Planning by the seat of my pants by Annmarie Miles

I decided at the beginning of the year I was not going to waste any more time. I couldn't bear the thought of days and weeks going by with little writing progress being made, unless there is a deadline - like these monthly posts for example. I watched a New Year Planning workshop on Facebook with Orna Ross of ALLi and Joanna Penn of The Creative Penn. Their determination and enthusiasm was not so much a breath of fresh air, as a bucket of cold water. At first it was a shock, but it was also reviving and refreshing. They knew where they were going, what was happening the following week and month. All I knew was I had to write this for today.  

"I can't start
until I have these."

These ladies are organised, and I thought, THAT IS IT! I am going to get organised too. That was two weeks ago... Every time I went to start my planning, I got the heebie geebies! I would lie to myself and say I needed more time to think. Then I figured what I needed was markers, lots of markers in range of colours. No, no, a spreadsheet. That's it, I'll make a spreadsheet in different colours, with cross-referenced columns and notes. No no no no no no no I'll buy a notice board. I'll cover it with post-it notes and... no, I'll cover it with blank A4 sheets and... so on.

I went back to the Facebook page, looked at some of the follow up posts and knew I had to take action, or else I would be back in the writing doldrums. So I got a piece of paper and divided it into four. Splitting the year into quarters I started by putting in the regular writing commitments I have. Then I built around those with other pieces I wanted to write regularly. I added a reading plan too and soon my A4 page was crammed.  "We're gonna need a bigger boat!" I said, causing my oft bemused husband to look up from his book, shake his head and disappear again. I got hold of of a flip chart sheet and recreated the plan on the larger page. That was going well until I realised I couldn't read what was on the planner as my handwriting turns to hieroglyphics after a few minutes.

I ended up with a combination of printed pages stuck on to the flip chart page and some scribbles with a marker. It was a fun 'make and do' project and it has really spurred me on to get lots of words written this year. If I don't fill every slot, it won't be the end of the world, but I'll be able to plan ahead and see how I'm progressing. 

We don't know how long Lockdown will last, but I'm looking forward to coming out the other end of it feeling I've accomplished something. Even if it is just an art project :) 

Have you made any plans for 2021?

photo credits: 

1. wanderlust octopus Mr. Sketch Rainbow via photopin (license)

2. My grand plan of action

Annmarie Miles is from Dublin, Ireland.
She lives with her husband Richard who is a pastor in the Eastern Valley of Gwent, in South Wales. She writes short stories, magazine articles, devotional pieces for Christian radio, and blogs about her faith at www.auntyamo.com Her first collection of short stories published in 2013, is called 'The Long & The Short of it'. Her second collection, 'A Sense of the Sea and other stories,' was published in 2018 and in December 2019 she published her first novel, Gorse Lodge. She is currently editing a non-fiction book about being an overweight Christian called, 'Have mercy on me O Lord, a slimmer.'