I think I've got a new plan for my writing. Hopefully this one will stick, be consistent and become a long time habit.

My goal is to write an hour to an hour and a half a day, with at total weekly goal of 8 hours. I like the 8 hours, because then writing will become like a part time job for me which is how I want to think about it.

I will try to write every day, but I'm not going to freak out if I don't. It will probably work better for me if I don't skip a day, but if I do I will be able to make up the time before the week is up.

For this week, I wrote for 1.5 hours on Monday and Tuesday, and then 2 hours today. That's five hours, so I have three more hours to go.

I also decided to try this new way of writing and editing. First an outline and some character work and interviews. Then I'll write the first draft by hand, then I'll type up my notes into the computer and that will be a second draft. I'll read the second draft and make any structural changes, and new outline if needed. After that I'll retype the second draft from the beginning, which will become the third draft. I will read and line edit the third draft, and the final draft will be typing up my corrections.

This is a variation on "the radical rewrite" technique I learned in screenwriting class. With radical rewrite, you write the first draft and then write a completely new second draft over, without looking at the first draft.

I think this variation is better because you can still look at your first draft, but you're not tied to it and you're not writing without it.

I still haven't decided if I'll do the second draft by hand or on the computer. It would probably be easier to do it on the computer, but I would start with a new document and not just try to rework the old one.

I've been trying to rework "Spooning with my Mother" using the original document, and I don't like it. I think it's better to start fresh with a new document, and not worry too much about what I originally wrote. If I want to use a particular line from the first draft, I can retype it from the printed copy.

By retyping sentences over, I will have the opportunity to see if the sentence makes sense, os necessary and is worth keeping. Starting with a fresh docment enables me to be more ruthless about throwing out what works and what doesn't work. At least, I'm hoping that this is the result of my new writing process.