Roadmaps Are Key

Every journey starts with a plan. Whether you’re going to the supermarket or off on a well-deserved vacation, you have some sort of plan. It may not be a formal plan – a collection of ideas, a shopping list or just a destination. Your plan might also be quiet elaborate, including a detailed itinerary with a list of must-see tourist attractions and exact turn-by-turn directions to and from your destination.

In either case, the plan always includes your starting point, a destination and your planned route to get there.

Prompted by a detour into plotting and scenes, the idea of an overall plan has been on my mind this week. If I’m going to not just write a novel, but make a serious hobby of writing, I need a better roadmap to accomplish it.

Until now, I’ve approached writing in a haphazard fashion. I would take an idea for a novel, write up some notes on it (or not) and dive right in. This isn’t working for me. I always become stuck right around chapter three. In other words, I’d never make it much past “Boy meets Girl” before running out of steam.

I’m tired of this.

My goal at the beginning of this summer was to finish this novel. (Notice the lack of an end date there? A bad sign already.) I can now comfortably write a 1000-word journal entry in 30 minutes and I’m doing it daily. I can also crank something out for 20 minutes on demand (Thanks to the Romance Divas in the chat challenges!)

I find I need a better roadmap. I’m driving in circles. Don’t get me wrong, the scenery along the way has been interesting, but my inner child keeps asking, “Are we there yet?”

I realize this isn’t going to be an easy or short journey and there are going to be many detours along the way. However, I need to better plan this trip, so I can better enjoy the side attractions along the way because I am determined to make it to my destination.

I’m not looking for a brief visit; I want to move.