Suggestion: Keep Planning, or Else

Everyone has a busy life, but do you know when you are avoiding writing? The only way to know includes one of the most dreaded topics in history: planning.

Don't let flashbacks of elementary school with your mother’s voice-over distract you. Stay focused. Grown-ups and successful authors do plan (yes, even those that fly by the seat of their pants).

The key to planning is setting realistic goals.

When do you want to complete your novel?
How much time each week can you dedicate your time to writing?

You'll have to live by some trial and error. Some authors are really productive in 30 minute increments, others need 3 hours so they can sink completely into their world. Either way, there is something that will help you stay on task: make a list.

With things like:

• character profile
• setting description
• plot revising
• writing the next chapter

If you find yourself making the same list each week (because the item did not get done last week) you either need to break the item into smaller parts (to be more easily managed) or you need to find out what is keeping you from your writing time.

Make sure you don't confuse writing time with author branding time.

Your author brand includes:

• maintaining a website
• keeping in touch with fans
• social media
• conversing with your agent or publisher
• looking into conferences
• contacting your editor
• reviewing comments from your critique partners and your beta readers

These are all important things that should be scheduled, but they should be separate from your writing time.

We all know what happens when you don’t plan and aren’t motivated – your book doesn’t get published. If you have been published, but have a long gap in your writing, people move on to other authors. Everyone has at least one author they think of every few years and wonder why they dropped off the map. So make sure you keep planning, or else you know where your career is going.

In short: find something that will keep you on task from week to week.

I’d recommend a Passion Planner (http://www.passionplanner.com/).