"I love it when a plan comes together!" -Hannibal
I like plans.
Meal plans, chore plans, wardrobe plans, travel plans. When it comes to my writing, I'm a plotter. I rarely start anything without having a plan first. Plans are delightful. Plans work for me.
Except when they don't.
It all started when I was almost finished with my most recent book. The plan was, it would be the first book in a trilogy. I'd even started planning the next two books, but hadn't gotten very far (read: I knew the primary, secondary, tertiary, and quaternary characters, the titles, and the plots).
But then I had this idea.
You know the Greek myth where the goddess Athena springs, fully formed, from the head of Zeus? It was like that, only instead of a Greek goddess (I'm pretty sure Sherrilyn Kenyon has the rights to those), this was a story.
Okay, seven stories.
It was a tough call. I was already invested in the trilogy, and what I had in mind for the new series was a massive project. My brain rebelled against shucking an entire notebook's worth of work to start over on something else. I had to stick to the plan.
That's when it struck me. Wait a minute. I'm an indie. Whose plan do I have to stick to, exactly?
Planning is great. It's the only reason I'm able to crank out books at the pace I do. But sometimes, your plans hamstring you.
Sometimes, you have to go with your gut instead.
Curious about my new project? For a sneak preview of the first book, check out its Pinterest board.
Awesome!! I was just thinking about this recently, how I need to plan things more carefully when it comes to my writing (especially the marketing aspect of writing), but at the same time there has to be room for adjustment...I've noticed that a lot of people who are successful in their fields say something like, "I worked hard but I was also very lucky." I don't think these people were actually luckier than the average person, the thing is that when they had a plan but saw an opportunity, they ditched the plan for the opportunity and it made a huge difference in their rate of success. So, (whew this is a long comment- sorry!) I think it's awesome that you're brave enough to pursue other ideas!
ReplyDeleteHaha! Thanks Paula! I love long comments :-) I absolutely agree, many times what looks like "luck" is actually the end result of a s***-ton of hard work. The people who make it are the ones who position themselves to take advantage of breaks that come along. Thanks so much for reading! Hope you're doing well!
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