Sylvia's Soliloquies

Maybe a Book this Year? - 1/5/18

So it's time to get to work on editing for this year and I've downloaded Scrivener to do it.  The way things usually work for me is I brainstorm with pencil and paper, then draft in a word processor (in my case Pages) and then move things to Scrivener to fine tune.  I like Scrivener, it's just all the bells and whistles some times stunt my ability to just sit down and write, which is why I do my drafts in a word processor.  I may cut out the middle man eventually, but for now it is what it is.

What's nice about Scrivener though is that I can have notes for my story at my fingertips and I can actually keep track of continuity issues, like changing hair or eye color.  I, in fact, actually changed the name of the kingdom in "Crown of the Dragon" part way through.  By the time I realized it, it was too late to go through and fix it all on Wattpad, so I just rolled with it.  But, yeah, continuity is a bit of an issue when I draft as quickly as I do.  If I bother to go back to find out someone's last name, I halt my momentum, which is never good.  So for anyone that came across discontinuity in my books, I apologize!  That's the consequence of quick and dirty drafting!

Anyway, I'll be starting with "The Mrs. Claus Affair" which I'm 99% certain I'll be renaming "Finding Mrs. Claus."  It's been over a year since I wrote that so it should be interesting, going back over it, but I am looking forward to reading it again!  The goal is to get my final draft done to send out to beta readers at the start of February, so here's hoping I can keep with my deadlines.

Also, on another note, I've been thinking about my two year plan -- one year writing six drafts, one year editing those drafts.  The problem is, I really like writing Christmas books.  That's probably why both of my Christmas books are my most popular ones, readers tend to enjoy books that authors enjoyed writing...  Anyway, after editing the six books, they'll be published over the course of the next two years while I work on another batch of six (hopefully this is making sense).  That means I'll be releasing three books a year starting in 2019.  And since I want to release a Christmas book every year, I'll need to make sure that when I write a batch of six books, that two of them are Christmas themed.  And since I write all six in one year, that means one of the Christmas books would have to be written when it's not Christmas.

Everyone still with me?  I tried explaining this to my husband, but his eyes began to glaze over and he just said that as long as I understood what I was saying that was all that mattered...  I swear it makes sense...if you're me...

Anyway, I don't want to have to write a Christmas book outside of Christmas, so I'm thinking of reworking my schedule.  I'll still be doing six book batches in two years, but every November and December, I will write a Christmas book, doesn't matter if it is a writing year or an editing year.  To balance it out, every January and February will be for editing, whether it's an editing year or not.

Long story short, I'm going to try to write a Christmas book every year no matter what, so hopefully I'll be doing just that come the holidays this year!

Also, it should be noted, that this post is a prime example of why I should never be a technical writer...