I hope you’re all doing well with your goals, whatever they are. I’ve fallen off a bit, so I intend to keep this short and sweet…but y’all know I love my words. So we’ll see what happens.

It’s appropriate, though, that the momentum has flagged. Like many of us, I have big energy around the shiny new things and set out, totally gung ho, with plans and the best intentions. And then life and the real world intervene, and it gets harder to sustain. Streaks get broken. Those unanswered questions now need answers and they’re not easily found. I fall down my beloved research rabbit holes.

How goes the planning? Does your brain hurt after last week? 😅

I should have mentioned that these questions are important for everyone, not just folks planning to start a new novel. If you’re in the middle of drafting or revising, these questions are just as relevant and answering them can help you gain clarity. So don’t skip them just because you’re already in the thick of things.

Did you make your November writing (or revising) plan? Have you blocked out time on your calendar and told your friends and family that this time is non-negotiable? If you did, AWESOME! If you didn’t, get after it. There’s still time.

As promised, this week we’re going to take a look at a tried and true planning tool that I use in both my own writing and my coaching practice: the Blueprint for a Book.

Confession time: I’ve done NaNo a few times but only technically ‘won’ it once, and that was after some truly marathon sessions in the last week of November. No joke, I wrote more than 20,000 in that week. 😪 (For those who don’t know, ‘winning’ NaNoWriMo means writing 50,000 words over the course of the month.)

I’m fortunate that my small city apartment means I’ll never be tagged as a Thanksgiving host, not to mention my husband’s business means that everyone expects me to show up with wine and cheese—and I am happy to oblige!

One of the things that plagues most of us at some time or another is that we’re afraid we’re not sticking to the plan or meeting expectations. Every one of my clients has at some point apologized to me for not getting ‘enough’ done, not meeting a deadline, or for taking a break when they need it.

Commit to a writing practice, whatever that looks like for your life.

Very few of us have the luxury of devoting hours of time each day to writing. We have to fit it in amongst all our other obligations. We do it because we love it, because we have something to say that we want to share with the world, and because we feel like words and stories are important.

I know there are people who thrive in the heat. I am not one of them—when the temp rockets into the 90s (and with the attendant humidity soup we get here) I wilt like an unwatered plant and it can be hard to squeeze any good words out of my brain.

So I thought it might be useful to share some ways to keep working on your book without actually working on your book, if your creative juices have sizzled away.

Greetings from Project Management-land, where I lived much of my life last month. While glancing longingly at my WIP Scrivener file as I sorted through prerequisite tasks, scheduling hours, and figuring out if I could clone some co-workers, I also thought a bit about the role of project management in a complex writing project—like, say, writing a novel?!

Stick with me - I’m going to talk a tiny bit about PM work and then relate it to writing.

There are two project management major frameworks (at least in the digital world that I inhabit): Waterfall and Agile.

I’ve been thinking a lot about project management lately. As you may know, I accidentally fell into PM work as part of my editorial job way back in the day and as it turns out, there are a lot more opportunities for project managers than there are for editors. Go figure!

When I first started my book coaching business, my mentor Jennie Nash encouraged me to lean into these skills as part of my coaching toolkit. I had left my full-time PM job in 2016, being totally burned out on the gig (despite loving the company I was working for). Even 4 years later, I wasn’t ready to dip my toes back into those waters, no matter how much it might have helped me.

I am a firm believer in what I tell my clients about writing a novel: It takes as long as it takes, and you’re on nobody’s schedule but your own.

That said, I’ve been living with my protagonist and her adventures for more than 6 years now, and I’m ready to let her set sail. (Haha, she’s a pirate–see what I did there? Okay, sorry.) I spent most of last year’s creative energy rediscovering my ‘why’ and iterating on my Inside Outline. It’s time to re-start and revise.

Whether you’re germinating a new idea or revising for the nth time, there are some concrete steps that you can take to solidify your commitment to your creative self and your novel.

In which Kerry makes her case for how spending some time thinking about your book can save you time and make your drafting process simpler and more efficient, while also freeing you creatively!