Back To Work – The Climb #654

Monday 7^th December 2020

The first thing to do is make a list.

I started this yesterday. And yes, a large part of it is to write up and post two weeks worth of The Climb. Regardless of whether anyone reads them or not, the idea is to get me back into the habit of writing. Small spurts of 500-600 words, recording the stats in my Writing Metrics log.

There’s other stuff to be done as well. Each edition of The Climb needs a thumbnail. In 2020 where I’ve spent so much time indoors I’ve tended to batch shoot these and then try to mix them up so I’m not dressed the same each day. It’s cheating, but hey, there’s a pandemic on! With the last two weeks, I want to make it’s clear I’m talking about gaming so I intend to use screenshots from in-game. I’ve gathered a few as I’ve gone along, but I need to vary the locations so I might need to gather a few more as I progress this week. Then it’s a case of resizing and adding the logo.

Further afield there are other things I have on my list. There are activities that got put on hold for my WoWcation, together with future plans.

I’ve always liked to plan for the year ahead of time. I hate the idea of getting to January 1^st and then sitting down and making a list. 2020 has been a year where I’ve tried to plan more, and considering the disruption of a pandemic, I’ve done pretty well. There are a few things I haven’t managed to do, nor do I think I’ll get them done in the coming weeks.

So after getting the backlog posted, my focus will turn to 2021 and what I want to do.

In non-conscious preparation for then, I’ve found myself organising my week into areas. I originally started this in 2020 so I could vary the content of The Climb. Monday was for productivity, Tuesday for HEMA, Wednesday for Warcraft. Of course, big events like WoWcation could take precedence, but the idea was that in planning my week ahead, there was always a natural day for any task.

And this seems to be a framework for my year ahead. Those daily topics are my framework onto which I’ll hang my plans. If I’ve learnt anything over the last few years it’s that progress is made little and often. Small goals every day or week feeding into big goals every year.

I already know that I want to write a few novels in 2021. I have one I’m part way through that would be great if the draft could be completed by years end. I have another that is still in idea stage that I think needs lessons learnt from this one. And then there are a couple I want to redraft. I realised I do need a small break between each one, and if WoWcation can serve as anything more than just a break, it’s an experiment in whether something like that can act as palette cleanser and a way to recharge. I’d like to get to a stage in 2021 where I know just how long a first draft or edit takes me, and how much space I need inbetween.

I’m hoping HEMA comes back in 2021. I had been planning on launching my own school in 2020 but that got put on hold. Currently I’m thinking September 2021 might be a sensible but flexible target. However, before then I need to get back in shape and ready.

I want to start doing some video. I might use Warcraft as a topic to experiment with.

I also want to do some work with other types of writing and that may mean a few interesting little side projects.

But for now, it’s about getting back into the swing of things. I suspect it will take a few days before I’m caught up but I plan to just progress until I am and then segway into using the same writing sessions for fiction.

In the meantime, my messy ToDo list will become a little more tidy as I organise tasks into set days for different activity focus, and that will start feeding into my 2021 planner.