With the start of a new quarter, comes the start of a new cycle, but things'll be a little different…
I've found some kinks in the writing schedule I built at the end of last year, which was expected given how green of a writer I am, and most welcome — if I know what's wrong, I can fix it. In the previous method, I contributed to three projects a month — six chapters of PMH, and alternating between two and one installments of PA and OHM. This fulfilled its purpose — I got nine chapters done every month — but it stretched me thin and kept me flipping between worlds; words were written, but I couldn't focus enough on one project to animate it, so to say.
My solution, then, is this:
Focus on two projects a month, alternating PA & OHM monthly instead of weekly.
Dedicate an entire week to one project instead of filling each week with both — two weeks for PMH and one week for PA or OHM. The order of the weeks doesn't matter right now, so I could begin or end a cycle with a project other than Murder House, or sandwich it between. (This may change if I don't like it in the future.)
Each week must still see the writing and editing of three installments, barring emergencies that require my attention, so I don't lose the amount of work — it's just spread around.
This format is much simpler — on paper and in practice — and will help me focus on one world at a time for far longer, therefore adding depth and attention to the story and characters. It won't cost me any time or work — it's still nine installments a month, and PA and OHM will still be produced at a rate of three chapters every two months — it's just…nicer.
However, this week, which I have dedicated to OHMb2, will not see three chapters written — it will see two. This has nothing to do with implementing my new schedule late (I thought about the changes last month), it's because of glaring errors in OHMb2's timeline.
When I created the timeline for OHM, plotted out everything, and divied up the chapters…well it turns out I had no idea what I was doing. OHM: Evercrown didn't suffer from this because it's based off a novela I wrote years ago — everything's already laid out — but its sequels are totally new. At the time, I wasn't even considering writing books, so how I wanted to progress the story was amorphous at best. When I finally sat down and laid everything out, though, I knew what I wanted…I just didn't know how to put it on paper yet.
Everything crucial, it turns out, is there — sometimes in the wrong places, but at least I wrote it down — but there are gaps of literal months between chapters for some characters and only weeks or days for others. It's a hot mess (dare I say dumpster fire?) of a timeline that I didn't even realize was burning. So, today, and the reason why this week will only see two new chapters in OHMb2, I will be putting out the dumpster fire and organizing the timeline for Our Holy Mother book 2.
Wish me luck, y'all, I'm gonna need it.
Bye!