Stock Take on Writing Projects

Ok, the A to Z Challenge is over, my third novel, “Let The Dead Stay Dead ” has been released on Wattpad, and NaNoWriMo is still months away. This is a good time to stock take on my on-going writing projects. This exercise which I do from time to time, not only keeps readers informed of my work but more importantly acts as a compass for me to prioritize my time and energies. I would advocate all writers should do the same, with the frequency of such a stock take dependent on their specific requirements.

• A Bouquet From India: is a collection of short stories that I am working on. The first 50,000 words of this anthology were written during NaNoWriMo of 2012.  I need to edit them once again and revise a few of the stories. I have enjoyed writing short stories and the first anthology I wrote has been published on Smashwords as “He Sees Everything & Other Short Stories.”
• “Getting Ahead: Your Personal Effectiveness Workbook” a Non-Fiction Project: Since I took up writing fiction in 2010, I stayed away from non-fiction and wasn’t too keen to start with on writing non-fiction work based on my experiences of over 35 years as a Human Resources Professional in some of India’s leading business organisations, and as an entrepreneur leading a consulting firm that specialised in organisational development. However, my literary agent persuaded me to invest time and effort on what can best be described as a self-help book aimed at young professionals ( if not those with more experience) on how to be more effective at work. After the updated manuscript , I sent her a synopsis and author bio on July 18, 2013 and there has been no news whatsoever from her. Ten months have gone by and as I spent hours on this project, I hope to see it through for all the time and effort which went into it. Whether this has sunk without a trace remains to be seen.
• ” A Toast To Plum: Celebrating P G Wodehouse” is a non-fiction project I started in 2012. I have always maintained that Wodehouse is by far my favourite author and I have now been reading him for over 50 years. This is a short description of the project. “A Toast To Plum: Celebrating P.G.Wodehouse” will be a concordance of, amongst others, peers, people, pigs, places, pretty girls and pubs in the works of The Master.
• “Obedience Unto Death” : is a project based on my effort in NaNoWriMo 2013. It is in the alternate history genre and is one project I am awfully excited about. It is set largely in Germany during the Second World War and continues till the early ’60s.

I shall continue work on these four projects over the next year or so!

So fellow writers, if this gives you some perspective on how I work and you like the idea, you might consider doing a stock take of your writing projects yourself.