Life is a Journey. Writing is Life.

Novel writing has always been my dream. It's hard to cobble together a decent plot let alone go over the story time and again.
Discipline is my journey this month as I begin a serious attempt to develop a novel and complete it.
I've procured a copy of The Novel Planner: A Daily Planner for Authors, created by Kristen Kieffer and am slowly working my way through physically manifesting my ideas.

I was super excited to get my Novel Planner
it in the mail. (Photo by Anna Jauhola)

The back cover of the planner I received.
(Photo by Anna Jauhola)

The planner is pretty cool so far, and with help from Kieffer's site ShesNovel.com (soon to be called Well-Storied) I'm really getting the most out of it.
Kieffer really breaks down how to dig into character, plot and scene development, even better than I experienced in college classes.
I've fleshed out my protagonist a lot better on paper than I ever expected. Usually, I'm the type that creates a fantastic plot in the shower, perfect characters just before falling asleep and amazing scenes while I'm washing the dishes. Of course, when I sit down to write it in a notebook --- BLANK. Who were those people I was thinking about? What was my story again? Damn it.
In a few posts I've read, Kieffer stresses discipline and the need for writers to make time to sit down and plan. Physically write down ideas, not just amazingly create them mentally only to let them slip away 10 minutes later.
Discipline. It's a tough word. I can't stress enough how hard that aspect of my writing is for me.
But The Novel Planner has so far helped me understand the importance of even a general outline .
Writing down the outline for my idea was actually super liberating. It was like my author eyes sprang open and I saw my protagonist's purpose, along with my antagonist's.
Outlining. Do it.
The Novel Planner will help me keep track of all aspects of my life with spaces for personal, work and writing project to-do lists; room for project goals and project marketing strategies; character sketches; room for doodling or jotting down different story ideas; and accomplishments like weekly word count. And, since I have an ever-growing list of books I need to read, there is a whole page dedicated to jotting down book titles and authors. :) Wonderful!
I haven't been so excited about a planner since I entered high school.
The Novel Planner will help keep me accountable and motivated so I can become a better writer. Who knows? My goals and plans might actually come to fruition with a finished novel in 2017.