Organize Thy Writing

A chapter in that new book i'm reading talks about being very organized as a writer and man I'm feeling it. With my daily cartoon duties, film assignments and high-energy demands of long classes plus my extra-curricular activities, its pretty crazy. Balancing a full load at school and then organizing query submissions, entering competitions as well as researching Grad schools isn't easy, but so far my system that's worked somewhat has been.

(a) Set first a weekly goal on top of everything.

For me, my goal last week was to finish my current project, and write 30 pages. With all my computer issues and running all over DC I only ended up doing about 18 pages, but if I hadn't set the goal I might not have written anything.

(b) Relax, somehow.

I'm always buzzed and i'm pretty high energy. When the demands of everything are on your brain you want to write, excercise, play video games, read all at the same time. There has to be a balance unless you'll burnout. I'm not the best at this, but i've worked hard to relax ( I recently got a Yoga video )

(c) Organize all your tasks relating to things that MUST be done
Say you want to send ou 30 query letters. You need to have all 30 agents names and addresses ready. 30 envelopes and stamps ready and have the letters individually addressed to each of these people. A trick I did was to make an Excel file to track them all. So each time I dropped a letter in an envelope I added them to the database. This also helps you keep track of dates. I received a reply to a query I sent three months ago recently, but at least I can see who I sent it to, and see if I should query them again.

But the basic goal is to do what you can as soon as possible. Make a list, write it down and be active so you don't become overwhelmed.

(d) Read.

(e) Evaluate the goals.
Its easy to see your progress afte ryou set your goals. So if I sent out 30 queries and go zero responses. I probably need to change my query. Or if I sent them out six weeks ago (and they are all e-mail based) and i've gotten no reply, maybe I need a new agent list? I think its hard to see where you are going if you don't know where you are coming from. For example, I send out 24 letters for my first manuscript "Eden Speaks" and got 24 rejections. Alas, the world wasn't ready for a Jamaican novel in the U.S! But the point was, I sent out all 24 and got my replies and I ended up pushing another project. So I was at least able to say to myself that "maybe agents aren't ready for a book like this." It allowed me to gauge something. No point having your book in the drawer where you keep dirty magazines.

So If I plan A thing in B time frame, and I get C result, then I know what I can tweak and adjust to make sure i'm doing the best things possible.
That's about it for me. I'm trying to work on my organization seriously and I hope this helps someone else out there in la-la land.