Any links to Amazon are affiliate links.1 • If this is your first time receiving posts from Diary of a Stage 3 Writer, you can find the origin post here, the full list of posts here, and you can fiddle with your subscription settings here.
In this issue:
NaNoReviseMo
Short Story Challenge Stats
Writing Prompt
WWT Tool Kit Craft Card
NaNoReviseMo
Our month of 50 hours time spent in manuscript begins Friday! That’s an average of 100 minutes per day. As long as the task needs to get done in order for your manuscript to get done, then it counts as Time In Manuscript.
Simple!
And yet, this morning I found myself reaching for The Twelve Week Year for Writers. I think I’ve mentioned before2 that Consistency isn’t one of my strengths,3 but I’m not too shabby at staying the course in the short term. Twelve weeks is a little long for me though, so I shorten it to 8 weeks. Eight weeks… eight sequences in a story. It works-ish for me.
Anyway, one concept that stuck out for me this time through the book was something the author calls...
A-Time/B-Time
Sometimes we have all the energy and focus we need in order to do the meaty stuff that needs to get done. This is A-Time.
For me, right now, my A-Time task is consolidating all the notes 2020 Meg made and fine-tuning the resulting scenes. It needs to get done, and it’s probably my least favorite storytelling task, and it takes a lot of energy. Morning, 5-AM, focused energy. A-Time energy.
But sometimes we don’t have A-Time energy. Or A-Time brain power. Or we’ve reached the end of an A-Task but still have time available to spend in the manuscript, and we don’t want to start the next meaty thing. This is B-Time.
B-Time is a great time to do B-Tasks.
I’m embarrassed to admit it, but now that I’m aware of this concept, I can see that I seem to have developed a tendency to go from A-Time to Other-Time.
To just quit for the day. 😬
This has definitely hampered my Time In Manuscript stamina. And my storytelling progress.
But at least I know now! I can fix it!
So I made myself a list of B-Time tasks that I can do to Stay In Manuscript for the whole time I’ve allotted, stuff that takes less brain power (to me) than the meaty stuff. In no particular order:
Refine the upcoming sequences
Run spell-check
Delete all the extra space from the scene documents in Scrivener
Find and replace details I’ve made note to change
Do character development work
Do theme development work
Read for research that I’ll need soon
And I’m sure there’s many more B-Time things to do. If you’ve got a go-to B-Task that also moves the needle on the MS, please do leave a comment and let me know!
Until next time…
May your month of 50 hours manuscript time unfold productively!
ReviseMo Stats . . .
Book 1: Still reading
Book 2: Waiting to be read
Goal: 50 hours / 100 minutes per day
11/1, Fri:
11/2, Sat:
11/3, Sun:
11/4, Mon:
11/5, Tues:
11/6, Wed:
11/7, Thurs:
11/8, Fri:
11/9, Sat:
11/10, Sun:
11/11, Mon:
11/12, Tues:
11/13, Wed:
11/14, Thurs:
11/15, Fri:
11/16, Sat:
11/17, Sun:
11/18, Mon:
11/19, Tues:
11/20, Wed:
11/21, Thurs:
11/22, Fri:
11/23, Sat:
11/24, Sun:
11/25, Mon:
11/26, Tues:
11/27, Wed:
11/28, Thurs:
11/29, Fri:
11/2, Sat:
Total Hours:
Writing Prompt
Character: MYSTIC
Light Attribute: Revels in intimate union with the Divine.
Shadow Attributes: Delusional rapport with the Divine.Setting: Emergency Room
Object: Gemini says smart glasses, a portable power station, a foldable electric bike.
Emotion: GRIEF. Sorrowful, heartbroken, bereaved.
WWT Tool Kit Craft Card
As mentioned before, I’m making a deck of craft cards to quickly remind myself of techniques while also having a convenient place to keep track of elements like character, conflict, and theme specific to each story. This week’s card is a reminder to consider the simple, not just the complex.
Thank you for reading!
I hope this helped you, and I hope your writing goes well this week.
Keep at it,
Megan
WritesWithTools
site: writeswithtools.com
ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/writeswithtools
wishlist: http://tinyurl.com/WWTWishList
As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases, and links to amazon.com are affiliate links, meaning that if you make a purchase through a link, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. This helps support my work and allows me to continue writing for you. Thank you for your support!
And this blog… and WWT… probably demonstrate…
In fact, it’s #29 out of 34. 😇