Monday again. First Monday of a new month. You know what that means, right?

PREVIOUS MONTH REVIIIIIEW!

*ahem* yes, apparently this is the sum of my excitement for the day.
>.>
<.<
I need to get out more.

Anyway! Let’s see how I got on last week first of all.

Actions Last Week

Double check ‘On A Knife Point’ outline and look for holes, make notes if there are areas that need to be addressed
Sorted. I’m sure I’ve done this a couple of times now but I’m paranoid. I’m happy with it. It’s good. It’s the climax of the trilogy, it’s going to be exciting! Can’t wait to start drafting it.

Write 10k of the new novella ‘Dead or Alive’
Hmm. Well… 8k. Not bad considering the week I’ve had. Sickness. Actual work on proofing a dissertation. Days with no water running in the house. Laptop and desktop slowly giving up. …yeah. I’m happy with that.

DON’T EVEN THINK ABOUT ‘SILK OVER RAZOR BLADES’
Um. Well I didn’t do anything to it if that counts. :p But I did think about it. A lot. I’m getting excited about it again. I guess that’s a good thing, right? ^_^

Targets For January 2015

Outline (in full) the overall arc of the first 32k words of the drama-triangle and decide how the words will be split between the four characters (which make three groups, unless I plan to give Luke his own chapters. Hmm… maybe…)
Lots of changes here. I’ve  split the words evenly between three characters. I’ve totally dumped the Luke character (he doesn’t really belong here) and focused instead on Ileandra (who is now called Kailah), Michael and Diavian. I’m 8.5k words in, which is more than I anticipated at the start of the month. Hell, I didn’t think I’d start it at all, so that’s pretty damn good in all.

Come up with a better title/phrase for drama-triangle (or better yet, title the damn thing!)
Yep. ‘Dead or Alive.’

Check the outline for On A Knife Point and make sure I’m happy with all aspects
Yep. Can’t really say more than that. 🙂

Changes To My Plans

This is a new section to the monthly round up. Last year I reviewed and fiddled my goals in June. This year, frankly put, six months is too long to wait.

My life is so much in fluxx that I need to be able to adapt quickly to all the things that affect my writing. So a month by month review and fiddle is the best way to stay on the ball (and keep all my hair).

In light of that, my overall plans for 2015 now read like this (changes highlighted with red text):

• Publish ‘Silk Over Razor Blades’ through Little Vamp Press by end of May
• Edit ‘Walking The Razor’s Edge’ to completion
• Publish ‘Walking The Razor’s Edge’ through Little Vamp Press by end of October
• Draft ‘On A Knife Point’ (min 100k words)
• Issue all remaining parts from the ‘Chapters of D’nai T’keyah’ novellette for newsletter subscribers (monthly), then switch to quarterly newsletters
• Write 33-4k words of the new newsletter subscriber story (‘Dead or Alive’) featuring Michael Garran, Diavian Hatara, and Kailah Turner by mid February. Send two updates to subscribers in the two newsletters that will be issued once the schedule becomes quarterly
• Edit ‘On A Knife Point’ to completion

Targets for February 2015

With the new goals for the year in mind, what do I need to do this month?

• Complete draft of ‘Dead or Alive’
• Start draft of ‘On A Knife Point’ and complete at least a quarter of the whole word count (25k)
• Query the availability of Karen Perkins and Dave Johnson as their help may be required following any additional edits I make on ‘Silk Over Razor Blades.’
• Send February’s newsletter to all subscribers and describe the changes to come

Activities For The Week

• Write 10k of the new novella ‘Dead or Alive’

Thoughts…

By my reckoning, on the calendar, I have two more weeks to complete the draft of ‘Dead or Alive.’ I gave myself a week’s grace by starting when I did and by aiming for such high word counts. That has put me in a good position now.

With illness and other responsibilities I still produced 8k words last week. 10k is within my reach and with one good day of output I can exceed that. I’m not aiming to exceed, just meet.

To the rest… I realised early last week that while monthly newsletters to subscribers is nice, it’s stretching me incredibly thin. Especially if I don’t have any news. Dropping to quarterly newsletters with bonuses for new releases or specific news means that I’ll always have something (interesting and relevant) to say. It also means I’ll avoid repeating myself. All good things.

‘Dead or Alive’ will need editing before I start to issue it to subscribers. This is an experimental venture, so I will be doing it another way. Not sure what way yet. I need to work on that, but I do know that I won’t be doing anything to it until ‘On A Knife Point’ is drafted. I also know that if I don’t complete the draft by the time it’s time to start the novel, the novella will be put to the side. Novels have to come first. *nods*

On the whole, I think I’m getting passed my previous distaste for changing my plans. I’m also a lot more lenient with myself. Yes… I experience disappointment if I don’t meet my targets, but the fact that DSB has split the big jobs for the year in a way that gives both Raven and I clear space, means that it’s much calmer than last year. I just seems more manageable. Which is good. I need manageable.

Saying that, I’ll need to confer with Raven (hehe) but I’m thinking of letting DSB in here once a month to talk about her goals. Having ours here helps Raven and I so much, I have to wonder if the same would work for her. After all, she has Caladria and the Joined Up Writing Podcast to be looking into. It needs scheduling in!

So what have you had to change this week? Anything caught you ff guard and forced you to reassess your game? I love hearing about all the writerly things you’re up to. Share folks. Share. ^_^