2015 - The Year of Organization

 

I am starting out the new year by creating an environment of organization around me. I am bringing (by choice) a writing project from 2014 that, had life not interfered, would have been finished and published. I also am determined to publish my first mystery. The 2014 project has several chapters already finished, and its structure in place. My new mystery project has a structure, or I should say had a structure. I decided today to toss that out, and restructure the story entirely. Two factors will remain - that the main character is a female, and the environment is Las Vegas. I am going to work on the two projects simultaneously.

I have two events already scheduled into 2015 - both from my Tarot world - one in March, and one in, I believe, August. At least one writer's conference will be added to that in 2016. I will also be choosing two professional writer's organizations to join this month (January 2015).

The next thing that I will be doing to organize my resources better will be to go through my bookmarked pages, delete those that I don't need, and arrange those that I intend on keeping into better categories.  

This is a start - and only a start. But it helps me to feel less overwhelmed, and that helps to get the work done!

(c) 2000 - 2015 Bonnie Cehovet

Reproduction prohibited without written permission of he author.

What Determines When You Let Go Of A Writing Project?

At the beginning of 2014, one of my defined projects was to write a book on decision making. The chapter outline was defined ... yes, the chapter outline was defined. Self imposed deadlines passed, and not much writing was done. I was not enthused about this project, but I did not want to let it go. The introduction and the first two chapters are finished, which gives me hope that I can finish it by the end of the year. I did make the ultimate decision to add a chapter that some people may feel does not belong there. I am going to show how the Tarot can be used in the decision making process.

How do we know when to leave a project - not just step away for a short time, but let the project go completely? I thought about that with my book on decision making. I knew that I had some things to say, and I felt they would be of benefit to others,  The deal was that I had no sense of joy about writing this book. I could get as far as chapter outlines, which showed me that I was not imagining that I had something to say. I even perked up a bit when writing the first chapter. I also knew that I would not be happy letting the project go, and that just setting it aside for a short time wasn't working.

Part of the issue was the other issues in my life. Some things were going well, some things were not. Life was collapsing in on me at times. I was struggling to find the flow in life. Sound familiar? I finally realized that I was fighting my shadows, and those shadows were appearing in many forms. Resolving our shadows is better than fighting them, so this is what I set out to do. Resolve some things. Make peace with other things. Major change. And this book is part of that process.

My work was still viable in the market place. We all make decisions every day, and getting a fresh look at how to do that is  valuable marketing tool. One of the reasons that we might let go of a project is that there is no market for it. That did not apply to me.

It also fits into where my personal life path, and my career life path, are headed. If your project does not fit into your life path, that is another red flag to just let it go. Even if it is running away in the market place, it is not worth your time to work on thing that do not fit in with your life. Another thing that writer's need to look at here is genre. Are you tired of staying within the confines of a single genre? Would it be better to spread your wings? My aim is to make cozy mysteries my primary genre, but I no doubt will, from time to time, write about Tarot, personal empowerment, and other self-help topics. It all fits in with who I am.

Take a very careful look at any project that you are bogged down in, or are considering releasing. Look at why it is not working, whether it can be fixed, and what shadows within you it is releasing. We find out a lot about ourselves when we ask the why of something, and when we ask ourselves how we really feel about it. We are the ones that have to answer to the individual in the mirror every morning!

(c) 2000 - 2014 Bonnie Cehovet

Reproduction prohibited without written consent of the author.