Pin all the motivational quotes!

2018 Year of the New: Accountabili-buddy

So last month in the Year of the New, I started a new way of plotting while in the brainstorming phase of a book with fancy post-its and file folders and I loved it. LOVE IT!

After my Write Better Faster class,  I found this to be a great way to get my squirrelly brain to focus on multiple plots lines at once so I wouldn't have to revise so much. I can still have a clear story in mind without plotting it to death and losing the excitement of letting the characters take me on their journey.

Turns out, when you see everything together, it all gels together. And the pacing, so much much better. I can see the soggy middle!

Now all I have to go is sit down and finish a book.

Easy-Peasy, right?

Ha. Ha. No.

Writing is really hard.

Its like having a hyperactive hamster on a wheel in your  brain that just had a Red Bull. So imagine having two of them: one that writes women's fiction and the other that writes paranormal mystery.

As I'm waiting on a revision letter from my agent, I'm in Women's Fiction mode and its hard because I just want to smite everyone with a spell and chop off their heads Queen of Hearts Style.





So I need some focus. I'd been hearing writers talk about accountability groups and how much they helped just knowing that someone was at a finish line with a bright yellow sign rooting for you. That you are also responsible for rooting on that other person as well. 

Turned out, a friend reached out to me and asked if I'd be willing to be her Accountabili-buddy.

So May will be the month of Accountability. And lets hope that the random factoid here is correct.

Here are my goals for May:

• 20,000 additional words to this partially complete manuscript
• Complete a synopsis with scene breakdown as I go (a great tool for AFTER the book is written)
• First 50 pages ready to go to my beta readers. 

The plan is to check in with my Buddy at least once a week and to work on one of the above named things every day. If I run into a challenge, call/text her. If I fail miserably, have a convo about why I failed miserably and what I am going to do differently tomorrow.

So here I go, off into the Year of the New.

Wish me luck!

Amanda

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Amanda Arista
Author, Diaries of an Urban Panther Series
www.amandarista.com