Quit for Success?

          Last week I told you I was quitting my NaNoNovel and going to work on non-fiction. I’m sure you are wondering if my experiment worked. It did! Maybe my new motto needs to be, “If at first you don’t succeed, Quit!”

          I remember years ago watching someone teach a group of mostly children how to succeed in life. He had a 4-step system meant to be done repeatedly as needed. He had intriguing words and actions for each step, but it’s been so long I don’t remember them. I do remember the gist of the lesson, though.

1. Evaluate the situation
2. Make a plan
3. Aggressively work the plan
4. Step back and evaluate.
5. Repeat as needed

          Without realizing it, that’s exactly what I did over the past couple of weeks. I stepped back from my plan, evaluated and realized something wasn’t working, ie the fiction wasn’t getting written. I made a plan to refocus my efforts on my website and other non-fiction projects. This past week I have aggressively worked that plan. Even though my writing sessions were limited, they were very productive.

          If you have been checking out my personal website, Stephanie’s Musings, you will know that I have posted several entries over the past week. They are short and follow a theme, things for which I’m thankful. What you can’t see is that I have at least one more blog written and scheduled to post and several others are in various stages of completion on my computer. And, while they are not yet written, I also have plans for what I will post all the way through the rest of this year.

          Every time I sit down to write I am inspired and energized. During my short but energy-filled writing sessions, I often have three or four documents open to catch all the extraneous ideas creep out of the shadows of my mind and beg for attention. Many of these partially finished documents could end up as two or more posts because of all the ideas and thoughts pouring out of my fingers while I write them. The thrill of words s back!

          And while I don’t want to scrutinize it too much for fear it will skitter away, this focus on the non-fiction seems to be refilling the well of fiction ideas. (One of those constantly open documents is for the fiction.) And the notebook I carry in my purse is rapidly filling. Many of those ideas feeding on each other and merging into bigger ideas. Soon they might even jump out of the notebook and insist on becoming a project.

          Yes, quitting brought success. . . . or, more accurately, re-evaluating and refocusing brought success.

          Do your plans need evaluating?