Okay, that has nothing to do with the blog post but I’ve been annoying people with that line all day so thought I’d inflict it on my readers, too.

Anyhow…

I just finished three night shifts at work and may ask to change my schedule from a day/evening rotation to evenings and nights. I think that will work better sleep-wise (at least, once I adjust to evening shift hours again) and will also (hopefully) lead to increased productivity as far as writing goes. (Night shift has very little in the way of med pass, and I had all of the other shift responsibilities done by 12:30 last night. There is also only one nurse on nights so I had about five and a half hours all to myself.)

So, last night (in the wee morning hours) I pieced together a schedule for finishing the current edits on The Academy of the Accord by the end of next year. Now, let’s see if I can stick to it.

I need to see if I can get some other projects worked in around it. Maybe if I finish a monthly goal early I can work on something else? Or use 750words.com to work on other projects daily throughout the year?

I’ll figure something out; there’s still a week before the new year starts and I lay out my impossible goals.

I do know that I’ll be using the Camp NaNoWriMo sessions to work on editing.

(Okay, I know that I’m planning to use Camp NaNoWriMo sessions to work on editing. We all know that plot bunnies happen, though.)

Is the series still coming out in 2020? Ehhhh… Maybe. I’d like it to, but I don’t want to rush it. there are still a couple books that I never actually finished/wrapped up, and here are a lot of inconsistencies to work out. There are also some side stories that I’d like to write, either as a bonus for readers or for a side publication.

(And even as I was writing this post another development/layer to the series appeared. I like it. One of the books is a little light on plot and it’s going to help tie it into the overall series arc a little tighter.)

So, while I’d like 2020 to still happen, it may not happen until 20201. We’ll see how 2018 goes.

On a brighter note, if I hold onto my 2018 goals, 2019 looks like a fairly easy year, just doing final checks and such, which means I can maybe work on other projects then too. I have a bunch of stuff that is close to being ready to publish. Or at least, a bunch of stuff that is written and ready to begin getting ready for publication.

Ha!

Remember on Monday when I said that the new job would probably increase my productivity as far as writing goes?

Um…

It hasn’t.

Tuesday and Wednesday I worked day shift, which starts at 6:00 in the morning, and since I hate to be late I leave home at 5:00, which means getting up at 4:00 or 4:30 which means being totally exhausted.

I was off yesterday but was wiped out from the two day shift, plus we went to see The Last Jedi, so that left me feeling kind of dragged out, too.

And tonight I’m going to be orienting on night shift (yay?) because they are desperately in need of someone to cover it on Sunday. (I was hired for the day/evening combo, but since I’m relatively hating the daylight hours I might switch to evening/nights if I like evening shift which I won’t orient on until after Boxing Day.)

So, no editing has been done this week, although I did start on my (very) short Christmas story. It hasn’t gotten very far, but it has been started.

I’m kind of hoping that night shift will give me enough down time to do some writing (by hand). We’ll see.

Meanwhile, I’m going to go try to sleep for a few hours before work (I woke up at 6:00 this morning and couldn’t get back to sleep). It’s a grey rainy day, and I had pasta for lunch, so that should help. (I don’t normally sleep well during the day.)

And if all else fails I have about a gallon of Mountain Dew.

Well, it seems that I missed Friday somehow. (I think I need to schedule reminders for what day of the week it is.)

Part of that, though, was because I had a job interview at a jail about half an hour away from where I live. Today I got a phone call with the offer and I start tomorrow.

Or at least, tomorrow I go in for paperwork and orientation. We’ll work out my schedule then, but I know it’s going to be alternating weeks of day shift (6:00 am to 2:00 pm) and then a week of evening shift (2:00 to 10:00pm).

How is this going to affect my writing?

Good question. The answer lies somewhere between “I don’t know yet” and “not much” with a strong emphasis toward “increased productivity.” (At least, after I get settled into the routine, because for some reason I always seem to be more productive if I have less time.)

One thing I’m hoping, though, is that being back to work will keep me on track for blog posts.

So, what have I been doing writing-wise?  Well… I’ve been doing some re-reading of some of the Academy of the Accord books, mostly because I was looking for stuff that I needed to cut from them to put into Book 5.5, and, well, I kinda got carried away. I have been doing some work on 5.5, mostly tweaking some word choices and punctuation. I need to get back to work on the prequel, too.

I’ve also begun thinking about my goals (and a timeframe) for 2018, but more on that later, once I finalize plans.

And, of course, as I’m making my writing plans (which were supposed to focus on The Academy of the Accord) plot bunnies have begun hopping up everywhere. The one I was planning to do for NaNoWriMo has been nudging me with scenes and plot hooks and more info on the alien culture. (But still no name for one of the main characters.)

There’s also a Christmas story (fortunately a very short story) that is begging to be written, so with only a week to go to get it done I think I’d better focus on it.