From Project to Project

I think I've finally worked out all the plot stuff with the current project. It was an entire afternoon of hard work and I was exhausted when I was done, but I now have a complete plot, plus all the necessary backstory. I haven't yet written any ballads, but maybe that will happen later. That's probably a final draft thing. Now I just have to go back and fix the things in the part I have written that are affected by my plot decisions, and then I'll have something to send my agent for a sanity check.

And then I'll be starting a new project. I'll be doing a kind of "novel writing month" in May to finish something I started long ago and left hanging. I don't like unfinished things, so I've decided to finish it and see what happens. The difference from an official NaNoWriMo thing is that it's an existing project (I think I have about four chapters written) and the target word count is more in the 100,000 range. I figure that will be a good stretch goal to try to do in about a month (though I will allow a couple more weeks beyond that). I don't have to do any serious plotting because that's mostly done. This is mostly an exercise in carving out serious writing time and getting it done. With luck, that will establish habits I can keep up moving forward.

It helps that it seems like season finale time is coming early this year. We've already finished Battlestar Galactica, Terminator, Life and Friday Night Lights, and then Chuck last night (they had best not cancel that!). And we have the big Mozart performance in choir this weekend, so that takes one more thing off my plate.

Speaking of which, if you're in the North Texas area and like music, you might want to consider the Mozart Mania concert set for this coming Sunday evening (the 3rd) in Coppell. A big combined choir made up of singers (including me) from several organizations will be performing the Coronation Mass. Then there will be a piano concerto (featuring our amazing pianist) and several smaller works performed by guest artists. It starts at 6:30 and shouldn't run much longer than an hour. It all takes place in the sanctuary of the First United Methodist Church in Coppell, at the intersection of Heartz and Bethel School Road (about a block away from Denton Tap). And, as far as I can tell, it's free (though I'm sure they'll accept donations), so you can't beat the price.

And remember, listening to Mozart makes you smarter (so I'm sure that singing it as often as I have been lately is turning me into a genius).