Manuscript-A-Palooza, Week One

Hello, dear readers.

I'm one week in to The Plan, which you can get a glimpse of here. For the next 14-make-that-13 weeks, I'll be offering updates to my progress as my weekly blog post.

This week, I had some pretty simple but necessary goals:

• Assess the status of my 'Backstage' chapter, which covers questions about pregnancy and economics, managerial and contractual policies, and repertory planning.

• Make a plan for revising said chapter.

I did both of these things, then I assigned each distinct section of the chapter a label in Scrivener so I can see which ones need the most work. From there, I made a triage list of tasks for this week. I also had to face that this is probably more than I can draft/edit in a week, so I'm doing Part One of the chapter this week, and Part Two next week.

Along the way, I also discovered that I'd need to do some a) more (but very targeted) research, and b) more number crunching in order to write a couple of the missing pieces. I did the number crunching Friday and today went ahead and filled in the relevant blanks.

Me for the next thirteen weeks.

Additionally, I wanted to:

• Touch base with Colleen, my incredible colleague, friend, and editor about The Plan, its feasibility, what it would mean for my Introduction and Book Proposal.

• Make a list of tasks to assign to a departmental research assistant that would help get me into Chapter 5, which is currently only in Outline form.

Colleen made time to chat with me on Monday, which was very generous. Together, we looked at The Plan, talked through ideas about trimming and focusing the scope of the project, and the reasons (beyond time) that this would make sense.

My initial plan to start revising the Intro, we agreed, should wait until later in the palooza. I changed my schedule accordingly. I cannot stress how much of a difference it makes to have her (and all of you) in my corner.

By Wednesday, I'd come up with a list of sources that our GA could tackle for me, and we met that afternoon to go over everything. It felt slightly odd, but I made up an assignment guide the way I would for class, and I'm hoping it'll be helpful for him to have everything in one spot.

Finally, I got Colleen's edits back on the Dorothy Jordan chapter I'd sent her right before ASECS. The much-appreciated news is that the chapter is in good shape--thanks to yet more generous writing friends who helped me give it a couple of rounds of smart edits. Of course, I was tempted to jump straight in and start on the revisions she suggested, but I'm trying to hold back and stick to the schedule I've made. If those revisions end up taking less time than I allotted: fab-u-lous, but for now, I don't want to take my eyes off the Backstage chapter, especially since I've had to alter my timeline slightly.

Overall: a good start. It's been incredibly helpful to have my timeline easily to hand so I know what my priorities are at any one moment. I highly recommend this kind of mapping if you're also managing a big project.

And, of course, I'm happy to hear any of your tips and tricks as well.

Happy writing, everyone!

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To see my updated schedule and follow along in some kind of odd and not-very-fun choose-your-own-adventure story knockoff, click here!