and as long as the candle burns her family knows not to bother her. Hang a sign with "office hours" for that day. As long as the sign hangs, no one enter. The more seriously you take your writing time, the more seriously your family and friends honor your writing time, too.
Available Now:
The Plot Whisperer Book of Writing Prompts: Easy Exercises to Get You Writing gives you the inspiration and motivation you need to finish every one of your writing projects. This book guides you through each stage of the writing process, from constructing compelling characters to establishing an unforgettable ending. The book also helps you get into the habit of writing creatively every day, with brand-new imaginative prompts for how to write a novel, memoir, screenplay with a plot.
Join me here 1/1/13 and together we'll write our stories from page one and working our way through the prompts all the way to the end.
To familiarize yourself with the basic plot terms we use throughout December:
1) Watch the plot playlists on the Plot Whisperer Youtube channel.
2) Read The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master
3) Fill out the exercises in The Plot Whisperer Workbook: Step-by-Step Exercises to Help You Create Compelling Stories
4) Visit:
Blockbuster Plots for Writers
Plot Whisperer on Facebook
Plot Whisperer on Twitter