Everyone Needs a To-Do List, Oh, and a Pin-up of the Magic Mike Version of Channing Tatum

When you're ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder), you're often very talented at a little-known sport called "Dropping the Ball."  As I said last week, it's not for lack of motivation that I forget to take out the trash on trash day or forget to fold the laundry before it wrinkles, or forget to pick up my sister after her high school band performance at 11:00 at night and only remember when my mom calls me at my cousin's later that night.  Yeah, that last one was bad. Usually, the attention problem starts when I have multiple things going on at once.  My brain can't seem to focus on everything.

But, over the years I've developed a few tricks to at least make multiple tasks manageable when they all come at the same time.  Unfortunately, it took me a long time to realize taking the extra time to write out a To-Do List is worth the effort.  It probably wouldn't have helped me with my sister (she forgave me, btw), but it does help with several areas of my life, including writing.

If I take the time to make a list of the major story events I have coming up, I fly through my writing session.  However, if I'm short on time and just sit down and begin writing, I often get stuck and frustrated, or just simply don't get too many words onto the page.

None of my lists are formal.  I don't follow any systems (Save the Cat or Scene and Sequel).  I just write what I know has to happen next in the story for it to get told.  And though Dean Wesley Smith advises never to go back and re-write, I don't really re-write, but I do go back later to tweak and add things and remove stuff to make the scenes better.  Not usually in the same writing session, but I don't always wait until the end either.

If you've read Heart of Mercy, the scene in the back room of the bunker didn't have a television at all the first time I wrote it.  It wasn't until I was over half-way through the manuscript and several scenes past that one that I knew I needed to add that detail to the story.  Of course, I had to tweak other areas along the way to make sure it fit in smoothly, and one of my Beta Readers found a place where I'd "dropped the ball" with the details of that scene.  Yep, that's ADD for you.

So, as painfully tedious as making a To-Do List is, it is SO worth it if I want to accomplish something with all the minute details accounted for.

Oh, and if there were a list of the hottest, hot-bodies ever in a male-stripper movie, Channing Tatum might just be at the top.  What do you think?

Happy Reading and Writing!

C. C. Marks

Post-post addition--Forgot to update current WIP status (shocker, there).  One week later, I've managed to make it to 20,400 words.  Not great progress, but realistic for me with all my other responsibilities.