schedule | Mandy Eve-Barnett's Blog for Readers & Writers

Wordsmith’s Collective Thursday – Goal Planning

January 2, 2020
mandyevebarnett

Firstly, a Happy New Year to you all. I hope the writing gods are kind to you in 2020 and inspire you to write many new stories.

It is customary to make goals or resolutions with the arrival of a new year, some will be accomplished others not, but no matter what, we can help ourselves by planning. There are several way to do this, such as:

Making a goal board
Using a planner
Writing out each goal on your calendar so you have a deadline
Work with a group of friends to encourage each other to stay on track
Or even a mixture of some or all of the above!

As you can see from the image, I have four different ‘planning’ tools – I always use the same fridge calendar, where dates are entered for all my ‘writing’ related items such as conferences, meetings and events etc. This year I am attending a new event, When Words Collide and traveling to new parts of Alberta and British Columbia on writing road trips.

The weekly notepad with the lovely floral background now has my facebook/twitter group schedule so we all post the same subject each day enabling us to share and comment. The smaller notebook has freelance projects listed in it with details, contact information and deadlines. I also have a new ‘word of the day’ desk calendar, which I will use to inspire my Muse.

What do you use to keep yourself on track with your writing life?

Ideas for Novels Spark From Everywhere, From Anything…

August 25, 2014
mandyevebarnett

Our creativity can be inspired from the smallest word to a globally known news worthy article. I was in the grip of such an idea this weekend. It formed from the merging of several obscure news items into a cohesive story and took ‘root’ in my mind. Once I began writing the protagonist came to life and the words flowed. I put down 1000 in less than an hour!

As many of you know I am a free flow writer so apart from a vague idea where I want the story to go, it is a mystery to me. That is the thrill for me. It is an adventure I willingly travel with my characters. They lead and I follow with frantic typing.

What obscure stimulus has sparked an idea for you?

How do you approach new ideas? Frantic notes? Plot arc? Character descriptions?

No matter what system we use, an idea can grow exponentially once it takes hold. This is wonderful, of course, the only downfall being if we already have a bucketful of ideas already. I had not wanted another project just at the moment. My children’s chapter book, Ockleberries to the Rescue is in final stages of illustration and formatting, while I am working on edits for my western romance, Willow Tree Tears. These two projects are time consuming enough without a new one being added. My plan for 2015 was to re-visit two previous projects and re-write, edit and revise them. Now I have a story demanding to be written and it is impossible to resist.

Have you experienced a story unwilling to stay quiet?

Obviously, I will have to reschedule my plans and go with the flow. My older projects will have to wait a little longer.

A Self Imposed Grueling Schedule…

December 28, 2013
mandyevebarnett

Grueling – definition : strenuous; exhausting; very tiring; arduously severe

With only three more posts until the end of my year long ‘post a blog a day’, I have mixed feelings. The regime has become second nature, although at times I did struggle. Now I am wondering how to utilize the ‘free’ time not posting every day will give me.

My first task is to decide on the frequency of my posts for 2014 and then what subjects, themes or topics I will cover on those particular days.

Obviously, I have some ideas bouncing around inside my head but still need to finalize them.

If you have enjoyed a particular post or posts, I would welcome your comments and suggestions (within reason – I will not be posting every day in 2014!) What, I hear you cry (or maybe not!) I have several projects, I want to bring to fruition in 2014 and blogging every day would seriously interfere with those plans.

To give you an idea what those projects are:

To publish two novels as e-books that have been languishing in my laptop files. Life in Slake Patch & The Twesome Loop.

To publish in e-book form and on a print on demand site, my children’s chapter book, Ockleberries to the Rescue.

To edit, revise and refine my NaNoWriMo novel, Willow Tree Tears.

My biggest project is to boost my freelance business – any offers are more than welcome!

These projects are in addition to my role as secretary of the Writers Foundation of Strathcona County and the planning of our annual conference in March. As well as creating a prompt on the website every Saturday and attending sharing meetings, board meetings, workshops and book events. All of this has to be squeezed into the time I am not working the day job.

Please consider attending our conference if you are within driving distance of Sherwood park, Alberta, Canada or fly in and stay at one of the many hotels in the area. We would love to meet you.

Are You A Dutiful Writer..?

December 6, 2013
mandyevebarnett

Dutiful – definition: filled with or motivated by a sense of duty

Image found at Utopia Moment by Jack Ruttan…unfortunately link has crashed.

Writing about 2,000 words in three hours every morning, ‘Casino Royale’ dutifully produced itself. I wrote nothing and made no corrections until the book was finished. If I had looked back at what I had written the day before I might have despaired. Ian Fleming

http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/11/20/daily-routines-writers/

http://ollinmorales.com/2012/12/26/schedule/

Please visit these links – great tips.

I must admit I do not have a set schedule although having to submit a blog post every day and creating a prompt every Saturday does take some organizing. I do try to write at least five days a week, even if it is only a short response to a prompt or a revision to a current project. My target for 2014 will be a more ‘structured’ writing week to include more freelance opportunities. I am still pondering the frequency of my blog posts and the theme. Writing just when the muse whispers would probably not be as productive as having a schedule but we have to balance when we are inspired as well. My initial thought is – Monday and Friday evenings split between editing my current and previous manuscript and commenting on fellow writers projects. Wednesday evenings focus on freelance work, promotion and submissions. Saturday prompt onto writing website – http://www.wfscsherwoodpark.com and Sunday creating blog posts for the following week. Will I keep to this or refine it? Who knows…it is after all a work in progress.

What is your writing schedule? Do you have one?

Any tips for keeping dutiful?

Just as a side note I’m keeping myself warm today – weather warnings in affect – we have a -40 wind chill – flesh freezes in 10 minutes! Keep warm and safe everyone.

The Discipline of Writing… (catherinekanewrites.wordpress.com)

Planning blog posts…

April 30, 2013
mandyevebarnett

Igneous – definition: formed from fire; especially said of rock formed from fiery magma

Now it might seem that this is a tenuous link to Tracey’s post on blog planning but bear with me. Our ideas for stories and blog subjects are igneous. In that, a spark of an idea spurts forth and becomes its own entity, growing in width and breadth. To engage our readers we need to ignite their curiosity and interest in our words.

My current blog mission, utilizing a desk diary word of the day for the duration of 2013, requires a great deal of thinking and commitment. However, having made such a obligation I have found it has certainly caught my imagination and stretched my writing muscles. Not a bad thing for a writer – wouldn’t you say?

Although I try hard to write a couple of posts ahead of time, sometimes the idea does not fire up immediately and then I have to dig deep. Tracey’s post on her planning strategy gave me some ideas even though I do not use Scrivener.

http://traceyambrose.wordpress.com/2013/04/26/blog-planning-with-scrivener/

While I was researching I also found this post, which also aids the process.

http://www.quicksprout.com/2012/10/29/a-simple-plan-for-writing-a-powerful-blog-post-in-less-than-2-hours/

How do you plan your blog posts? Any tips you would care to share?