Chasing focus time

It’s all about making the time. Not about waiting for it to appear.

I had pinned my hopes on a magical date. A milestone at the apex of the craziness, after which we could take a breath. Recover. And I would be able to dive back into the book full time.

But we kept hitting new complications. Maybe I had misjudged, and we needed to hit the milestone after. Or three milestones after. I kept thinking, I just need survive until this date, then I’m free. And then that date would slip by days. Weeks. Months.

I can’t wait for that elusive quiet time any longer. I need to make the time. Carve out pockets in the day. One pomodoro here, another there, even if they get interrupted. And it’ll start to add up to real time.

Multi-book outlining

I’ve been thinking about the series as a whole again. My plans for book 2 and 3 are pretty vague and sketchy, especially when compared against my dense, interwoven outline for book 1.

What if I took the nebulous ideas I had been saving for prequels and sequels and wove them in, making for more immersive and compelling books 2 and 3?

I had wanted to add support for a multi-book outline to my tools. I merged this PR to support that in May. (I had noted earlier that tech takes less headspace than creative work.)

I’m hesitant to dive back into draft 6 before I have some dedicated time and energy for it. But outlining takes less headspace, and keeping the books top-of-mind leads to flashes of ideas in the shower or during dog walks. I’m not getting anywhere near as much done as I want to, but a little bit each day adds up.