Satelite 5

For a long while now, I've been planning to write up something about my planning process, because I am a definite planner and my process is long and convoluted and multicoloured and multimedia and, most importantly, works really well for me.

I've looked at processes like Snowflake and SaveTheCat and others, and even started designing my own method based on the PRINCE2 project management principals, but I keep rolling back to the same system that I've been using more or less consistently for years. Once upon a time, back in the mists of the noughties, I was a bit of a pantser. I'd have a concept and a goal in mind, but not an outline or any idea of how to get from start to finish. What I also had was a lot more time and, honestly, low standards for my writing. I can't look back on my stuff from that period with anything other than pride that I've come so far. There's a 200000 word fanfiction in my back catalogue that will, one day, with a lot of rewriting, be a decent 50k novel. It is not decent right now, because I only worked out where I was going with it a fair way into it, and stuffed it with far too much story. And, regardless of the quality, it took me 10 years to finish because I stopped loving it. That was time I could have spent working on things I did enjoy but no, I gave it to that pile of nonsense.

So in the aim of never doing that again, I have developed a system that works for me and produces works I do not hate. This is, however, my first attempt to codify it. Wish me luck.

( The Planning Process )

I needed to get some thoughts about Dragon Age fandom off my chest, and Twitter does not allow the word count I need for it, so here I am. The Tl;dr, for those who need it, is “What the fucking fuck, guys? We’re all adults here, start fucking acting like it, oh my god.”

( The long version is more nuanced, perhaps. Not less angry though )

So I'm finally feeling like writing again, hence my sudden reappearance on DreamWidth. Whilst I'm in the mood I've treated myself to a new laptop, a dinky little Cloudbook that I can use on the train and at work. Fingers crossed it will see me through 50k of NaNo as well as my uni work.

With that in mind, I've dug through my ongoing and barely started projects and lined up:
( Below the cut )