Schedule of ________

“Schedule” for me is inescapable; the fact that I sit and write this in a Student Lounge between classes underscores it. I’m not, for better or worse, the guy people call last minute to say: “Hey, do you wanna ______?” (Actually, I am that guy; I’m just also the guy that answers with: “Sorry, I can’t...”)

It didn’t really really hit me till this morning, when I listed everything that I’m reading and writing. I won’t bore you with the details, but the end result is: “When am I supposed to find time to do all this??” What is of concern to you, potentially, is the fact I am going to make a strong effort to start blogging three times a week: figure Monday, Wednesday, and Friday just to make it easy. And also, that as an aspiring writer, and not a full-fledged author, scheduling time to write is extremely critical. Because I discovered something interesting last semester, and it came from my publishing class.

Making yourself sit down and write is sometimes less critical than forcing yourself to get up and stop writing.

It’s true. I was inspired by a quote my publishing professor gave me, which ran something like: “I don’t stop writing until I know what I’m going to write next.” Now hang on a minute; that means you don’t stop when you’re stuck, but when ideas are flowing.

Is this guy nuts?

Actually, he’s not; because with that little kernel -- that is, the place in my novel where I left off last -- lodged firmly in my brain, I run over and over in my head what I’m going to write the next time I sit down. And do you know, there would be hour to hour-and-a-half segments of time where I would write two thousand words? Good words, too; not necessarily ones that had to be revised later. And it’s not necessarily that I’m just such a stellar writer, I hope no one would ever say that of themselves; but just because I had this pent up flood in my brain for days, waiting for the next hour when I could write.

So last semester it worked out that I had two separate hour-ish segments to write, and I would sit – about where I am now, even – and write. At the end of those times, I would have to get up because I would have to go to class. And in that manner, at least for a while (eventually the book was steamrolling along so well I was able to write more often during the week), I wrote 100,000+ words in about five months.

So here I am at the end of the first week of another semester; and I’m trying to find out where I have time. I have to maintain this blog, for starters, and hopefully two to three times a week. Ideally three times. I have a twitter account that I’m trying to maintain; I’m working on my second novel; and I have a Creative Writing class that’s going to want a short story within the next few weeks. I have three hour segments presenting themselves right now, on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Obviously, with five pieces to work on, I need more than three segments.

I’ll let you know where I find them.

Word Count, Book Two: 6,072 (From now on, I have a spreadsheet with a word count; just realize this number will be in flux as I muddle through the first several chapters.)

Agents Queried, Book One: 11

Agents Rejected, Book One: 4, officially: two non-responses for an assumed total of six.