Monday Must Do’s 20th to 26th May

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Good morning! (or afternoon/evening depending on where you are and when you’re reading this 😉

I’m BACK! Did ya miss me? I’ve missed you guys 🙂

Ok, that’s enough lol….I guess I better tell you what I’ve been up to. I’ve had a pretty good 2 weeks to be honest. It was my birthday and i went stationery shopping, i went to the Romantic Novelists Summer Party (click the link for the photos including one which featured my red shoes! lol) and went to see RJ Ellory read from his new novel which isnt out for a few months (must buy that one!). I haven’t touched the WIP (Still), haven’t done much writing at all, although I did do a few prompts which was fun. Most of you know, I’m a huge fan of prompts and writing exercises to get the old creative juices flowing. I stumbled across Bonnie Neubauer’s website last week (she’s the lady who wrote The Right Brain Workbook) and here’s what she has to say about prompts:

“Because exercises (also known as prompts) remove the expectations and judgments you have about your own writing. The goal of an exercise is get you to write for the sake of writing so you can discover or rediscover the joy of writing. Exercises are all about filling the pre-allotted time or the pre-allotted space on the page. Do that, and you have met your goal. Nothing else matters. Not content, not plot, not characters, not spelling. And, to exceed your goal all you have to do is write one extra sentence.”

“Do enough exercises (The number is different for everyone; for me, it happens to be 2 exercises a day for 3 to 6 days), and you will find yourself excited about doing your ‘real’ writing. When this happens (and don’t force it), it’s totally okay to abandon the world of exercises and write what you want to write. Just remember that if you ever find yourself stalled, immediately put your regular writing aside and do some exercises. The exercises will relieve you of the pressure to produce and will once again, get your right brain primed to spew onto the paper without letting your left brain (the nasty editor) get in the way and stop you.”

And that’s what happened see….I fell out of love with writing, so I’ve been trying to claw my way back….and I think it’s working. I’ve missed doing prompts and I should never have stopped. As from today I’m taking Bonnie’s advice, and going back to committing to daily writing 🙂

So the coming week looks like this:

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And how I’ve missed the structure of a ‘to do list’ because when I haven’t got one, nothing gets done.

You’ll see I’m working on another project. My second novel, entitled “Tangled” is what I’ve decided to submit to the RNA New Writers Scheme for critique, but it still needs some work. It’s complete, has a beginning, a middle and an end (go me!) but is only 52,000 words lol. The first novel (Still) is such a bloody mess that I really don’t know where to go next, so I’m putting it to one side (for the moment). There’s only so many times you can bash your head against that wall 😉

So I’m feeling pretty good, pretty confident and actually raring to get suck in! I’m hoping that my new pad from Paperchase will help.

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Great post about self doubt here on Mandy Websters blog. Struck a nerve with me as its just how I’ve been feeling lately. Now, I’m off to turn a prompt into a ghost story 🙂

So what are your writing plans for the week?

28 thoughts on “Monday Must Do’s 20th to 26th May”

  1. Glad you’re back! Of course I missed you silly girl. I’m actually working on two projects and as for prompts my weekly blog does the job for that

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  4. Good to have you back in Bloggyland. If I had a to-do list I think I’d die of stress. My goal this week is to combat the head cold I can’t shake off and to write a little every day – however little!

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  5. Welcome back Vikki. Like you my list has gone out of the window. Sun = gardening, washing, ironing, housework, and all the other things that stop me from writing. Oh, and it’s my radio show in London this week too. But, I’m going to take a leaf out of Linda King’s book and write a little every day – however little! x

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  6. Great post Vikki, I heard that The Great Gatsby is less than 50.000 words so you’re there already…. I know what you mean about head banging. I’m at that stage constantly. Good luck with it all.

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    • He he he, thanks Susan, that’s very true! And agents/publishers are looking for smaller books nowadays because people haven’t got the time to energy to read huge tomes.

      Sorry to hear you’re doing a lot of head banging….hope you manage to find a way to stop 😉

      Xx

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  7. Welcome back! Getting back into the prompts sounds like a great idea. I am stillw ading through my editing – jeez, it is HARD. Thanks for the link re self doubt – perfect for how I feel today! x

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  8. It’s wonderful to see you back! And yes I have missed your posts. Reading your latest post is almost as good as sitting down with you to have a coffee and a chat! BTW I have finally taken up and adopted your practice of keeping a to-do list. It really does make all the difference. Thanks! In a recent class the teacher also recommends writing down what you plan to begin working on the next day when you sit down to write. Apparently it generates a vastly increased productivity if you maintain this practice over a long period of time. For the moment though weekly goals are enough for me – they include the ‘wiggle’ room my life requires! 🙂 xxx

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    • Thanks Edith 🙂

      Awwwww, thank you! It’s funny, I was reading a fellow bloggers post where she asked if we put on a persona for blogging, whether you’re the same in real life or different….but I can assure you, I am EXACTLY the same in real life, so you saying it was like sitting down and having a coffee with me has made me smile 🙂

      Oh excellent!!!!! 🙂

      Spooky! That’s what I’m doing now with my new pad….it’s split into AM/PM (the pictures not very good) and I fill it in every day with what I plan to do. I know it’s only been 2 days so far, but it’s really helping. So your teacher is spot on IMO 🙂

      Ha ha ha, oh, we all need some “wiggle” room 😉

      Xx

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  9. Welcome back Vicki! I’ve missed reading your posts. I’ve been assessing my own writing and blogging strategy lately, and I think it’s time for a revamp. For me, lists are definitely the way to go.

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  10. oooo… this looks like thoroughly ‘juicylicious’ advice!

    And, as for, Did I (we) miss your presumptuousness?
    Do you really need to ask.
    Naturellment 😀

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  11. I did miss you! It’s been two weeks already? Wow, how the time flies!
    Thank you for the bit about the writing prompts. (And I’ve missed these kinds of insights you always have here!) I try to write something for word count every day, although I don’t use prompts because there seems to be enough rubbish in my brain to fill the pages without them! Bonnie’s suggestion to move on to story words once the writing feels freed up is a great one, because sometimes on the good days ( 🙂 ) I can’t wait to get through the exercise words to the ‘actual’ words!
    This week, as usual, more revision, although I’m hoping to finish the course I’m taking. The novel, I’m afraid, is still far from finished …

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    • Thanks Kirsten, I KNOW, it went blooming quick! Lol

      You’re very welcome, I hope you found it useful 🙂

      I’m a HUGE preacher when it comes to writing EVERY SINGLE Day *snigger*

      I LOVE Bonnie….her books are brilliant.

      Good luck honey!

      Xx

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  13. Glad you’re back. I think I need to take that bit of wise writing advice and do it myself as well…write a little something every day. I feel the call to write, I’m just still in the very emotional resistance stance of it. I’ll do anything to not write. Maybe I should start small and aim for something less painful like even writing down a couple of things I’m thankful for every day.

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