Summer Writing Plans

[rynling]

Between on thing and another, I'm in something of a difficult place right now. Thankfully, I finally have room to maneuver, so I've been trying to take a step back from "productivity" and figure out what a healthy and sustainable workday looks like. I think that, for the time being, I might like to experiment with less work. Specifically, how would it feel to focus on fewer projects?

I think I'd like to have two "tracks" in a day. I don't want to say "a morning track" and "an evening track," because I'm not that big on set routines, but something like that - two sustained periods of writing during the day, each devoted to a different project.

Here's what I'd like to spend the rest of the summer doing:

Track One

- I've been invited to contribute a 6,000 word essay about Legend of Zelda to a collection on JRPGs. If I write 2,000 words a week, this will take three weeks, plus another week to edit.

- When I'm done with that, I need to return to the essay about the Hiromi Kawakami story I translated. It's mostly finished, but it needs more research. Assuming that I write 1,000 words a week and edit as I go along, this should take about two weeks to finish.

- Once those two projects are squared away, I should get started on a public lecture I'm supposed to give about Legend of Zelda in the fall. I'm aiming for this to be around 5,000 words, so I think the rough draft will take about three weeks.

Track Two

- I'm going to write Chapter 40 of Malice. I'd like for this to take two weeks, but it could take three. There's no need to rush, after all. After this is done, thus concluding the fourth (of five) story arcs, I'm going to put the novel on hiatus. I'll leave a note at the end of the chapter saying that it will be back in the fall, which is probably true. I'd like to have the novel finished by the end of the year.

- I wrote an original short story a few years ago that I've been thinking about a lot recently. I'd like to return to it and see about submitting it somewhere. My style has changed significantly, so I'm going to say that it will probably take about two weeks to edit properly.

- I want to write a short horror story based on The Tale of Genji. I've already got a rough draft, but it's a mess. If I write 1,000 words a week (emulating Heian prose is not easy), it should take me three weeks to reach a solid length of 3,000 words, and then I'll give the story a week to rest before I edit and submit it.

And after all of that?

WIND WAKER BOOK! WIND WAKER BOOK!!

Comments

[runicmagitek]

This is awesome! I'm sort of doing something similar (it's more like an editing track and a writing track for me) and glad to see I'm not the only one keeping that kind of schedule. Or "schedule". Whatever we want to call it.

Best of luck with all these projects!

[rynling]

Thank you, and best of luck to you too!

I know that strict discipline works for some people, and more power to them. I think it might work better for me to pay closer attention to cycles of creativity, though. Because I'm totally with you on the topic of writing and editing occupying different, idk, spaces? mindsets? states of being? and it's good to keep both channels open but separate.

I also want to say that I appreciate your curation of all the posts on writing you reblog on Tumblr, by the way. I don't have any irl friends who are serious writers, and it's quite nice to hear about the experiences of other people.

[runicmagitek]

Aww thank you! I'm glad the random resources I've been sharing there are helpful :D it does feel weird at times when I take my writing seriously while also writing fanfiction. I know a lot of people do it for fun or what not, but I feel like it can be fun and srs biz. Regardless, always happy to have other serious writers in my circle 💕