I have a very careful plan. If you’ve read any of my “letters,” you’ll know how long and probably obsessively I have worked on and refined my writing and marketing plan for 2014. I have been sooooo good about sticking to the plan for the most part. Being behind doesn’t mean I’m not sticking to it. Except…I got slapped upside the head with the most amazing plot bunny ever. It appeared full and perfect in my brain, like Athena springing from Zeus’ overheated imaginings. I even know that it won’t take that long to write. It’s not a difficult story, and it’s not a long story. It’s a perfect little 50-60k word literary pastry. Just enough to satisfy without ruining your appetite. It must be written. It is too good of an idea not to be written. I am obsessed with it. It’s not that I haven’t had plot bunnies hop into my garden and start chowing down on my carrots of productivity before now. Since I developed my plan for this year, I’ve been able to gently scoop the plot bunny up, pet it (i.e. write it down in my notebook in Evernote), and put it safely in the plot bunny nursery. This little plot bunny is not cooperating. This plot bunny is thumping, hopping, and humping everything in sight. I’ve been practicing learning listening to my instincts with knowing when to stop and reassess where I am in a plot line, so when this idea took hold of my brain, I stopped and analyzed exactly why it was so persistent. The answer is it was persistent because it’s powerful. It’s a really funny, creative idea, and I will adore writing it…which hopefully means people will adore reading it. I am learning flexibility must be part of any business plan, and so, I am figuring out the how and when of writing this bunny up. It’s not going to wait for long. July Camp NaNoWriMo is coming up, and that might be the perfect place for this bunny. It means pushing off a couple of other projects until August, but that is going to be the way it is. That is also why I have left Q4 as open as I did. I’m not a factory producing widgets. As much as I would like to create absolutes and set unchangeable routines and schedules, the nature of creativity is such that unpredictability must be budgeted for. Therefore, I will budget for it, embrace it, and raise this plot bunny baby to full published bunny adulthood.
