How to Move Forward with Your Writing Even If in Fractional Increments

Experts talk about writing every day, or having a writing goal per week, or even praise writers who work the job as close to full-time as they can get.

Yet, so many of us struggling as writers fit our writing into fractions of time throughout a season of life, around kids, chores, full-time jobs, crises, tragedy, and trauma.

Is it possible to become a successful writer when your time spent writing is scattered over various minutes stolen here and there in a demanding life?

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Writers: the Audience of Your Business Plan?

Who is the intended audience of your business plan?

Well, if you’re an established writer like Brandon Sanderson, L.E. Modesitt, or David Weber, and you have a business plan, the intended audience may include investors, publishers, fellow writers, employees… Of course, I’m guessing, as I remain unpublished.

While I hope you benefit indirectly from my business plan via this series, my business plan is primarily for my own benefit.

Look out for the next in the series where I discuss how my business plan benefits me in becoming a published novelist.

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Plotting vs. Pantsing: The Tension Between Overkill with Moving Forward

Certain writers fall securely into the plotter camp, while others write off-the-cuff. I jump back and forth between camps. And, at times, it’s wearying.

With Salvage, I’m really trying to plan my scenes more than before. I’m using a free airtable account to track my scene data, but it’s possible that it’s moving from useful planning to overkill.

So, just to dive in and write new scenes seems a little like wandering in a field of corn on a dark night (I come from a long line of Iowa corn farmers, and I live in Nebraska; the simile works for me).

Yet, after a certain level of planning and scene data, it’s like wandering through a very crowded cereal aisle, trying to figure out what take off the shelf.

So, I’m spending too much time trying to get the scene data just as I want it, and too little time moving Salvage forward.

What’s the right balance?

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