Tuesday 18th May 2021

I’m still trying to work out how it’s happened but I seem to be in a position where I’m on top of everything.  Yes, I have a novel I need to write but that’s progressing quite nicely.

Part of the reason for that is because all the other things I need to do have been done.

The last few months have seen things shift a bit, both in terms of focus, but in terms of juggling projects around.  Social and HEMA projects that I’d hoped I could kick off in September have been moved to 2022 due to ongoing uncertainty.  I’d rather kick them off when I’m back to full strength and when whatever the new normal is, has been established and we’re all used to it.  Writing projects have changed and are progressing.

There are also a few big projects that I’m waiting to hear back on.  The screenplay was sent in January and I presume I’ll hear back on that sometime soon.  I think they said they’d get to everyone at the same time, but part of me likes to imagine that the delay is because I’ve made it pretty far.

Then there’s the detailed outline that’s been sent off.  That could result in a ton of work or it might not result in anything.  Either way, I got paid for it.  I hope to hear in the next couple of weeks.

All this has left me wondering whether I’ve shuffled things back too much and should work on some additional projects OR whether clearing a lot of stuff in March and April to make way for the outlines that became my sole focus is for the best and is allowing me room to not feel overwhelmed and get writing done…. Not that I didn’t do writing, I just felt I hadn’t.

Whichever it is, the new daily log is proving a big help.  Not every hour is productive but I don’t expect it to be.  But I do try and do something productive each hour.  The result is that a lot of small tasks I’ve been putting off have got done.

I think my position is to leave my task list lean in case I get extra work, and use that free time to do some projects round the house or some fitness goals.  No doubt those will start bulking out my ToDo list in weeks to come.

But the net result is that I’m feeling very productive over the last couple of days.  It feels like the last few days of sorting and working through my ToDo list has cleared my backlog.

I’d still like to get more writing sessions in.  I try to space them between other work.  I’ve found that whereas I would write 100-1500 words a session before the pandemic, I’m now down to around 500.  That got up to 600 today, but I’d still like to get more sessions in over the course of the day.  However, I realise that doing 5000 words a day isn’t something that you just switch up to, nor is it something that can be continued indefinitely.

Interestingly, I’m finding my scenes for this book also coming in around 500 words.  Is that the book dictating the session length or the session length dictating the size of a scene?  The plan is to switch between viewpoints during chapters and I’m having fun writing something slightly different each time I sit down to write.

If I can continue this and get the number of writing sessions up by the end of the week, then this is going to have been my most productive week in ages.

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Past Years: 2020 – The Year of Being Fearsome | 2019 – The Year of Soldiering Through | 2018 – The Year of Priorities | 2017 – The Year Of The Offensive