#17 making time and mental space at summer's end
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Awhile back someone asked me to talk about juggling projects and time management, and so I thought this would be a good week to tackle that. With summer's end, a lot of us are either wrapping up big projects and looking ahead to the next ones, or coming off a rest(ish) period and thinking of the things we want to finish before the year clocks its last second. And this is very much where I am; the last month has been one of lo the many jugglings.
Which, let's not kid, can be a stressful thing. There are moments when so much work has piled up in front of you that you feel completely unequal to the task. You're not. But how do you convince yourself you are? How do you make enough mental space to do it?
One thing I should say up front is that I think most non-writers or people going in on their first book deal assume you know the schedule at which things will happen way more than you do. Yes, there are deadlines and you have a general idea when things will come back to you or be due. But editors are juggling a whole bunch of projects in various stages and so you never quite know the specific time an edit will come back or more edits will or copyedits, etc. Maybe you have a new project and you and your agent are deciding when's the best time to send that out. It's a truth universally acknowledged that everything that can will conspire to happen at the same time if at all possible, rather than spread out in a pleasing, relaxed fashion. Which is fine. I like deadlines. Deadlines give me life.
But the piling up and competition between things for your time/mental energy/sanity can feel overwhelming sometimes. It can make it feel like there's no room for play or for playing around with an unspoken-for project, which is of course also part of what your future livelihood depends on. Maybe this helps explain why all the writers you know hit panic mode more or less frequently.
First things first, you have to have at least a moment of panic, but then figure out how to clear it out. No one can focus through panic. Let's take my last two weeks as an example of all this--having survived them with my brain and focus more or less intact, I now feel like I can unpack a bit and see what works for me and what doesn't. Sooo...I'm hard at work on Lois Lane #3, typing away and pleased with how it's developing. Technically, it's due Sept. 1 (that's this coming Thursday). We sent in the last big round of edits on our middle grade project at the end of the first week in August, and so after that I was able to focus exclusively on it. A couple of weeks ago, out of the blue, I get an email from an important person who wants to set up a call about a project that they're exploring to see whether I'm interested and have any ideas; we do the call, it goes well, I agree to throw together a couple pages of pitches on the ideas I have for them "in a week or two."
I start thinking about the pitches I need to put together on my walks. Cut to a week after this call, and I'm thinking it's time to put these on paper and get them turned in. I also decide to launch a Patreon and make the video and stuff, because I'm me. I'm typing away on Lois. So...I get back last edits on my ReMADE season one episode (ReMADE is this really cool weekly serial project and the first episode just went up for free, go try it out! Mine's #10, but you'll want to read or listen to them all). Due ASAP, within a few days if possible. They don't sound like that much, but you never know until you open the document. I don't.
Instead I laugh, and say, of course. (The good thing about last rounds of edits is that usually you get paid when things go to copyedits. Huzzah!) Anyway, then I spend the next morning -- Friday -- typing up the pitch documents, have C read them, then send them in. I do my Lois 3 words and moan to Christopher about how I need to do these other edits. I work on some things for my SubPress job (daily, but an extra type proofing thing) and do more Lois 3 words over the weekend--including a scene that I'm not happy with, which I have to scrap and redo on Monday. I do that, but then Monday we also get back one last little round of edits on our middle grade, which are needed back by the following Monday so it can go to copyedits. Again, I haven't opened the file, so it sounds doable but... At this point, I have a mini-meltdown. Did I mention I'm also supposed to be writing a bunch of things for Lois 2's UK launch on Sept. 8? Hahahaha, I take a stress nap Monday afternoon.
I get up and go to aerial yoga. That makes everything better. We laugh, we hang upside down.
I come home thinking I just need to make a plan. My two methods of time management boil down to: 1) Stop dicking around, 2) Triage, and 3) Don't forget to move around. But sometimes you need a little decompression time. We watch two West Wing episodes and I text Court an overwhelmed text and she sends me back exactly the pep talk I need. Tuesday morning, I get up, and decide to clear the decks starting with the smallest project first. I do the ReMADE edits, turn em in. That afternoon, I think, I'll check out these middle grade edits--Christopher and I had already talked about them the night before and agreed on the fixes, but there were some line edits too--and I start doing them and make so much progress I just cancel my aerial class that night and we work on them and turn them in by the end of Tuesday. This is a pretty damn good work day, even for me. We have wine.
And then I can get back to Lois 3... The next day, my brain doesn't work very well, because all that stuff the day before. I also have figured out in my freak out, that with Salt Lake City ComicCon coming, I'm going to need an extra week for the book to be the draft I want to turn in. So I asked for that yesterday and because my editor is a goddess, I have until Sept. 12 if I need it. I'd much rather make up time in revisions, which I'm faster at. Probably because I find them far less painful.
And so, hey, this is me juggling. For me, drafting takes much more single-minded focus, and so I've learned it's better to clear out space for that as much as possible. I can't do more than 2000 to 3000 words a day without getting brain fry that impacts the next day. So I write for a bit, do some part-time job stuff, take a walk, write a bit more, repeat.
Sometimes you need a day off for utter despair and rewatching West Wing episodes. There's no point yelling at yourself about it. Now if only I could learn to employ that part of my own advice. ;)
Happy end of summer, love, off to write more,
Me
News:
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