Writing Schedule / Outline

In my work life, I have always been the absolute organized person. I develop plans, follow schedules and finish tasks to the dot. I enjoy it and am very proud of my achievement.

When I look at my creative life, it is totally the opposite. It is messy, no orders and spread to everywhere. I would start many projects and only finish a few of them. As much as I understand and enjoy the freedom and chaotic nature of being a creative person, I believe I would benefit greatly from a more structured approach to my writings.

So I came up with below schedule / outline for my writing projects.

1) 10 mins Free Writing: daily (No Exception)

2) Main Project: STOS (total 12 stories)

- Ideas developed: 10

- Ideas outstanding: 2

- Routine: min. 200 words every day (2-days rest)

- General Rules for STOS:

a) Free run (for both word count and finishing time) for 1st draft of all stories

b) Break for 1 - 2 weeks in between of starting any new story

c) After finishing of any 1st draft, put it aside for 4 – 6 week before rewriting

d) A more controlled free run (for both word count and finishing time) for 1st rewrite of all stories

e) After finishing 1st rewriting, put story aside for 2-3 week before 2nd round rewriting

f) Try not to rewrite any stories for more than 2 times

My main goal is to use the above as a base to further develop a simple yet flexible plan / structure / routine / schedule which I could follow through out this year for STOS.

I haven’t included any workshop or writing group activities at this stage. Right now, I’m concentrating on creating a sizeable portfolio for possible workshops and definitely for publishing opportunities. These might or might not happen within the year. It all depends on the progress I make.

BTW, you might find above not really to your interest which I agree. I’m posting this to kind of create a public pressure on myself. Now that I have announced my plan, I’m to live up to it. So thank you very much for reading this. :)