Planning

I did make it out for my evening event (a girls’ night out with topical discussion with one of our pastors — yeah, I know how to party), so I got my milk on the way home, and that means serious grocery shopping will wait until next week and I don’t have to leave the house today. It’s going to be a pleasantly warm afternoon, so I will be working on the patio, I think. I have a little less than half the book to go on this editing pass, then I get a weekend break, and then next week I read the entire thing out loud to myself, so I won’t be working on the patio then. I don’t want to risk giving the neighbors spoilers.

I took some time this morning to do a little career and life planning. I’m focusing the first half of the year on writing. I’m getting this book done, then there’s that proposal, then I want to do a couple of shorter works in the Enchanted, Inc. universe, as well as maybe a few other short pieces, and then a fourth Fairy Tale book. That will fill out my publication slate for the rest of the year.

Then in the second half of the year, while I do some development work for other pieces, I’m going to focus on the house situation. I’m still planning to go to the open house tomorrow just to get a sense of scale for the houses in that sub-neighborhood that I’ve targeted, but apparently there’s an option contract on the house, so trying to buy it would mean really getting things together fast, and I don’t think that will happen. Instead, I’m going to look at really being in gear to buy/sell/move in the coming fall/winter timeframe. That gives me time to do a good purge and organize in this house, get some repairs made, see how my book release strategy is going to affect my finances, get pre-approved for a mortgage, etc.

Of course, if I sell the proposal, I’ll have to write that book, which could adjust my timeline, but that would be a good problem to have.

A writer friend introduced me to an acronym that I may have to embroider on a throw pillow: WIBBOW — Would I Be Better Off Writing? I need to remember that when things come up. That’s partly why I’m dialing back on conventions. In the time it takes me to prepare for, go to, and recover from a convention, I could have written at least a short story, if not a novella or a good chunk of a novel. Having a new piece of work out there will do more to promote my work than me sitting on a panel, especially at conventions where I’m already known.

Having a plan makes me feel better. I feel like I have things more under control. Now watch something happen to disrupt my plan.