You know that feeling when you’re supposed to be halfway through re-writing your novel and you realize you’ve been writing the book from the wrong character’s point of view? Actually no, not just point of view, but the wrong character’s story completely. Yeeeaaaah. Needless to say I think there’s going to be a bit of a readjustment to my 12-week schedule.

I think one of the reasons that I’ve struggled with this story for so long is that I, for reasons completely unknown to me, have pushed back at telling the story from this character’s side of things. I have no idea why, everyone who I’ve talked to about the story has always told me how they find her more interesting than my current protagonist.

I should be on ‘re-writing Act II’ of my NaNo novel according to the plan I put together, however, I’ve been stuck on ‘re-write outline’ since June…probably because I’ve been trying to write the wrong character’s story this whole time. Don’t get me wrong, I like his story, I think it’s interesting (obviously, or else why would I have tried so hard to write it?!) but this book isn’t his story.

So, back to the drawing board, and writing the outline from the correct character’s point of view and getting back to writing this story.

One of the main reasons I try to blog is because I keep hearing about how regular writing makes you a better writer. Well, maybe not better, but at least more habitual. More accustomed to sitting down and getting the words out and onto paper (well, screen).

If you’ve been following me here at all, then you’re probably well aware that I’m sporadic at best when it comes to writing blog posts. I did semi-regularly post that Game of Thrones blog series for a while, but well, I think my ambition far outweighed my current ability on that one.

However, I’ve been listening to a podcast called Before Breakfast for the past couple of months, and host Laura Vanderkam recently did a 5-part series on procrastination that really hit home. As you can see from the title of this post, I live in the kingdom of Procrastination, I’m comfortable here, I usually get things done eventually…

However, that being said, I’m secretly ambitious. I’d actually really like people to read the novel I wrote during NaNo. And get projects done around my house so I don’t always have projects on the go around my house.

So, to combine a tip I heard from Laura, who also wrote a book during NaNo, and a great panel I saw at the Creative Ink Festival in March, I’m posting my 12-week plan for my novel for all to see. I’m hoping that any of the few who read this blog will attempt to keep me accountable for this.

12-Week Plan

Weeks 1 & 2 (June 9-22): re-read NaNo novel and finish updating new outline for novel

Weeks 3-5 (June 23-July 13) re-write Act 1

Weeks 6-8 (July 14-August 3) re-write Act II

Weeks 9-11 (August 4-24) re-write Act III

Week 12 (August 25-31): final revisions on new draft

Sept 4 (after Labour Day long weekend): draft out to beta readers

Maybe I should be more specific? I don’t know. I’m admittedly not great at the ‘act structure’ in my own writing. I’m hoping have a concrete outline will help with that. I’m also going to add that on top of this plan, I’ll update here on the blog how I’m doing with the various steps week by week. Hopefully, that will keep me accountable to myself? (Probably not, I know the person laying down those ‘rules’ and she’s a bit of a pushover when it comes to deadlines - which is where you, dear reader, come in)

Wake up at 4:30 am? For 21 days? Voluntarily?!

Does this sound like the type of thing that a self-avowed night owl like myself would do? Probably not, yet I did it nonetheless!

I received an email from a really neat group here in Vancouver, Chasing Sunrise, that’s best known for getting up pre-dawn to hike up a mountain and witness the sun come up from the summit. However, they ALSO have Damn Early Days (DED), which doesn’t require you to leave your house (unless you choose to) but you still need to get up at an ungodly hour. For 21 days. (non-consecutive, DED is weekdays only).

When I got the first email about DED, I was intrigued. Getting up in the mornings isn’t my forte, but then again, with my new extended commute and NaNoWriMo on the horizon, I thought it might be an interesting challenge. Get up extra early and be productive before leaving for work. After only a few weeks in my new place, I already knew that getting home at 6:30ish, and then making and eating dinner, certainly didn’t make for a terribly productive evening for me, sure a little TV and crafting, but that was about it. So, I decided to give it a go.

Guys. Getting up at 4:30 am is HARD.

I know that I need between 6 and 7hours of sleep, so reversing that and realizing I needed to be in bed and falling asleep for 9:30 pm AT THE LATEST was a whole new experience, that is very early for me. Prior to DED, I thought going to bed at 10 pm was early. I’d also read an article that said that setting an alarm for an odd time would help you get up, so I set that alarm for 4:32 am. On top of that, I knew the standard iPhone ringtones just weren’t going to cut it for this experiment, so I made the alarm ‘YOLO’ by The Lonely Island. Let me tell you, when those first two beats rang out, I was AWAKE.

Because I was working on my NaNo novel my early morning productivity was working on that. I’d get out of bed, make a cup of tea and then sit down to write. The first two weeks of DED were pretty good. I was fairly successful most days and was able to bang out 1,000+ words a day. The other thing I learned during DED is that I write WAY better with an outline. I’ve tried NaNo yearly and have never been a ‘winner’, including this year. When I got to the end of what I’d outlined, my writing productivity dried up.

Despite my writing faltering, I was still getting up early. Instead of staring at a blank page trying to force out words, I did some other chores: re-organizing my library, cleaning my kitchen, folding laundry, reading. I was still being productive, but not in the way I’d hoped.

After DED ended I went back to a more ‘regular’ waking schedule, mainly because I got sick and needed more sleep. It wasn’t just my brain, but my body that needed a bit of a break. However, DED really made me realize that I (and probably a lot of you as well) don’t make the most of my waking hours. All the time wasted getting stuck in YouTube loops (as entertaining as they may be), scrolling through social media, etc isn’t helping me do the kind of things I want to do with my life. With the new year fast approaching and the inevitable desire to map out what I want my 2018 to look like, I think it may be time to look back into early morning productivity.

But not at 4:30 am. That’s ridiculous. 5:30, that seems much saner to me now. Perspective folks, it comes from strange places sometimes.

Anyone else out there try DED? Or generally get up at ungodly hours just to get things done?