To Do’s

I have had some excited response to the sample chapters I have posted on my work in progresses and even someone who does scheduling on a forum I post in ask when my next story will be ready. Well, there’s no simple answer to that. At the moment my muse is divided between three stories and I do other things as well. So here’s what a typical week looks like for me:

1. Finish chapter 2 of my Parson Darcy story- ended up being about 2500 more words to write. This story has really taken over my muse and has insisted I get these first two, and probably another 3, chapters out of my head in the last few days. It’s nice to feel such inspiration but also exhausting. I can’t sleep!!

2. Finish editing chapter 7 of Knowing You by Heart. I am more than doubling the length of this story for publication. By edit here, I mostly mean write entirely new scenes. I had half the chapter written from last week and then yesterday finished it off with another 2500 words or so.

3. Write Chapter 8 of KYBH- there will be a few things pulled from the last few scenes of the original story but most of the original story was put in the first 3 chapters and I have been writing entirely new stuff since then. It’s looking like it will be 10 chapters to round out the whole story and not rush it.

4. Beta read four chapters of a story I’m working on with an author. I meant to stretch this over two weeks but didn’t last week.

5. Finish updating the blog.

6. Write chapter 6 of Never Until This Day

7. Help another writer with plot and research

8. Beta read a manuscript for story arc and character progression for an author.

9. Read North and South

10. Read Mr. and Mrs. Fitzwilliam Darcy by Sharon Lathan and write a review. I’ve decided to do reviews on published books I’ve already enjoyed once because otherwise I was beginning to slack on reading JAFF and I really do think it’s important for authors to be readers too. If nothing else, it gives me an escape and a break from my own plots!

Now, my husband works 50-60 hours a week and I stay at home with our two children who are under four and not in preschool. On my husband’s days off I try to accomplish a lot but those days are also for family time and cleaning etc. My mother comes over for a few hours in the middle of the week and that’s usually when I hit the grocery store. Lately, but I never know when it will change again, my son has been playing nicely by himself during quiet time so I can accomplish some things, but nothing too big because he frequently wants to come and talk to me etc.

And then there are drop in things. I help three other authors not mentioned on here that currently don’t have anything for me this week, but that could change.

Not all of this will get done this week. Reading the books, which I used to inhale in a full length novel a day, will take a few weeks. I’ve been working on North and South for more than a month but aside from watching the mini series I’m not familiar with the plot so I’m doing that a lot slower and am lucky if I have time once a week to read a chapter versus reading JAFF where I know the general premise and characters even if things are turned upside down.

This doesn’t include other errands that get in the way either. My daughter has a check up next week. This week I didn’t get much done on my husband’s days off because we’re doing some work on our car and had some other errands to do. It’s really frustrating to try and turn on the muse just to tell it to stop 45 minutes later because I have to go somewhere. But if I don’t try to use those 45 minute slots (or less, I frequently read and write on my ipad mini) then I’d never finish anything.

So…when will my next story be completed? Well, I want Knowing You by Heart to be published by December 1st. And I do want to put myself on a NaNoWriMo schedule next month. I learned last year December is an entire bust for writing and editing. So nothing will likely be completed until January. Sorry, folks!

You can, however, beg for teasers or write me lovely and encouraging notes.

Now…back to the to-do list!