New Year, New (Re?)Start
Happy New Year! (A little belated, admittedly, but that’s how things have been going.) It has been a really gray start to January but it’s not frigid and frozen–yet. We have finally started to get some snow, which is pretty, but this late start to winter is giving me flashbacks to 2014, the year of the snow-pocalypse in the greater Boston area, when we got 115+ inches of snow between mid-January and early March.
My driveway, circa 2014, after ONE of many snowstorms
Massive snow piles or no, it is the time of year that many of us take stock and set resolutions, goals, or intentions. I’m trying to abandon the absolutist mindset that comes with ‘goals’ (for me), so this year, intentions it is! And what’s the most major intention for 2023? FINISH THE DAMN BOOK!
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.
Know your why.
When the going gets tough—and it will—having a crystal clear idea of why you’re writing this book is critical.
You can write pages and pages on your ‘why’ (I certainly have!) but ultimately you want to distill it down to a sentence or two. Think of it as your book’s mission statement. Put it on a sticky note and stick it on your computer. Copy it into Word or a Google doc, blow up the font to a ridiculous size, print it and frame it! Make it something that you see regularly and use it as a source of inspiration and motivation. Let it give you your creative glow back.
Knowing your why is so important and it can be really hard to articulate. Download my free ‘Know Your Why’ workbook, which guides you through a series of prompts to help you dig deeper and get to your mission statement. Sign up at the bottom of this page to get the workbook.
2. Make a plan.
I’m a project manager in another side of my professional life and let me tell you, without a plan, projects struggle to get off the ground and quickly lose momentum, people get confused and frustrated, and everyone loses time and money.
Writing a novel isn’t the same as orchestrating a web redesign, but it is no less complicated! (Be grateful you don’t have to try to coordinate a meeting schedule among a team of 15+ people.) The key is to be realistic about how much time you have to work each day or week and how much you can realistically accomplish in that time.
Can you work for 20 minutes on the train as you commute? Great! Can you write a page or revise 3 in that time? Perfect! Now you have a baseline for what you can reasonably expect.
3. Build in some ‘down time’.
Unless you’re on someone else’s deadline (and even sometimes if you are), there will be times that you don’t get the work done. We’re human, life happens. Even if writing a book is your only job, you will get sick or have a day that the call of Netflix is just too strong. That’s okay!
The beauty of having some padding in your plan means that when shit happens, it’s not a plan-busting big deal. Shrug and move on, knowing that you were smart enough to realize that this was inevitable and you’re still on track.
4. Celebrate your wins.
We’ve all heard how important it is to do this, but how many of us actually do? Is there a voice lurking in your head that says, “Sure, we’re going to celebrate doing the thing we were supposed to do anyway?”
YES.
You don’t have to tell that voice to shut up—chances are it’ll just get louder—but you do have to acknowledge your accomplishment. You’ve worked hard and stuck with a difficult commitment. Want to do it again? Give yourself some positive reinforcement. Take a lesson from Donna Meagle and Tom Haverford:
So how does all of this play out? Here’s how I applied these steps to my revision.
My why: I want to tell the story of this woman who had an amazing life and felt to me like she had been lost to history, as well as working through feelings I have about societal expectations (especially for women), motherhood, and learning to embrace/love your true self.
Truth: this may not set you on fire to read my book. That’s okay! I promise it is not a dry and boring biography but more importantly, this mission statement isn’t for anyone but me. It’s not how I would pitch my book to anyone, though I might incorporate some of the ideas contained in it. What’s important is that when I read it, I get the feels about my book and what I’m trying to do with it. It reminds me of why it matters to me.
My plan: My detailed outline (15 pages!) contains 32 chapters, some with one longer scene, others with multiple shorter scenes. I’m starting this revision in January and want to be done in April. 16 weeks / 32 chapters = 2 chapters per week.
My downtime: I want to build in some down time for those weeks that don’t go as planned. So I’m going to commit to 3 chapters per week as my baseline, which gives me some wiggle room for less productive/off weeks.
I’m privileged enough to be able to devote a good chunk of time to writing almost every day and the level of detail in my outline means I have a very clear idea of the work each scene and chapter has to do (not to mention I have a pretty solid foundation to work from). For a couple of weeks, I’ll block off 1-2 hours per day to work and see if that allows me to maintain a 3 chapter per week pace. If it’s not working, I’ll need to either adjust the amount of time each day/week that I spend on it or consider a new deadline.
NOTE: Your math does not have to look like this! For me, being done with this revision in April is an important symbolic milestone, which is why I based my plan around it. Your ‘absolute’ might be hitting a word count or a set work product each day or week. Take that absolute, plug some numbers into the other variables and go from there. (Can you tell I liked algebra in high school?)
Celebrate my win(s): I want to acknowledge weeks where I got through 3 chapters, and I’ll do that by booking a random hour of reading time into my week—and make it a ‘fun’ book, not a work book. (Admittedly, as a book coach, that line is VERY fuzzy. It’s rough, haha.)
And when I’m done with this revision in April? Either an extra-long massage or dinner at my favorite local fancy restaurant. And a NICE bottle of rosé champagne, of course.
I want to find a way to recognize my wins that isn’t always about spending money (though it’s totally valid, I know it’s not always realistic to be able to get a pedicure or buy a new book). Maybe it’s a bath (if only my city apartment had a bathtub…) or a trip to the library for a hot new read or making yourself your favorite comfort food.
Whatever you do, remember to be kind to yourself and give yourself some grace. It’s not about perfection; it’s about doing it again (and again, and again) until you hit the finish line. Writing a novel is a process, not an event.
If this has inspired you but you feel like you could use some additional help getting and staying on track, I have a few 1:1 coaching spots open this spring. The writers I work with make steady and significant progress on their novels because they show up for me and, more importantly, themselves. They know what’s working and what isn’t and with each deadline, they have clear, actionable steps to take.
If you’re ready to get serious, make a plan, and celebrate those wins, book a free discovery session and let’s get to it!