I miss the feeling of stacking up on new school and study supplies after the summer vacation. I loved the excitement of getting the schedule and even more if there was a new subject on it. To get the back-to-school vibe, I have created this weekly writing schedule. In this blog post, I share a free download with my schedule and a blank schedule in two versions.

How I will get the back-to-school vibe with my writing schedule

Day 1

I have taken up my speculative fiction project again, and I have a lot of already written material. However, I will work through an overview of all the threads weaving through the story. Doing this will be an ongoing process because I like to keep it flexible. If I work out an all-too-tight outline, I get easily bored. That being said, I am looking forward to receiving the book Save the Cat by Jessica Brody anytime soon to tie down the plot even more.

The story has a lot of characters, and I enjoy the gallery. However, I have a problem with my main character. I don’t know why I don’t like him very much. The time block set aside to work on character development will therefore revolve around him, and I hope my other new buy The Emotional Craft of Fiction by Donald Maass, will help me with this.

The best thing about taking this project up again is the excitement and renewed faith in the story. But I know that after a couple of weeks, I am again so entangled in the mess of trying to write how I picture this entire world that I need some encouragement to get going. To work on my mindset, I will read Big Magic by Elisabeth Gilbert again. ( I love the notion of the shit sandwich).

Day 2

Words. The building blocks of all writing. For a speculative fiction book, part of the fun is to come up with new words. But I also enjoy working with rhythm and how to mix nouns and verbs in a way that makes the sentences dance. For this block, I will gather all the new words I conjured up and put them on a list.

To build on the work done, I will write a dialogue scene where one of the characters uses one of the words. And see if that doesn’t lead to some inspired free writing.

Day 3

The setting is much more than just the place where the action unfolds. However, most of my ideas come from an inner image of scenery. And that image invokes the atmosphere of multiple scenes. There is a pivotal scene I still need to write for the middle of the story, which takes place in mid-air. I will be working on this scene Wednesday. Writing this will probably lead to some backstory as well.

I love to watch other writers talk about their profession so this week I will watch an episode of Between the Lines: An Interview Series with Kelly Corrigan on Creativelive where she interviews Celeste Ng.

Day 4

September-air has a quality to it calling for time spent at the desk. It is not too cold or hot. The light folds around me like a blanket and makes me feel like I am at the shore looking out on the ocean. This Thursday is meant for writing.

With the extra pages, I will need to check in with my outline and perhaps make a plot adjustment or two.

And to soak up the last of the summer, I will go for a walk.

Day 5

My favorite thing to write is scenes with the antagonist, so I will round up the week with my antagonist being on top of his game.

I don’t know yet what I will choose for this block other than it will be something that has been fun working on during the week and naturally leads into a celebration.

Free printable to schedule your week

If you want to get the back-to-school vibe download the weekly writing schedule and fill out your own schedule with the subjects you choose.