Writing plans

Prompt: Have you set a writing plan for 2019? If not why not? Do you feel planning makes you more productive or less productive?

I haven”t made a writing plan yet but I think I will.  Generally speaking, plans help me avoid wasted time.  For instance, I might not write any more than I would have without the plan, but what I do write is more likely to be what’s on my plan than random waste-of-time writing.  Okay, I don’t normally have writing plans, I don’t think, but this is generally what happens to me with plans.

I did have a writing bucket list once.  Let’s see what was on that…

 Handwrite all my poems into journals
 Finish, edit and print Grand & Epic Adventures
Write a short story based on one of my ancestors
 Write a short story based on my own life
 Write a poem about Boxing Days
 Write a poem about each of my family members
 My dad
 My mum
 My older sister
 My younger sister
 My husband
 My son
 My daughter
 My father-in-law
 My mother-in-law
 Complete National Poetry Writing Month
 Complete National Novel Writing Month
 Fill a journal with writing
 Send a snail mail letter to my younger sister in the UK
 Send a snail mail letter to my godson in Australia
 Send a snail mail letter to my goddaughter in Australia
 Send a snail mail letter to my grandmother in Australia
 Send a snail mail letter to my great uncle in the UK
 Send a snail mail letter to my uncle in Australia
 Send a snail mail letter to my friend Beth in the US
 Send a snail mail letter to my old next door neighbour
 Take a poetry writing or appreciation class

Hey, I’ve actually done quite a few of the things on my list!  When I was checking the list though, I realised I hadn’t updated any of my 2018 to-do lists and made 2019 lists.  I need to do that.  This is a great prompt, because I hadn’t thought about doing this earlier!

Okay, let’s do writing, and then I’ll do the other ones after posting this entry.

Last year I set myself a goal of writing a poem and a short story every month.  I failed that pretty spectacularly.  I didn’t write any short stories at all last year  and I think I only wrote poems in about six of the 12 months.  Ugh.  So I won’t set that goal again.

Oh, I should probably mention that I also have a Writing.com list (for entering contests, etc) and a blogging list.  So I don’t count blogging as writing for the purpose of this writing list.  Sorry if that confuses you!

Okay, let’s set a goal of writing at least one short story in 2019.  That’ll be an improvement over 2018!  

I do wanna write some poems this year.  Maybe I should set a number instead of a timeline?  Like 10 poems in 2019?

The more I think about this, the harder it gets.  Because I was like ‘Oh, I need to do some book reviews too’, but that’s a different list as well (reading).  Clearly I have too many lists.  

So I put this blog entry down, went away, spent half the day watching Youtube videos and making a rock playlist and I’m still no closer to answer.  

Okay, here goes.  Executive decision.  Write six poems and one short story by 30 June, and write a total of 12 poems and two short stories by the end of the year.  Done!

Now I gotta update my other lists…