2012 Project Post 01

My friend Mez has organized an edit your novel project for the entire year of 2012. This has become the new hang-up area for me and I thought I’d be done with Stellar Gift of Death (You can stop laughing now, I’ve made it to Chapter Eighteen.), so I signed up.

The final steps before you are ready to start are:

1. Choose what you are working on, both the revision and the new project (if you haven’t already done so!)
2. Set up folders, files, plotting cards, notebooks, whatever you need when you are writing and revising.
3. Start thinking and planning, but don’t go crazy – you need slow, sustained progress. Don’t burn out before you’ve even started.

Project 2012: … and a Plan (with a capital P)

I was supposed to write this post between Christmas and New Year’s and didn’t get to it until now. Somehow I doubt #3 will be that big of a problem.

Choose what you are working on, both the revision and the new project (if you haven’t already done so!) The new project i.e. what you are writing to get a first draft is easy Stellar Gift of Death. When I finish it, I have a list of what to pick up next. I have a list of what to revise too, but everything on it is a short story. Getting off that list—though I’m hoping to cover those stories too working through this project—there’s the Hyrueliana (fanfiction edit which only has a few scenes left to write) and Night Storm: Forget the Sun (an experimental hypertext novel set in an universe where a vampire becomes a superhero). I want a fresh start, so Forget the Sun it is.

The binders, folder, and notebook filled with the previous version and notes for new ideas I had are sitting out on my desk. The computer files are now on my USB drive. There’s more than enough material to work with, given the nature of the hypertext novel.

More importantly, how am I going to structure my day to do this and write Stellar Gift of Death? I’ve done editing at the paying job and it is much harder than writing first draft. Plus the binder is a full two-inch monstrosity that I have no desire to haul to the paying job every day. So 2012 Project is a home project. Luckily, I have more time at now since I changed my paying job hours and I’m not nearly as brain-dead when I get home.

That said, I have no idea how much I’ll get done this first week. My FSA renewed and I promptly filled the week with medical appointments that I have put off for a few months. :p