Some you Win, Some you Lose.

Sometimes things don’t work out as you expect. I’ve been participating in a 100 day writing challenge, which has been great. I love updating my status to confirm that I have actually been doing the work required, and I’ve only had two flex days, days where I haven’t done any writing at all.

I’m happy with that. But in the last week, I noticed that I was writing less and less on my Dragon Lore story. The reason? I was pantsing the story. I was making it up as I went along, which is okay, except I’m a plotter. I like to know where my story is going how it reaches its conclusion. With Dragon Lore, I wrote myself into a corner, and I couldn’t see any way out.

So, what do I do when I get in a situation like that? I stop writing. That’s right. I stop writing, because what is the point in writing a story that doesn’t make any sense and keeps going around and around.

But I haven’t stopped writing completely. While I have stopped on Dragon’s Lore, I started on my Contemporary Romance, Racing Harts sister, Faith. I even plotted it out on a Romancing the Beat Sheet, which was an interesting experience. While most of the time I plot I have an idea of where the story is going, Romancing the Beat is about the romance and the ‘beats’ are the parts of the story that make it a romance. While I like it, it isn’t totally how I plot, but I can see how it can be added into my usual plotting methods.

And I haven’t completely given up on Dragon’s Lore. I just feel that I need to step away from it for a bit, and then come back with fresh eyes to understand where I want the story to go and how to get it back into shape.

Have you had problems you’ve had to face this week? How have you resolved them?

Take care

Catherine

Phew!

Yesterday, I managed to spill some wine on my laptop, and I was scared as hell, that I had damaged it, but it seems I may have got away with it. It wasn’t a lot, and I immediately turned it upside down on a towel, then turned it off. The last thing, as a writer, I need is to lose my means of writing. Fortunately, everything is backed up, to the web and onto a hard drive as well, so I have everything, but its still scary. I’ve lost 30,000 words in a manuscript once, and that was hard enough. Remember people, always back up your information on your computer!

Other than that, I have spent some of this week reading up about breast cancer in preparation for my Carol’s Christmas story, and also done a little more planning and sorting out my Dragon series. I have copious notes and names and all sorts of things all coming together nicely.

I spent most of this weekend in my garden. I have a plan for what I would like to do, and I pruned back some hydrangeas, removed some agapanthus and pruned back a cypress tree. I’m shattered, but happily so, I am slowly accomplishing everything I wanted to do.

My mental health is doing okay. I normally don’t cope well over winter, but having Friday’s off, and having a plan for the year, has really helped me to keep going, and I have purpose over the winter period. Long may it continue. And having a plan for writing this year, has made the year really tick along. It isn’t flying, it is actually moving at a comfortable pace.