There Can Be Only One

For a long time I had it in my head that I could only work on one project a time. Working on two was just an excuse to procastinate. But the talented Ines Johnson keeps posting her productivity pictures on Facebook and she works on atleast two projects at a time and she’s super productive.

So for the past month, I decided to do something different. I’m working on three projects:

Editing Worlds Apart, my speculative fiction novel that’s a cross between Boyz N Da Hood and Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

Editing Black Beauty‘s screenplay

Outlining/Day Dreaming about the direct sequel to Black Beauty, Shadow Magic. Yeah, I know i was supposed to have finished this book two years ago. Nobody asked you.

So far, I’m much happier, I feel less stressed, and I’m getting more done. See look, I’m writing a blogpost with all this stress free time that I have.

There are rules of course… after watching How To Plan Your 2019 Writing Schedule by Youtuber and author Sarra Cannon, I had to be honest about how fast I really write and how many days I really write. (Hat tip to Ines Johnson for turning me on to her. I kinda stalk Ines on Facebook can you tell?)

Being honest about how fast I really write, made me feel like was being attacked! I started the year trying to write 12 book in 12 months, when I had previsouly only written two books in a year. Maybe I can eventually write 12 books in 12 months, but how about we start with 3 books, shit two and half books in 12 months.

Anyway, back to the rules…. Before I can touch the other projects, I have to edit one page of Worlds Apart a day. One whole page! Most days I can do two… but the minimum is one. Okay… really, I obsessively edit the same five pages, but everyday I have to edit one new page to make sure I move forward. I’ll stay on one page for an entire week if I had my way.

Why am I being so easy on my self? Well, Worlds Apart is the most important book I’ve ever written. It won’t be better written than Giant Risk and it won’t be more fun than Chalcedony and Jade or Black Beauty. but Worlds Apart is a book I’ve been trying to write for more than 15 years. Because I’ve written and rewritten it so many times, storylines have been dropped and added and dropped again.

Some shit in the novel makes no sense.

But that’s okay. Editing shit is better than giving up and not editing at all.

There can actually be more than one.