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.

Well, I slacked a bit in my first week of my 12-week plan of working on my novel. However, I figure since I’m trying to keep myself accountable, I should share the things I’ve learned in the first week.

I’m re-reading the novel I wrote during NaNo for the first time since November. It’s….not as bad as I thought it would be? I mean, it’s not good, but I remember it being much worse when I was writing it. There’s a lot of work that needs to be done to rework my protagonist and the whole opening…and the first act. But there’s definitely the bare bones of a story in there.

I also found a free course on Reedsy to help me with my ‘bad with 3-act structure’ situation, yay Internet!

That’s about all I have to update for now. Accountability post done!

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)